Will we ever have love affairs with video game characters?

In Spike Jonze’s new movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix is an introverted writer on the verge of divorce who falls in love with his computer’s intelligent operating system. Exactly how far-fetched or credible you think that is probably depends on how invested you are in technology. It was after all, inspired by the real-life web application Cleverbot, which lets visitors engage in conversations with an AI program; and in a lot of ways the movie is a study of our growing reliance on devices as mediators in our social lives and love affairs. From Siri to Tinder, our smartphones and tablets are simultaneously humansing themselves while mechanising our relationships with other humans. How long before we fall for the devices themselves?

[Malphite]

I really hope we will. However I think we're at least 20 years away from such a technology. The only thing I fear is that people will spend more time in virtual reality than in real life up to the point where VR becomes our reality and we lose touch with real life.

[DarkBlood]

with how resources are being used VR or matrix would seem like a godsend but hey stuff like that would help pass the time mentally in a happy/sad kind of way

[AgentSmithPS4]

Wow that's long. That's what she-AI said.

Hopefully this will lead to lower birth rates which will cut down on this awful traffic in my area. Maybe good artificial relationships will help people make better decisions before making bad choices in real ones. In a way people are born as "addicts" to each other, and just like drug addiction "love addiction" can have many bad consequences.

For years in the "Battlefield" series of games those few using a mic called out for teamwork and most of the time were met with a chilling silence. I wonder if this will get better or worse when people get used to having nice interactions with smart NPCs, or maybe they'll get worse since the AI will mirror their flaws and enable them to remain the a-hole that they are? ;).

Who knows if this will eventually lead to humans becoming mice-like hooked up to a pleasure button wired to their brain pressing it until they die, or if these characters will be like guides leading us to a better future.

[medman]

I already had one. Her name was Liara T'Soni.

[Mister_Dawg]

I think some people on here are already having an unhealthy relationship with their little black box ;-)

[ShAkKa]

Hey, let's not make this a Ps4 only problem, there are some people having unhealthy relationship with their big black boxes too...

[Mister_Dawg]

hehehehehe. Too true.

[BoneBone]

Why would you want to? I hope they realese a virtual therapist before anthing down this street. It's a bit sad.

[sprinterboy]

Yeah can't see or want to fall in love with a video game character lol, I enjoy games load's but that's too far

[chrissx]

That would be sick lol. A video game character can't have "feelings" for a human so it would be 1 sided love

[Malphite]

Believe it or not but what we call feelings is nothing more than electric signals interpreted by our brain. If we could get true intelligence computers (meaning they learn new things without being programmed for it) they could actually develop preferences and maybe even a personality.

I know it sounds like science fiction but what is normal nowadays was science fiction a couple hundred years ago. I'm pretty sure the human race won't stop until we can actually take the role of god and reproduce something in our own image.

[Becuzisaid]

Hmmm sex with my wife? Or with a digital simulation of someone else?

It's sad to think that people would actually consider the latter.

[VTKC]

did it ever occur to you that there are people not as fortunate as you who have a wife? or a girlfriend?

rhetorical question really. Theres always someone smug telling everyone else how sad it is and how "they" themselves are above all that when it comes to these topics.

[Becuzisaid]

Call me smug all you want. If your future rests with the false affections of a computer character then that is in fact sad. If you disagree then that's too bad. That's my opinion. Get out of your dark basement and meet (real) people.

[NarooN]

We're already at this stage, man, people have been seeking this sort of escapism for ages now. When guys in Japan have been getting legally married to characters on a Nintendo DS game, that's when I knew the state of modern human relations and interaction was at an all-time low.

People are constantly hiding their faces behind their computer monitors, their TV sets, and especially their smartphones and tablets. People kick their legs up on a table and swipe away at their little screens, pecking at it incessantly. I mean, who needs to talk to anyone? Who needs to meet face-to-face anymore? Society today doesn't care.

Even "couples" are completely disconnected from each other. Everything was great at first, but somehow it devolved into hiding behind more screens, even when being in the same living space. Guys in Japan don't even give a shit anymore, they don't even bother trying to find actual people. They just take on manga characters and those girls in those visual-novel-style games as spouses and lovers.

This is the world we're in today... When the VR stuff gets here, I won't be shocked at all. Hell, I've already SEEN a game where you put on the Oculus Rift, and attach this apparatus to your pelvis, which you use to thrust into another controller to simulate sex with an anime character. The prototype already EXISTS. We're here!

And society just doesn't care anyway.

[Malphite]

The only thing that is sad that people are close minded. Your lifestyli isn't for everyone you know? Just because you live a standard life doesn't mean everybody has to.

[mrpsychoticstalker]

I want to fall for all dead or alive girls, all mortal kombat, lara croft, the goddesses from God of War, Anya from Gears of War, cortana, all of them are super hot!

[Shane Kim]

As long as I don't have to remember her birthdays, buying her random presents, and listen to her nag all day long. If these criteria can be met, sign me up.

[SegaGamer]

This would just be pathetic, it's not even real.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Well, someone has already developed the first pornographic game for Oculus Rift, complete with peripherals that will let you "feel" the character you're touching and screwing, sooooo....

[malokevi]

Possibly. More worrying, though, judging by the comments on this website, it seems that there are people who are actively engaged in a love a faire with their video game console.

Stay away from disk drives and USB ports.