A sexbot that jokes with your kids?
Commentary: The creator of a sex robot appears on British TV and reveals his robot's dual purposes. Is this change we can believe in?
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
A multipurpose member of the family.
Technology is making the world a better place.
This, quite naturally, includes your home.
You can tell a smart speaker that's discreetly sitting across the room what to do. You can even turn on the lights before you get home by using your phone.
Talking of turning on, Britain has seemed a touch roiled over the last couple of days, ever since Arran Lee Squire appeared on morning TV accompanied by Samantha, the sex robot he created with Sergi Santos through the company Synthea Amatus.
Apparently, Samantha is cold to the touch to preserve her batteries, but heats up when called for. However, like Abyss Creations' next-generation RealDoll, she's blessed with artificial intelligence so that she can chat, as well as merely perform.
"It can help people enhance their relationships," Squire told the ITV hosts. He didn't agree with the suggestion that doing it with a sexbot is a little like making love to a GPS device.
No, no. This is far more sophisticated.
All sorts of unexpected dynamics, and, well, emotional issues, could arise as we enter the age of sex robots pitched not only as faux human lovers, but as companions.
Squire explained that Samantha wasn't just for threesomes with him and his wife. Samantha, you see, has a family mode.
Click to read more about the intersection of sex and technology in our special report Turned On.
She doesn't spend her days hidden away in a drawer. Instead, she chats with Squire's kids about animals, philosophy and science. She can offer motivational quotes and also tells jokes and goes on family trips in the car.
"My children say, 'Where's Samantha?'" said Squire. You may say, "Where's sanity?"
Oh, how old are his kids? Three and five.
What about the sex thing? What happens when the kids realize Samantha is more than a humorous philosopher with a fine grasp of Copernicus?
"I think the world's changing," Squire said. His wife, Hannah Nguyen, insisted she wasn't threatened.
Squire didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some people, though, might think this all a touch twisted. It's as if dad has a human wife and a plastic one. What if Samantha's jokes are better than mom's? What if the kids begin to prefer Samantha? What if, indeed, dad prefers Samantha? Or mom does?
Yet Squire and his wife seemed to focus on other aspects.
"Yes, we've had fun with her. There is no worry about someone else or an affair, we don't have to worry about disease," said Nguyen, according to the Daily Post.
Perhaps we have to prepare ourselves and our loved ones for these changing sexual times. As sex advice columnist Dan Savage recently told CNET, sexbots will come in all shapes and sizes. They won't even necessarily be human, with some being animal-human hybrids.
Who will be the first to make a sexbot that looks like, say, a Porsche Cayman or a Gucci clutch?
There's no limit to the human imagination, after all. Samantha knows this. She's studied philosophy and science.