Ricky Ma, an inventor in Hong Kong, has built a robot and made it look like Scarlett Johansson.
Let me re-phrase that: an inventor has made himself a sex toy that looks like Scarlett Johannson.
Don’t believe me? Think about how he has dressed it, the shape he has its hand form, and how he acts around it. Also note that the robot isn’t built to do anything else, and can’t really interact with him beyond a few canned responses.
I’m guessing that Ma has watched the movie “Ex Machina” several times and thought, “I can build one of those.” The sex toy robot at the center of that story was played by Alicia Vikander, but Ma must be obsessed with Johansson who — not coincidentally — provided the voice of the computer operating system in the movie “Her.”
It’s said that porn is what pushes a lot of technology forward. The VHS tape didn’t take off until the XXX movie industry embraced it as the preferred format, allowing guys to enjoy “adult” movies in the privacy of their own homes. Now that so much of that stuff is available online, the subject is consistently one of the top requests on Google and other search engines. The producers of that content are now making interactive products for the burgeoning virtual reality marketplace.
Ms. Johansson is unlikely to be flattered by her role in advancing the cause of robotics, but it could be worse. Once Donald Trump hears about this, he’ll have one made that looks just like him.