There’s a new take on the whole marriage, “Love Wins” debate, and it’s taken quite a technological turn. Who are you to pass judgement on it? Well, if you have stood up for the traditional definition of marriage, you can.
And I have some questions to keep in your hip pocket in case someone suggests that socialism is a better system.
Mentioned links:
‘We don’t hurt anybody, we are just happy’: Woman reveals she has fallen in love with a ROBOT and wants to marry it
Employees again receive wage increase
Episode 82: The Supreme Court “Hobby Lobby” Case
Jon Bon Jovi’s charity restaurant opens in NJ
The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation [Wikipedia]

Show transcript
You can marry whoever you want, right? Your choice of marriage partner says nothing about you, right? What right does anyone else have to disparage your choices about love, right? Love wins, so they keep telling us.
This would include a woman named Lilly. Hailing from France, she has garnered a news article all to herself regarding her choice of who to love. First, a little background. Lilly is training to be a roboticist. In fact, she’s 3D printed one. In fact, that’s who she wants to marry.
Lilly realized that this is her orientation at the age of 19 when she realized she disliked physical contact with people. She insists the idea is not ‘ridiculous’ or ‘bad’ but simply an alternative lifestyle. And as soon as it’s legal in France to marry robots, she’ll tie the power cord.
Now, when you think about it, this isn’t a bad idea. She can make her robo-spouse exactly what she wants. If she gets tired of his nose, or even his height, she can 3D print new parts. Once she gets the programming aspect figured out, she can change his personality at a whim. He won’t do the laundry? Doesn’t like the motor oil she prepared for him all afternoon? Squeezes the toothpaste tube in the middle? That’s simply a software upgrade!
And please excuse me, since I’ve been referring to Robbie the Robot as a ‘he’, because that assumes gender norms. A few tweaks to the personality unit, or some 3D printed interchangeable parts, and we have Roberta the Robot. Lilly can be heterosexual, homosexual, or any sort of sexuality she wants with the flick of a switch or the push of a button.
Of course, marriage is also a legal contract, so that would make it clear who gets the house, the car, and the spare parts after the other dies. If she goes first, legally the robot would be free to remarry. Can you imagine the dating site ad? “Single, widowed microprocessor seeks technologically inclined carbon-based unit for relationship to last a lifetime (or 100,000 miles).Must be good with a soldering iron. Experience with the C++ programming language a plus. I like long walks (though not on the beach due to potential salt-water corrosion), deep conversations in binary, and double-A batteries. Do you have what it takes to keep me interested for more than a few nanoseconds, or will you grind my gears?”
Alternatively, if the robot contracts a virus and can’t reboot, what would Lilly do? I hope that at least she’d donate his wires and circuits to IBM. He’s not going to need them after he’s gone.
OK, enough of the joking, let’s really think about it. If someone you knew said that they’d struck up a loving relationship with a robot, what would you think? Would discouraging such thoughts be intolerant of y...