A lot of fellas will be waking up in 2025 feeling pretty smug this morning, as a futurologist's prediction about how women's sexual preferences will supposedly change hasn't exactly panned out.
Dr Ian Pearson made some pretty audacious claims about what this year would have in store for us almost ten years ago, suggesting women would be swapping blokes for robots in the bedroom.
According to him, females would be getting frisky with machines rather than men by 2025.
Advert
So a lot of ladies were left disappointed when the clock struck midnight and an army of sex robots still hadn't materialised to kick off the New Year with a bang.
As I'm sure you have seen online, Dr Pearson's wacky prediction has been a big talking point in the run up to 31 December.
Social media sleuths dug up an article where he first shared the bold theory back in 2016 and it quickly became a bit of a viral joke.
X users were even going as far as to wish each other a 'happy sex with robots year' rather than the traditional greeting, so Dr Pearson's claims had a lot to live up to.
Advert
So, what did he reckon was in store for our sex lives in 2025?
Nine years ago, he said in a report: "Vibrators have been around for over a century.
"But now the vibrant sex toy industry doesn't just make standalone devices, but teledildonic devices that bring all the fun and functionality of computing and networks to sex too.
Advert
"While some people will enthusiastically embrace relationship-free robot sex as soon as they can afford one, as early as 2025, it won't have much chance of overtaking sex with humans overall until 2050.
"Some might only use straightforward VR without the sex toys as part of that.
"By 2035 toys will be better developed and most people will be well used to VR sex by then, so will have acquired a collection of sex toys that interwork with VR."
Dr Pearson did admit that he thought people would 'still have reservations' about getting down and dirty with a robot, but reckoned that we would 'gradually as they get used to them'.
Advert
According to the futurologist, we'd warm up to mechanical lovers as the technology and artificial intelligence used in them 'improved'.
"They start to become friends with strong emotional bonds, that squeamishness will gradually evaporate," he added.
Although he predicted that sex with robots would become more common than human intercourse by 2050, Dr Pearson said that this didn't mean traditional lovemaking would go extinct.
Using quite an interesting analogy to bolster his argument, he said: "Drinking tea doesn’t mean you won’t want coffee sometimes."
Advert
Dr Pearson believed people would adjust to robot sex just as society did with vibrators, as sex toys are no longer considered to be a taboo subject.
The data whizz has been a full-time futurologist for more than 25 years, which involves tracking and predicting developments across technology, business, society, politics and the environment.
But he really bet on the wrong horse with his sex with robots by 2025 theory, as news flash - people still aren't fornicating with androids.
Blokes might be breathing a sigh of relief, but a host of social media users seemed (sarcastically) disappointed by the fact that Dr Pearson's prediction hasn't come true.
One said: "It’s 2025, where’s the sex with robots?"
Another laughed: "Well, this didn’t age well did it."
Ahead of the New Year countdown, someone else added: "A few more hours remaining AND I STILL DON'T SEE WHERE THE ROBOTS AT."
Dr Pearson did admit things hadn't 'progressed as fast as he thought' back in 2020, so he might have missed the mark by a few years.
"AI was developing very quickly at the start of the century, so we had predictions that by 2015 we'd have conscious machines that were smarter than people," he told CNN.
"There was a big recession and that held things back a bit. I would estimate AI has probably progressed about 35 or 40% slower than we expected it to."
I guess we better give it until 2050 and see if anything happens, eh?
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Technology, Weird
Olivia Burke