Hawaii's Tech Community

Your New Virtual Girlfriend?

BoingBoing story on a new virtual figure on sale in Japan right now...

This is bound to cause all sorts of interesting discussions. But the idea of a virtual entity with which you can interact is so kewl. Except for that bit about placating the virtual girlfriend with a teddy-bear after all that abuse? That is sort of creepy.

Tags: virtual

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Permalink Reply by Cameron Souza on November 13, 2008 at 1:16pm: The technology is very interesting. The compulsion to spank and poke a smurf sized virtual girlfriend is a little hard for me to understand. :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brooke Fujita on November 13, 2008 at 2:08pm: *poof!*

An angel appears on Brooke's shoulder and says, "Yes, this sort of geeky entertainment is without moral justification!"

*poof!!*
And then a devil appears on Brooke's other should, drops the angel with a right cross on the jaw, and blurts out "But it's only 9380 JPY on Amazon.jp!!! Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"

Cameron Souza said:
The technology is very interesting. The compulsion to spank and poke a smurf sized virtual girlfriend is a little hard for me to understand. :-); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by rob on November 14, 2008 at 1:34pm: Read the book on this topic...

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061562129/Love_and_Sex_with_...

I make no money off of any sales. :) The state & hilo library have copies. Its a natural evolution, machine have been taking over from humans for years.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Haken on November 14, 2008 at 3:41pm: This is great! As more men fall in love with their virtual girlfriends, there are more "real" women for those of us who can handle them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brooke Fujita on November 14, 2008 at 3:49pm: There is a fundamental difference in how men and women may view this topic, I think. I wonder if if/how women would prefer a virtual friend/partner/someone-to-talk-to...

I bet you could easily skin this Japanese virtual girlfriend to be male, make "him" dress/look any manner that you desire, and then make a great "conversational listener/partner" out of him, maybe by using markov chain models ala Mark V. Shaney?!

Hm... there could be a market for this kind of entertainment... a virtual host club host?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Haken on November 14, 2008 at 9:22pm: In somewhat related news, the virtual world is really no different than the real world.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/inde...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brooke Fujita on November 15, 2008 at 12:37pm: Hey there, Haken, kewl link to an interesting article.

And here's a similar incident (ending in the murder of the man's avatar) in Japan. A woman found herself suddenly divorced in the virtual world, so she broke into the user account of her partner and killed her virtual husband. I think the police actually brought her from way down south in southern Japan all the way up north to Sapporo, where I live. Funny thing, this never made the local news. I didn't even hear about this in the Japan national news. I suppose virtual crimes are still seen as being very trivial, but who knows what future lies in store for us?

Haken said:
In somewhat related news, the virtual world is really no different than the real world.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/14/second.life.divorce/inde...; ▶ Reply to This