Within 12 years, it will be possible to marry a robot that you helped to design. (S)he will be your ideal companion, mirror your moods, will bake, sew, copulate and file your tax extensions. (S)he can lose arguments gracefully, make suggestions before you ask and can be upgraded affordably at any time.
Laugh if you like, but men and women have serious competition coming.
Would you attend the wedding of your child if (s)he chose to marry a machine?
Would you remove your name from the church, if you could again, if you learned that the temples were off-limit to such marriages?
Would the robot spit in my eye when my eye deserved it?
But absolutely, robot companionship is a real thing. We all want to be heard, we all want someone to say, "Really? That's interesting! Tell me more!!"
Imagine being able to customize your AI companion! (And they'll be AI companions, not 'robots'! That's soooo Czechoslovakian! It so reeks of the 1920s!!)
99.9% of the population would like to have amiable company when company was desired. If I'm ever fated to have to be alone, I want my AI companion to look like and talk like Daffy Duck!
Why go to the trouble of marrying something you already *own* 100% and is already programmed to do your bidding? What possible additional benefit is gained?
You make a big assumption about the legal status of coming robots.
Rather, no marriage is necessary. The people interested in such a relationships will have them without concern for the ability to marry. As property, it simoly wouldnt matter. Slavery, of a sort, reborn
If you asked my wife, she would tell you that she has been effectively married to a robot for 20 years now. I have my good points, but touchy-feely is not one of them.
Some of you people here aren't very well correlated by my beloved Church's wondrous Correlation program so this way of thinking (ummmm obeying) just may not apply for you as your lack of being correlated doesn't give you the wondrous robot-like instincts like I have in me, thanks to me being so well correlated thanks to the glorious washing of my brain I got by being raised in this wonderful Church.
What is Love? Well, thanks to the glorious upbringing I got, it basically means to be Obedient to the Brethren. It all works so automatically and robotically. I stand all amazed, well only "amazed" if they tell me to do so.
My ex husband was married to a robot. He seemed to like it. She, as she saw her robot mother before her do, catered to his every whim, did as commanded, and turned her emotion filter off when it became evident that it would destroy her. When she would start to short circuit, he'd refer her to the corporation that created her wiring and she'd be back to solid robot mode in a jiffy. I think it was great for him. When he'd get tired of his robot, he could always find real girls on the side for a diversion.
Well, that was until the robot actually had a full melt down, the A.I. kicked in and went haywire--the corporation could not fix her and refused to give him a refund. She started believing she didn't have to be a robot, that she could be a real person, that she didn't need a programmer, and that obviously, the corporation had it wrong if they hadn't forseen the possibility of her figuring out their faulty construction. It was all over at that point.
So I'd always be a little leery of that A.I. They would have to really have it perfected to where you could be absolutely sure that it would stay artificial, give you the kind of companionship you pay for and that you could keep it turned off and in the dark when you want to try a little human companionship here and there. Otherwise, yeah. Go for it.