Resteemed and upvoted.

I think the concern over people avoiding human contact in favor of sexbots is a false one. For example, does porn satisfy the need to be mentally, emotionally, and physically connected with someone who you're in a relationship with? Doubtful. Yes, we'll have relationships with these "artificial" humans (artificial is a bad way to refer to it. Non-biological or machine intelligence is probably better), but they'll be much more complex than just sex. Things are going to get weirder than we can imagine. Some people will prefer other humans, some will prefer machines, some both (the new 'bi').

You make some really fantastic points in this article. I've always believed that science fiction isn't really about the future, it's about our fears of the future as they exist in the time when the fiction was made.

As for slavery, that's another major concern. At first the machines won't be smart enough to be considered human. They'll be more like simple pets. That will quickly escalate and change ( I talk about this in an article I wrote: The Law of Accelerating Returns: Why the Future is Brighter (And Stranger) Than You Think).

When we reach that cusp, I think we'll find that it will take so little of their massive intelligence to satisfy all human need that there won't even be a conflict of interest. Probably we'll combine with them in some way or another, so that the lines between 'them' and 'us' will be quite grey.