http://www.cracked.com/article_18970_5-ways-video-games-are-about-to-get-way-more-f2340kable.html

Not exactly a trust-worthy news source by any means, but this is all well-cited and very interesting.
It's amazing how quickly all this has technology has come.

I'm all for Artificial Human Companions but when it comes to sex, I say nothing beats the real thing.

At least until development in AHCs inevitably reaches the point where it becomes indistinguishable from "the real thing".

I always thought of the whole idea about "AHCs" as a pretty abstract (or surrealistic) idea which is open to personal interpretation -- but then again I spent a large chunk of my life on working in the twilight zone of theatre productions; where reality is what you want it to be, at least for as long as the show lasts. (And afterwards you take your dolls and artifacts - that are bona fide representatives of another and unreal world - home with you.)

Here's the thing: In contemporary times we have "artificial social networks" galore, on the internet, and this was hardly something that Doctor LaVey could have been expected to foresee... and yet he did, in some in my opinion rather significant ways. In our time, there's no need for people to spend face time together for actually "meeting" at a level which counts. How this should be interpreted, philosophically, is of course another matter.

I don't think you can really decide at this point. You can never really judge which is most pleasurable until you have experienced both, no? Or at least know what they have to offer. Currently, I agree. But in the future, who's to say?

I can readily imagine sexdroids offering options flesh-and-blood partners don't, such as targeted neural stimulation designed for optimal pleasure, and fully customisable features which can be adjusted to fit your mood. Sex with a flesh-and-blood partner can certainly be pleasurable (though it can be disappointing also), and perhaps with an android or gynoid (or something related) it could be very pleasurable as well. I definitely see potential. Especially if eventually there comes a technology which lets us design sexbots made from realistic (or real!) flesh and tissue, with customisable open-source software.