And 49% of US adults expect that, within the next 50 years, having sex with robots will be common practice

Anthropomorphic, hyper-sexualized robots are no longer just the stuff of science-fiction fantasies. In fact, mechanical lovers are becoming increasingly realistic and technologically advanced, so much so that Dr. Ian Pearson, a futurist known for his 85% accuracy record, guesses that, by 2050, sex with robots will be more common than human love-making.

According to new data from YouGov Omnibus, 49% of Americans agree with Dr. Pearson that having sex with robots will become common practice sometime within the next 50 years. However, not everyone is prepared for this shift. For example, just 9% of women would consider getting frisky with a robot. However, men are much more open to the idea – one in four men (24%) would at least think about taking an automaton lover.

For Americans who would potentially have sex with a robot, the appearance of the machine is crucial. 52% of those open to the idea of robotic intimacy agree that it is important for the bot to resemble a human. On the other hand, respondents were not convinced that everything about the sexual acts had to follow normal human conventions of intimate relations.