In general, our generation’s take on dating bears only a hazy resemblance to what our parents considered commonplace. We live in what has been labeled “the hook-up culture,” and we’re known for stumbling into drunken sexual encounters and penciling in casual hang-out sessions with members of the opposite sex as our busy schedules allow. Many people aren’t looking for a life-long mate; they simply want someone they can talk to and fall into bed with, hopefully without any strings attached.

Inventor Douglas Hines has almost made this a possibility. But instead of strings, there are wires.

Hines has created Roxxxy, a talking, moaning robot that is meant to resemble a real woman. She has soft, rubbery skin that heats up when her battery is charged, and she’s able to carry on a basic conversation by piecing together words from her database. For some extra cash (on top of the $7,000 base line), Hines will even program the robot to be able to talk about your specific interests. “If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches; if you like soccer, she likes soccer,” Hines has told the press. Beyond that, Roxxxy is delightfully schizophrenic; users can select any one of her alter egos — from the maternal care of Mature Martha to the kinky, adventurous streak in S&M Susan — to fit their own desires.

“She can’t vacuum, she can’t cook, but she can do almost anything else, if you know what I mean,” Hines said at the recent Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) in Las Vegas, where the 5-foot-7-inch, 120-pound, C-cup Roxxxy was revealed in black lingerie, looking drugged with a slack jaw and glazed-over eyes. Thank you for your clever subtlety, Hines, but it’s pretty clear what you mean.

And if it wasn’t, it’d be pretty easy to figure out by watching YouTube videos from AEE, in which Hines presents Roxxxy by casually saying, “You can virtually do anything you want to them,” and strokes her genitals to elicit a high-pitched squeal from her.

Roxxxy can’t vacuum or cook because she can’t even move her limbs. Instead, as CNN reports, she “can be contorted into almost any natural position” — a statement rife with contradiction, given the should-be-obvious disconnect between what is natural and what is forced.

Because Roxxxy can’t move or change her vacant look, it seems as if the main difference between having sex with her and engaging in necrophilia is the fact that she can simulate an orgasm — arguably the trait that makes her more like a real woman than any other.

Part of Hines’ inspiration for creating the robot came after his friend died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the engineer wondered if he might be able to preserve the friend’s personality for his children. Originally, he considered making a health-care aide for the elderly, but bureaucratic hoops forced him to reconsider this plan. The changes he made were brilliant, clearly; I know that if were to pass away, I would want kids to know me as a lace-clad, rubber object with no control over her own limbs but the ability to become an S&M master with the push of a button.

The engineer’s other motivation for creating Roxxxy was the number of socially-awkward men who have a hard time meeting women. Surprisingly, Hines is not one of these men. He’s married — happily, he claims, although I’m interested to hear what his wife would say to that — and wants to share the joys of companionship. Roxxxy can be ordered from his website, truecompanion.com, which sounds more like the next generation of eHarmony than a place where you can blow several paychecks on a girlfriend who hooks up to a laptop.

In a world where representations of women as sexual objects are inescapable — even Burger King subs, one of the least sexy products imaginable, have been marketed with an emphasis on their phallic shape and some oral-sex humor — Roxxxy is exceptionally problematic. Sexual assault and domestic abuse remain serious problems; anything that perpetuates the concept of an ideal woman as an simple-minded nymphomaniac is a dangerous addition to a culture that already devalues women.

But problems with Roxxxy go beyond the issues of sex discrimination and degradation. Hines’ invention brings up issues that will only worsen when — in a move toward gender equality that will have Susan B. Anthony turning in her grave — he unveils Roxxxy’s male counterpart, Rocky. With texts and tweets often replacing phone calls and one-on-one interactions, we’re already becoming a society of people who have a hard time distinguishing the fine line between a real connection and a false sense of intimacy. Roxxxy and Rocky will only add to this, allowing people to customize every detail — from the amount of eyeliner she wears to her personality — of their lover when they tire of real, flawed people.

The robots undermine the definition of a relationship, enforcing an idea that the perfect “true companion” is someone who looks like the star of your sexual fantasies, who only likes what you like, whose main role is to serve as a semi-warm body in your bed. Both platonic and sexual relationships are as much about conflict and compromise as they are about compatibility, but if people are given the choice to opt out of these more negative elements, the state of society could be in danger. Granted, not everyone can afford to spend a few thousand bucks on a glorified sex doll, but in a few years, as technology improves and current prices are apt to decline, this could change.

Hines has said he believes “there’s a tremendous need for this kind of product;” the word “need” is telling and, sadly, it seems to be accurate. Four thousand men have pre-ordered their own Roxxxy, and about 20,000 have asked for more information. It looks like Hines needs to take a step back, pick up some Mary Shelley and think about exactly what type of monster he may have created.

— Contact Ani Vrabel.