Due in part to China's long-term one child policy, along with the preference for boy children, China now has about 33 million more men than women. The ratio is still high, 115 boys born for every 100 girls.
Can technology help? Stupid question.
(China builds robot wives video)
As far as I know, the first really explicit depiction of a wife robot built to order may be found in Alice W. Fuller's 1895 story A Wife Manufactured to Order:
"Now, young man, what can I do for you? Want a life-companion, a pleasant one? Man of means, no doubt, and can enjoy yourself; a little fun now and then with the boys and no harm at all -- none in the least... Now, sir, I can get you up any style you want -- wax, but can't be detected."
"Do you mean to say you manufacture a woman out of wax, who will talk?"
"That's just what I do; you give me the subjects you most enjoy talking upon, and tell me what kind of a looking wife you want, and leave the rest to me, and you will never regret it. I will furnish as many 'phones' as you wish; most men don't care for such a variety for a wife -- too much talk, you know."
(Read more about the manufactured wife)
Another depiction of this possibility may be found in Fritz Leiber's mechanical bride in 1954.
Even if you don't get yourself a robotic girlfriend (or, let's face it, boyfriend), you can still read about the options:
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.' - Rog Philips, 1950.
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Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'