WASHINGTON, DC: As humanity’s natural rhythms become further inundated with the influence of technology, one academic believes people may soon be having sexual relationships with robots.Dr. Helen Driscoll, a sex psychologist, said “sex tech” is advancing at such a rate that by 2070, physical relationships will seem primitive, reported the Daily Mail.Sex mannequins that you can order online already exist, and rapid advances in technology will enable them to ‘come to life’, according to Driscoll in a blog entry for the Huffington Post.“As virtual reality becomes more realistic and immersive and is able to mimic and even improve on the experience of sex with a human partner, it is conceivable that some will choose this in preference to sex with a less than perfect human being,” said Driscoll, who is a senior lecturer at the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom.In addition to having physical relationships with machines, impending advances in artificial intelligence could enable machines or even computer programs to become realistic enough to fall in love with.This may seem shocking and unusual now, but we should not automatically assume that virtual relationships have less value than real relationships,” wrote Driscoll.For those already in an intimate relationship, she warns that the psychological impact will depend on how they handle the co-existence of real and virtual relationships.“Most people successfully integrate other forms of virtual reality into their lives, but virtual sex — not to mention love — will be seen by some as infidelity, and this will present real challenges to some relationships,” Driscoll noted.