On a more serious note though, I can foresee this sort of thing being a big hit in Japan (in fact, in reading the article again I see that they're the ones who started the theme), they're already well up on cybernetics and are quite attracted (if you pardon the pun) towards this sort of use of technology.
It's still got a long way to go, but I reckon that David Levy has a point when he says that "...robots will become significant sexual partners for humans, answering needs that other people are unable or unwilling to satisfy."
They are primitive machines now, but thirty-forty years down the road, who knows what we'll have walking around.
I think Hines is shooting a bit ahead of his mark, I understand now, reading the article why he was motivated, to use the quote in full context:
"An engineer, Hines said he was inspired to create the robot after a friend died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That got him thinking about preserving his friend's personality, to give his children a chance to interact with him as they're growing up."
Now, nobody wants someone they know and love to die, and in the future there may be two options, a) cloning that will preserve the appearance but not necessarily the personality or b) Cybernetic Replacement which will preserve the look (to some extent) and the personality, depending of course on how far robotics and computer programming have advanced.
Of course, the darker side of human nature will be displayed upon these machines with little thought for their well being because after all 'they are just machines'.
Reminds me of that film 'Ai'.