Sex robots will one day be so important that humans will not be able to live without them, a doll collector has predicted.

The popularity of dolls has soared during the coronavirus pandemic, which forced millions to scrap casual dating or be away from their partners.

But their demand could continue to boom even after the crisis as technology boosts their realism.

In her new book, Sex Robots & Vegan Meat, author Jenny Kleeman speaks to a range of sex robot owners and producers.

One collector, who goes by the name of Davecat, has owned dolls for more than two decades.

And he believes that one day they will take on a similar level of importance to mobiles and laptops, which have become essential items to most humans in the Western world.

Davecat tells Kleeman: “A lot of people were afraid of cell phones, a lot of people were afraid of computers, a lot of people were just afraid of technology because it just wasn’t something they had any reference to.

“We eventually got to the point where it’s everywhere and we can’t live without it.

“That’s what’s going to be happening with gynoids and androids.”

He continued: “Sidore will always be my favourite because she and I have been through so much together as far as number of years, number of experiences.

“The personality that I have developed for her is the most fleshed out, as it were. It’s a true relationship. It’s never been just about sex.

“Sex is a large part of it, yes, but 70 per cent of the relationship that I have with all the synthetic women in my life is about being to come home to a non-empty home, to be able to share my life in terms of what I’ve done that day.

“It’s always been about companionship for me, from day one.”

Kleeman flew to California where she was given a tour of Abyss Creations, a leading brand in the production of sex robots.

Its models are capable of holding conversations, and work is in progress to install them with vision so that they can recognise humans.

She told Daily Star Online: “When it becomes possible to have a relationship where the only thing that matters is what one half of the partnership wants.

“Where you can have interactions and all that matters is what you want to do and what you fancy doing, and when you become used to having relationships with something that doesn’t have free will, that doesn’t have independent ambitions, or in-laws, or friends you don’t like, then going out and having relationships with human beings and using empathy is going to be harder work.

“I think the danger of these robots is their ability to make empathy harder work because we won’t need to use it so much in our relationships with these robots.

“Human beings are complicated, a relationship with a human being involves compromise, a relationship with a robot does not involve compromise.

“And if you’re used to relationships where you don’t have to compromise, and you don’t have to think what the other person is thinking you might, for certain kinds of people, spend a lot more time with a robot than they would with real human beings because it’s more hard work to be with a human being that you have to compromise and empathise with.”

She continues in her book: “If we can have babies without having to bear children, eat meat without killing animals, have the ideal sexual relationship without compromise, have a perfect death without suffering, how else will human nature be changed forever?

“Without us realising it, human existence is being redefined in ways no one can determine or control.”