Over the past 100 Years, technology has greatly enhanced our lives. Energy, health care, transportation, communications and almost every other area of our lives have been revolutionized by new technologies. Technology has also played a critical role in our sex an sexuality. With the advent of the camera came photo pornography, with the advent of video, came film pornography, and finally with the advent of the internet, came accessibility to sexual material that has changed everything. This left us wondering, where do we go next, and what lies in store for us at the intersection of technology and sexuality in our future? The following are examples of current and future technologies that may impact sex, sexuality, and even love.
1. Virtual Sex – Teledildonics
If you’ve ever had a long distance relationship, you know how difficult it can be to maintain intimacy. Phone sex was a big step, video chat was another big step, but no technology until now has been able to simulate sexual contact across distances. There are several different companies with offerings that allow for remote sexual connections and interaction across distances. The first is a company called Highjoy. Highjoy is an online community site that makes use of their specialized Adult Toys (which include masturbators for men and vibrators for women) that can be controlled via the computer. Partners can then chat via video or by phone while controlling each others toys remotely. Another interesting company in Japan (pictured left) has a similar offering. Here’s a description of how it works from a recent Wired.com article.
“Segment system combines video and tactile input into a single file that your fans — or your lovers — can play back at their leisure. The input device, called Run, is an onyx shaft with a bulb on one end and sensors spaced along its surface. You use it in tandem with a webcam or camcorder and the Segment software. When you stroke the device with your hands, or lips, or whatever, the software captures the placement and pressure of each touch and embeds the signals into the video. During playback, those signals are translated and sent to another USB device, Segment’s Takumi toy.”
The future is likely to bring more and better technologies that will allow couples to be intimate across distances, perhaps changing the very nature of what it means to be in a long distance relationship as a result.
2. Interactive Holograms
Imagine the ability to interact with a virtual partner, a hologram that responded to your touch or even your voice. In the future, this could represent an entirely new branch of pornography. Imagine loading up your favorite adult star in full 3-D glory, coupled with with interactive animations and artificial intelligence, it might be hard to believe your not interacting with the real thing. So if CNN’s Jessica Yellin got you excited, you’ll probably be one of the first in line for this awesome future advancement.
3. Virtual Sex Tactile Ultrasound
The video depicts a new technology known as an Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display. The display produces an ultrasound generated 3-D pressure field in free space. This ultrasound generates a static pressure called “Acoustic Radiation Pressure” The pressure can be localized to simulate the feeling of an actual object generated dynamically by the computer. Video cameras can then pick up on your interactions with the Ultrasound generated object, allowing you to manipulate the virtual object in real time.
This essentially allows users to touch and feel the virtual objects as if they it they were physical objects. Although this technology was not developed with sex in mind, it’s pretty easy to imagine the implications it might have, especially if coupled with the holographic technology mentioned above. In the future it is likely that technologies such as this one might allow lovers across distances to actually touch and feel each others simulated bodies.
4.Sex Robots and Other Realistic Replacements:
If you’ve seen the recent movie “Lars and the Real Girl” you’re probably already familiar with “Real Dolls.” For those who don’t know, Real Dolls are incredibly lifelike full sized replicas of men, women, and even transsexuals. They are known as “The Ferrari of Sex Dolls” because of their quality and detail. They have realistic features, weights, skin, and even sexual organs. These dolls represent the first step towards what could eventually be a sex robot, something meant to replace an actual person. In fact, Real Dolls are so lifelike that there are already some men (albeit likely somewhat crazy men like this guy) that consider their Real Dolls to be their actual partners. Here is an interesting look at the Real Dolls production facility:
5. Sexual Drugs
Viagra, Cialis, and other erectile dysfunction and sexual dysfunction drugs have had a vast impact on our nations sexuality. Older populations are more sexually active than ever before, and we have shown that sexual pleasure and satisfaction can and should extend to us throughout our entire lives. With the huge financial success of sexual drugs thus far, we can likely expect many new sexual drugs in the future. First on the most wanted list is probably some form of male birth control. This birth control will probably be similar to female contraception in that it will use hormones to temporarily disable fertility. Clinical trials have already begun on male birth control, and it is estimated that early versions may be available to the public within 5-7 years.
Another potential blockbuster sexual drug will be one that enhances sexual pleasure, or enhances desire. Recently the drug Bremelanotide, originally developed as an artificial tanning compound, was found to have a sexually stimulating effect on the nervous system itself, not on the vascular system as is the case with Viagra and others. Drugs such as Bremelanotide and its successors will probably be able to remedy sexual desire dysfunction many women currently suffer from, and may in fact be used to enhance sexual pleasure and gratification in men as well.
6. The Orgasmatron
Imagine having the ability to have an orgasm at the touch of a button. Sound awesome? We think so. Also, it’s likely to become a reality in the near future. The “Orgasmatron” as it’s being called is currently awaiting FDA approval for “Female Orgasm Dysfunction.” It is a device roughly the size of an Ipod Mini that has wires that attach to the nerves in your lower spine that are responsible for sexual pleasure. When a button is pressed and the nerves are stimulated, women get a 100% real orgasm. According to women who have tested the device:
“it feel as if their clitoris and vagina are actually being stimulated.”
The sensation is apparently quite real and the implant is reliable in its ability to give orgasms. The device has also been implanted into impotent men, where it had the effect of giving them long lasting erections. Imagining the implications of devices such as these on our sexual lives in the future is an interesting exercise. While it sounds like a great advancement for sex, there are also many unforeseen problems. If you had a button that you could press that would give you an instant orgasm, would you ever stop pressing it?
7. Future Porn
We’ve grown significantly from poor quality and difficult to find pornographic film and video that characterized the earlier years of pornography consumption. The advent of the Internet expanded the accessibility of porn, bringing it beyond dirty magazines and videos that could only be purchased from seedy stores. Today, anyone with an Internet connection has the worlds biggest collection of porn available any time they want it. In the future we can expect this accessibility to continue to increase. Alongside accessibility, the quality and variety of porn will likely increase significantly as well. High definition video, and high resolution images are already gaining popularity. In the future, exceptionally vivid, lifelike Ultra High Definition pornography will may well become ubiquitous and instantly accessible.
With changes in accessibility and quality, the sources of pornography will likely shift as well. Capitalistic pornographers will continue to increase niche specialization, creating porn that caters to smaller and smaller subsets of sexual attraction. Social media and user generated pornographic content will also likely increase in popularity as it becomes easier to create and disseminate ones own pornography.
8. Scientific Pairings – eHarmony on Crack
In the future, love matching technologies like those used by current dating sites like eHarmony will see significant advancements. It may in fact become commonplace for people to be matched by sophisticated personality tests and compatibility algorithms. Genetic testing may also aid in this compatibility testing, giving potential couples much deeper insight into themselves and their future mates. As we continue to learn about attraction, commitment, and sexuality, it may be possible to predict couples likelihood of success with surprising accuracy, reducing divorce rates, and even helping those who may not have found a mate in our time, find someone to share their life with.
9. Love Potions
For thousands of years many have been obsessed with the idea of a “love potion”, some sort of magical method for making someone feel love or attraction. Over the past several decades, we’ve begun to better understand the chemical mechanisms that influence feelings of attraction and love, opening the door for the creation of drugs that directly influence these feelings. For instance, we’ve known for many years that pheromones play a role in sexual attraction. In the future, it is possible that science will better understand how pheromones effect human behavior, and be able to synthesize pheromones that will elicit very specific responses in those exposed to them.
In the future, we can also expect science to learn even more about the chemicals that influence feelings of love and attraction in our brains. Scientists already know that Adrenaline, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, and Vesopressin play specific roles in processes of attraction, lust, feelings of intimacy, connectedness, and desire for commitment. In the future, tailor made drug cocktails may be able to influence these feeling in very specific ways, or even be able to falsely induce these feelings.
10. Beyond Bizarre – Reconfiguring Sex as We Know It
As we gain more and more tools for manipulating our bodies, sexualities, and the methods we use to interact with each other and with our own sexuality, there is a distinct possibility that sex and sexuality may expand far beyond current paradigms. We are already beginning to see this as a result of the Internet’s unique ability to bring together very small minorities of like minds. It is now possible to find many configurations of sex, gender, sexuality, fetish or sexual proclivity online. It is not a stretch to assume that new sexual landscapes created by new technologies will bring about even more types of sexualities, genders, and fetishes.
In our future we may have the ability to automorph our sexuality, to independently chose our identities both physically and mentally. We may use biotechnology and plastic surgery; chemical messengers to manipulate our sexual characteristics and hormonal makeup; and psychological enhancements to help us develop new identity profiles. The possibility is that we might have as many genders as colors in the rainbow or as many types of genitalia, and sexual identities as patterns of flowers. Today we have bisexuals, transsexuals, homosexuals, asexuals, and intersexuals. In the future we may have negsexuals, solosexuals, technosexuals, postsexuals, multisexuals, VRsexuals, alongside all that we have already. Whatever the future holds for us and for sex, it’s sure to be an interesting ride.
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