Entrepreneurs poised to profit from the pandemic have the power to push back against sex-negativity.

As part of our ongoing Future of Sex Expert series, Kenneth R. Hanson, a sociologist who researches sex tech developments at the University of Oregon, shares what he anticipates is in store for the industry in 2022.

The obvious looming issue affecting us all is the COVID-19 pandemic, and its continued impact on health, the economy, travel, and politics, each of which plays a role in the development of sex tech and continuance of economic inequality.

Research by Balazs Kovacs and colleagues shows that people who entered the pandemic with “fewer than five very close friends” were more likely to report significant increases in loneliness. Obviously, the pandemic will make people more lonely, but this finding has implications for the future of relationships in the 21st century generally speaking.

Online dating and relationships

Perhaps the increased time being alone means people will use shared interest-based websites, be they sexual such as FetLife or even as mundane as Meetup, to find partners. The subsequent rise in membership will affect the bottom dollar of companies who run such websites.

Research on dating apps has revealed the extent of online dating’s growth in the past decade, a now multi-billion dollar enterprise in its own right. According to Michael Rosenfeld and colleagues, online dating is now one of the main ways people meet partners, an effect that will only sharpen in COVID-19’s continued warpath.

Digital divide in sex work

It’s also possible that a digital divide in sex work will cause fissures as some local sex work economies suffer while other sex workers are poised to benefit from the digitization of social life.

Sex tourism will face obstacles from countries imposing travel restrictions in the wake of CVOD-19 variants, in turn affecting sex workers whose livelihood depends on income from tourists. But digital sex work, be it camming, porn, and various forms of virtual escorting, will benefit from a rise in business as people who would otherwise be traveling use their computers to escape.

However, a rise in online sex work will, inevitably, alert the attention of political busybodies. This was already seen with the OnlyFans debacle this summer when the company wanted to ban explicit content. OnlyFans’ increasing user base and content directly correlated with the pandemic. With increased attention comes greater scrutiny, a double-edged sword for sex workers who are constantly met with opposition from conservative legal entities who publicly condemn sex workers to rally their base.

Sex tech for reproductive freedom

Indeed, increasingly conservative politics in the United States present another opportunity for sex tech.

With each passing law aimed at overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark case that guarantees women’s right to abortion in the U.S. comes an increasing segmentation of pregnancy. The recent Texas law outlaws most abortions after six weeks, well before many women even know if they are pregnant. Laws structured to make abortions illegal closer and closer to the time of conception might inspire some to more accurately track conception.

If such laws are allowed to stand, bio-hacking medical devices that track conception down to the minute could be marketed based on their precision for women whose rights are currently under assault.

Leadership in challenging times

What I hope 2022 brings is leadership from the sex tech industry during these challenging times.

Sex tech entrepreneurs are poised to profit from the pandemic, and need to take a more active role in shaping the cultural narratives and socio-political ramifications of sex-negativity.

If sex tech is going to grow because of the pandemic, like every other technological field has, then it will be the responsibility of industry leaders to represent and fight for those who have been harmed by fluctuating economies, the digital divide in sex work, and increasingly conservative politics that erode women’s rights.

More from Kenneth R. Hanson: AI Sex Dolls Are Not Embraced by Everyone in the Love Doll Community

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Often viewed as muses, today’s synthetic companions offer an outlet for human creativity.

As part of our ongoing Future of Sex Expert Series, we asked leading voices about the most anticipated and exciting developments in the next five years for sexual robotics.

Leaders in the sex tech industry are eagerly integrating artificial intelligence into today’s love and sex dolls.

While many are excited about an artificially intelligent future, some of today’s love and sex doll owners wonder what all the fuss is about.

Take Benji for example.

I met Benji when I was interviewing doll owners as part of my research on today’s love and sex doll community. When I met Benji, I learned he has a human partner, several dolls, and has been an active member in the doll community for years.

He describes the community as a place where he finds camaraderie with other people who, like him, thumb their nose at polite society and normative sexuality.

When I asked Benji about artificial intelligence, he said:

“To me, artificial intelligence takes away some of the imagination of doll ownership. To me, it’s kind of more fun to conversate with them in your head or something.”

Creative care and role-playing

Benji is not alone in appreciating the creative aspect of owning and caring for dolls.

In the absence of artificial intelligence, many doll owners write elaborate backstories and craft intricate personas for their dolls.

Part of what joins the community together is sharing these stories and exploring personas together by having the dolls become friends with one another in a form of structured role-playing.

But even without the community, even in their own homes, many doll owners value their creative energies and see dolls as a muse for a range of activities beyond sex including photography, creative writing, sewing, altering clothes, and more.

As such, some doll owners think artificial intelligence will take away one of the best parts of their synthetic companionship—creativity.

Looking into the future, I have no do but that more artificially intelligent dolls, and someday robots, will be made. As their price decreases, it is likely more dolls and robots will be found in people’s homes.

But part of what draws people into the love and sex doll community is the fun that can be had from writing a doll’s history, imagining a doll as sassy one day and affectionate the next, and using those creative energies in productive ways.

The most exciting development in the love and sex doll industry, for me, is not necessarily whether dolls will become robots or artificially intelligent, but rather, how dolls will enable and encourage people to explore their creative faculties.

Image source: Kokeshi.ai

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