Readers, friends, and colleagues grieve.

We are so sorry to make this announcement, but our managing editor and longtime contributor, M.Christian—born Christian Allan Muncy—died suddenly from a heart attack on New Year’s morning, in Springfield OR. This tragic news has stunned countless readers, colleagues, and friends who have enjoyed their vibrant, off-beat perspectives and visionary creativity—through work spanning decades. 

According to their Future of Sex bio, “M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer, they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they’re most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.” 

Loved working with Future of Sex

As a writer and managing editor, Chris had an extremely disciplined work ethic, come rain or shine. So it is not surprising that, in spite of recent ill health, they completed what was to be their last article for Future of Sex, scheduled for publication on January 1st.

Ross Dawson, publisher and owner of Future of Sex, said:

Chris was an exceptional editor of Future of Sex. They were an excellent writer and editor, passionate and super-positive about the potential of technologies to augment sexuality, extraordinarily open-minded, and exceptionally imaginative, which is evident in the fantastic sex science-fiction stories they wrote and contributed to the site. More than that, they were a great person, a wonderful human being, spreading positive vibes in all his interactions.

Relentlessly creative and prolific

Chris wrote for and frequently worked for and alongside publishers Jean Marie Stine and Frankie Pauncevolt Hill, of Digital Parchment Services, Renaissance E Books, and Sizzler Editions, forging devoted friendship and creative collaboration over many years.

Catherine Lundoff, publisher of Queen of Swords Press, said, 

I was fortunate enough to work with Chris as a writer for several of their anthologies and other projects, as an editor and finally as the publisher of a new edition of their gay vampire novel, Running Dry. Chris was a terrific writer, a consummate professional and a lovely human; they will be sorely missed.

According to a Facebook post, Lundoff said she had just nominated Running Dry for the “SSBA Awards in the Horror category” when she heard the news of Chris’s passing.

Aside from their literary, editing, and publishing accomplishments, Chris was a popular community sex educator with many classes and conference presentations to their credit. Chris also enjoyed creating visual art through graphics, ceramics and 3-D printing. In recent years they developed an entire miniature “Cosmos Corp” world of vehicles, beings, and planet-scapes using 3-D printing and computer assisted design.

Ralph Greco, who collaborated with Chris on their Licking Non-Vanilla podcast, described them as one of his “bestest buddies, best erotica writer, fantastic fantasist, my partner in books, this website and its podcast, lover of life, science fiction aficionado, rapscallion, one of the few who understood all my literary as well as 70s TV references.” You can read more about Ralph and Chris’s friendship and collaborations here.

Chris also collaborated with me during two seasons of my former Love’s Outer Limits podcast and always gave a shout-out to Future of Sex during our introductions.

Always genial and kind

Known among their friends and colleagues as one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet, Chris always found time to offer help and fellowship to people in their circle. If you were their friend, they always had your back. If you were a fellow writer, Chris would boost your work with an Amazon review. If you were a fellow creator, Chris was eager to know you and up for any collaboration you might care to suggest.

Chris was devoted to their cat, Sweetpea, also known as “Fuzzy Butt,” who fortunately now has a new home. Chris is survived by their brother, Samuel Addison Muncy of the San Francisco Bay Area, and many, many heartbroken friends and colleagues

And I am one of them. I am so sorry to lose you, dear friend, but so glad I was lucky enough to know you. Thank you for everything you have done for me. The world is now a drearier place without you, but a larger cosmos awaits. Ad astra—to the stars!

Please see M.Christian’s bio and website for more about their work and background. 

Image Sources: Evy Eleanor Briggs, M. Christian, Sizzler Editions, Queen of Swords Press.

The post Ad Astra: Noting the sad passing of M. Christian, visionary writer and managing editor at Future of Sex appeared first on Future of Sex.

The focus of most corporate social responsibility initiatives typically falls into the same categories: the environment, safe working conditions, equal pay and increased diversity. While these are all noble and worthy areas to commit to, they are generally risk-free options for companies to speak about publicly. Whether or not they are effectively executed on (they aren’t) is not really the point; for many it’s more of a calculated virtue-seeking or reputation cleansing PR tactic.

Sex tech companies, on the other hand, face a unique opportunity to hone in on the rights and safety of some of society’s most marginalized and at-risk people. These companies—particularly those in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics and virtual reality—can not only redefine and expand the scope of sex, but help protect those often victimized in the sex industry.

Sex is not a commodity. Sex is not a right. Simply labeling sex, however, as an intimate act between consensual parties is naive. It is an industry, and it is a booming one. The porn industry generates as much as $97 billion annually according to some reports, though that number is hard to quantify. Statista reported the global sex toy industry was worth $28 billion in 2019.

For an industry as lucrative as sex tech, it remains incredibly heteronormative, and is by and large designed to appeal to males. By expanding offerings to appeal to even just both genders, it is easy to imagine these numbers doubling. Communities like the Women of Sex Tech not only recognize this, but are also the driving force behind the growing number of women-led initiatives. A more forward-thinking sex tech company could use this exponential financial and growth potential as more than an opportunity to double sales, but also as a strategy to create a wider range of products and services that aim to reduce harm while celebrating sexuality and sexual wellness.

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The question of whether sex work should be legalized, or how to properly define it, remains a complex one. The image of independent women as sex workers by choice and reaping financial success while doing so is a small margin in an otherwise complex landscape. The majority of people in the sex trade are being trafficked, abused and coerced. According to Polaris, 25 million people are trafficked annually.

Young LGBTQs often seek out sex work as the only option for any kind of financial security, as more traditional means of work are not made accessible to them, particularly trans people. This remains the biggest problem to tackle, creating economically viable and safe options outside of sex work; particularly for young and marginalized people. Sex work should be a choice, not a last resort.

Even the most well-intentioned legislation has proven to be complicated at best. At first glance, the idea of an anti-sex trafficking bill was, as many people referred to it in 2018, a no-brainer.

When the FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, and SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, bills were passed, the unintended consequences included the cost of human life. Part of the bills stipulated that websites could be held criminally accountable for third parties publishing ads for sex work on their platform. That means that if someone was offering sexual services on a website—even if it was consensual sex work—the platform would be liable for trafficking. Because the bills made no effort to distinguish between consensual and nonconsensual sex, Craigslist, Tumblr, Backpage (the website that set the bills into motion and was ultimately seized by the government) and many others removed their personal ad sections entirely in order to be in compliance. In so doing, sex workers who had used the internet not only to find work but to communicate with each other as a safety tactic lost both. Without access to “bad date” lists and other client vetting tactics, sex workers—already an incredibly high at-risk group—were left even more vulnerable.

Today, EARN IT, Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act, is seen as an extension to, or latest version of, FOSTA. With equally vague language and “best practices”, if passed, EARN IT will do more to strip everyone of their privacy and safety online than it will to protect children, as it claims it is poised to do.

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Consensual sex work is not the problem. It is those looking to traffic, exploit and harm that need to be addressed. According to RAINN, sexual violence effects one American every 73 seconds. As a society, we know that violent men exist. We also know that sex workers—via providing a service to these types of men—increase their odds of experiencing gender-based violence. What if tools, products or apps were created that focused on these men and their violent tendencies and exploitative tactics as a specific target customer with the overall goal of reducing this type of harm?

This could manifest itself in many ways. Sex tech platforms could invest and build community-driven intervention tools like bad date lists, where sex workers can alert each other about men or areas to avoid, with resources with where to go if you do experience harm, threats, robbery or anything that extends beyond the scope of the agreed upon boundaries.

Robotics companies could partner with rehabilitation efforts in order to study offenders and offer subsidized tools, apps or products to recently released convicts who may be high risk reoffenders, reducing the human interaction while providing a form of sexual release.

Erotic audio or visual companies could build sexual education platforms that focus specifically on consent, sexual health, and mutual pleasure. These could be created to target high school and college students, or be used in reintegration efforts for convicts facing decarceration.

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Any funding or partnership, particularly government backed, feels far off today. Sex tech as an industry is still seen as taboo to many, and much more work needs to be done to normalize sex. Private firms, however, could allocate research and development funds towards creating products that remove the human interaction element while still satisfying the physical component, thus creating an entirely new form of corporate social responsibility; one forged in sex tech as a sexual wellness industry and one that promotes safety. Keeping people, especially our most marginalized, safer would improve any company’s culture, help with staff retention rates and attract investors all while advancing the industry as a whole. The only question that remains is who will take the lead?

Image sources: Marco Verch

The post A new form of social responsibility for sex tech companies appeared first on Future of Sex.

Future of Sex community member Mark Heath wrote a thought-provoking post speculating on the future of contraception, Beyond simply preventing pregnancy, he raised the idea of future birth control options also protecting people from sexual transmitted infections and diseases.

We’ve published several articles on developments and out-of-the-box ideas to create new and better birth control, including through gene modification and contraceptive jewelry.

From my memory, few projects have aimed to tackle both. However, several groups have received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reinvent the condom. The aim has been to create a condom that is not just more effective against pregnancy and STIs but is also more comfortable or even makes sex more pleasurable.

Personally, I think this is exciting but it appears progress has been slow. I’m currently most interested in projects developing more birth control options for men. But being a woman who would be the one who would get pregnant, I’m not sure how much I’d want to rely on someone else.

Regardless of your sex or gender, how comfortable are you leaving the responsibility of birth control and STI prevention up to someone else?

Also, is anyone aware of projects trying to take on STIs and birth control at the same time?

The post I’m waiting on more birth control options for men appeared first on Future of Sex.

Hi all,

What is the future of contraception? Condoms can protect against STD’s and Used as Birth Control but they can fail, split or fall off, the chemical contraceptive is only birth control and can fail too and it doesn’t protect against STD’s.

What is the future? Could they make a vaccine or pill that could protect against all STDs and used as birth control? Or in way future create a genetically modified human to be protected against STDs and birth but you need to ask a government agent or doctor to give you permission to take a pill to reverse birth control for anyone fit enough to have children. Does that sound a good idea or dystopian?

The post Future of contraception? appeared first on Future of Sex.

Last month, Vice published what I consider a troubling article about a group of hobbyists who create 3D avatars based on the likeness of ex-girlfriends and celebrities without their consent. Written by Samantha Cole and Emanuel Maiberg, the article was fittingly given the headline “‘They Can’t Stop Us:’ People Are Having Sex With 3D Avatars of Their Exes and Celebrities.”

To the surprise of many people on social media, the resulting doppelgangers are then used to fulfill the sexual fantasies of their creators in virtual reality. They can be shared freely or sold on marketplaces like Patreon.

For added realism, the 3D avatars can even support connected sex toys, allowing the VR headset wearer to also feel simulations of the sex acts as they unfold.

The feature raises pointed issues about your ability to own your sexual identity and the ethics of creating nonconsensual lookalikes.

Below are some of the key details that stood out regarding how the 3D graphics hobbyists create the nonconsensual imagery and how it harms its targets, who are almost exclusively women.

• Automated programs and creative tools that can create 3D replicas are increasingly becoming easier and cheaper to use such as Virt-a-Mate (VaM) and Foto2Vam

• The authors note that the 3D avatars look crude. Unlike with deepfake technology used to create nonconsensual pornography, there isn’t the same risk of mistaking the 3D rendered doubles as the actual person whose likeness is being copied

• 3D models of celebrities are the most commonly shared in the VaM subreddit community

• As with deepfake pornography and abusive image generally, women are most often the targets of nonconsensually created 3D avatars

• Although visuals may be fake, experts say seeing one’s likeness in nonconsensual adult content on the Internet can cause legitimate trauma, not unlike what is experienced after sexual assault

• Experts say there is little legal recourse to get images taken down, despite new laws coming into effect in some US States against deepfake and revenge pornography, The burden is on the person who objects to their likeness being used to hire an attorney and going through the legal process.

• Legal ethicist John Danaher called such digital images a type of revenge porn if they are created and shared without the person’s consent

• The creator of VaM, Meshed VR, likened the VaM software to creative tools such as Blender or Photoshop, saying what users create with his software is mostly out of his control

The consensus seems to be that not much can be done to stop nonconsensual or revenge pornography. Of course, I don’t disagree that it would be nearly impossible to regulate the whole Internet and to end the practice entirely.

But unlike as one Reddit user suggested in the article, I don’t think the solution is for everyone to lock down their social media and hide their face from the world:

“Everyone jacks off to everyone, it’s human nature, you can’t stop it unless you just stay off grid and never go anywhere or show anywhere and nobody knows you even exist…It’s our world and freedom, they can’t stop us from jacking off, nobody can, they can merely choose extreme privacy,” that user said.

However, the trauma and other harms from having one’s image used in a nonconsensual sexual manner are very real.

What do you think? Is there anything we can do to stop or at least curb the practice?

Image source: Meshed VR/Virt-a-Mate

The post What happens when anyone can be made into a 3D sex avatar? appeared first on Future of Sex.

Big changes are coming to BDSM, dating, and every other aspect of human sexuality.    

Technology will play a part in our sexual futures, especially through its continual expansion of our erotic consciousness around orientation, gender, and in our understanding of the importance of consent 

But a bigger driver of these changes will come through evolution.

Social evolution, to be precise. Sure, sextoys and tech have been advancing in leaps and bounds over the last few years. However, it’s nothing compared to how humanity’s attutudes around sex have been progressing.  

Agreed, there have been, and will continue to be, rough patches when it looks way too much like one-step-forward-two steps-back, but we are undeniably making our way forward.

Soon we’ll have all these virtual, digital, genetic, cybernetic, robotic, artificially intelligent playthings, but more importantly we’ll be using them to explore much more enlightened vistas of human sexuality.

Intolerance, shame, guilt, fear, ignorance, and loneliness will be all but forgotten: replaced by limitless erotic pleasures fueld by understanding, respect, tolerance, passion, kindness, and most of all love.

This will be a world where BDSM, and every other form of consensual sexual pleasure, will become just another part of what people do for fun—in orbit or otherwise.  

This, too, will be a world where dating isn’t a minefield of anxiety and/or disappointment but rather a smooth, safe, and fun way to find someone, or someones, to share a life with—or just spend the night together.

It may take a bit of time, but we’re on the way.

The post The future of BDSM and dating is going to be a bright one! appeared first on Future of Sex.