Sci-Fi/Erotica Experts Weigh In on Sex in 2040
Writers share their thoughts on what erotic pleasures the future may hold
Part of our ongoing Future of Sex Expert Series, we recently contacted seven of today’s highest-regarded erotica, science fiction, and—combining the two—erotic speculative fiction authors, asking them to give us their thoughts on the question, “What will we be surprised about by sex in 2040?”
Marilyn Jaye Lewis, writer of erotic fiction and nonfiction
“A return to the awareness that sexual energy is the Supreme Creative Force, always yielding “something from nothing.” Whether by creating life, creating ecstasy and joy, or art in all its many forms. We’ll have a renewed conscious use of the mind and body’s blend of vibrational frequencies at the cellular level, creating limitless communication throughout the body, including the use of the body’s own vibrational frequency as a dependable form of personal birth control. We’ll see an increase in sexual well-being by removing any current dependencies we have on artificial interruptions of the mind/body’s sacred sexual energetic flow.”
Ralph Greco, Jr, professional writer/musician
“As I always do when it comes to matters of technology/future casting/human evolution, I’ll answer from two different perspectives:
“1) One, we will continue to make the most of our inventions: curing diseases, increasing chances of digital interaction, and fixing physical limitations leading to closer intimacies between people. The surprise will be how wonderful life grows every day in regard to our sex lives.
or—
“2) We will to spin out of control, decreasing the amount of human-to-human interactions, invent more virulent strains of diseases that by 2024, we will see a decrease in population from something we unleash (be it rampant overuse of AI, actual versus what we create, or the ennui gripping us now) making this question moot as there won’t be enough of us to care. The only surprise regarding sex will be how we lasted as long as we did before the planet simply shrugs our existence off like the little bug annoyance we have always been.
“I personally am betting on #2.”
Nobilis Reed, creator, producer of Nobilis Erotica
“I think a lot of people will be surprised by how little has changed in twenty years.
“All sorts of things around sex are going to change. Advances in robots and AI will be monumental. There will be changes in society, from gender roles to media to laws and customs. In the end, though, what will surprise us most is the resilience of the basic human needs for touch, pleasure, and physical intimacy. There may be many changes to how we go about getting there, but once we’re skin-to-skin, things won’t change much at all. Not as long as we’re human.”
Ernest Hogan, author of Guerrilla Mural Of A Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction Stories
“The fact that there is a New Prudery among the young at the same time as an aversion to pubic hair and streaming services have commercials for newfangled gadgets for shaving vulva and testicles. Beyond the most far-out spec fic of the Seventies.”
Dani Brown, author of erotica, bizarro, and horror fiction
“I think we’re going to see less relationships and less sex (even a one-night stand is a relationship if only for that one night). Hear me out, though.
“While people aren’t looking, the technology is going to become more advanced and better. They’ll get curious. They’ll try it out and realize they can program their perfect partner and connect with the cyber world more so than now. Chatbots are still clunky, but so weren’t smartphones 16 years ago.
“We’re going to start seeing and using more immersive technology, and it is going to get better. With a combination of immersive technology and real-world objects delivered straight to your door, everyone is going to spend more time in the virtual world than with real people. Maybe they’ll connect to real people that way, or maybe it’ll be all AI? But what it’ll amount to is less physical real-world sex. Why travel and leave the comfort of your own home when you can have all your sexual fantasies fulfilled in your front room?”
Sally Bend, author and editor of diverse, sex-positive romance and erotica
“By 2040, I suspect we’ll be bored with the pleasures of sex dolls, robots, and AI-fueled partners. We’ll be done with experimenting with artificial lovers to explore our darker, guiltier pleasures. What I think we’ll be surprised by is a rebound effect, one that propels us back into human intimacy and one-on-one relationships that are as much about emotional attachment as physical pleasure. Having had our outlets for experimentation, we’ll know what we like—and what everybody else likes—and in an era where nothing is truly private, there will no longer be any need to hide or hold back.
“We’ll see relationships that cross genders, ages, races, body types, abilities, augmentations, and more. Having already explored (and shared) sexual hedonism as a society, with thoughts and feelings and emotions that are no longer secrets, our newfound appreciation for the emotional and intellectual aspects of sex will erase so many taboos and shift fetishes, fantasies, and lifestyles into visible relationships.”
M.Christian, sextech journalist and erotic speculative fiction author
“My opinion is we’re currently stuck in what seems like perpetual freefall; every technological breakthrough or societal/sexual change making us feel increasingly uncertain about, well, everything.
“Optimistically, I hope by 2040 we’ll have found some sense of cultural stability; a world where that today seems exotic or threatening is simply a regular, everyday part of life: artificial intelligences, artificial companions, augmented and virtual reality systems, and so forth but more importantly accepting gender is and has always been nothing but a social construct, and everyone has the right to engage in consensual sexual practices and have complete autonomy over our physical selves.
“Realistic? Perhaps not, but the future is ours to create—so why not dream of a better one where we can be who we truly are, have the freedom to explore our desires and have the freedom to expand our sexual horizons?”
Image Sources: Depositphotos
