How a new, erotic renaissance may be right around the corner

Utopias—visions of a perfect society—have always been totally subjective.

Or, to put it simply: one person’s dream is another’s nightmare.

That being said, dreaming of utopias can still be entertaining and even therapeutic: in them often being the optimism that humanity can someday, somehow create a perfect world.

With both that playfulness—and acknowledging that this won’t be ideal for everyone—here is speculation on the technologies that could help create a sexual utopia.

What is a sexual utopia?

Before we go any further let’s have some clarification. To create a utopia you usually start with a negative and then work toward a positive: a problem and then a solution.

For our own negative, we’re beginning with the fact that right now sex is far from pleasurable for far too many. Bigotry, lack of sexual education, gender dysphoria, shame, rape, sexual harassment, loneliness—sadly, the list goes on from there.

And our positive will be how technology, much of it already in development, could work together to make a world not only free of these negatives but could also lead to a utopia where humanity will be able to experience sexual pleasure as never before.

Consent and safety

Without a doubt, sexual assault has one of the most detrimental effects on human society. For too many, it has turned an act of pleasure into a physical and emotional nightmare.

While there are no obvious immediate technological solutions to sexual assault, there is still the possibility that new levels of safety could be gained through the use of blockchains as a secure way of registering consent to sexual activity.

While there are clearly some hurdles to overcome, ideally parties involved would agree to sexual contact, and then confirm their willingness with a secure blockchain-based system.

Lastly, having a ubiquitous security system in place could also add an all-important layer of protection, being that the best deterrent isn’t the severity of punishment but the certainty of it.

Artificial intelligence could also be employed: programmed to detect sexual assault by keeping a digital eye out for certain phrases or actions—and so alert authorities.

Gender fluidity

In our sexual utopia gender is a spectrum of physical attributes that can be changed by anyone, at any time, for any reason. This means that if someone has gender dysphoria, they can easily become what feels natural to them, no matter their gender at birth.

This could be accomplished by either using genetic engineering techniques, like CRISPR, through advanced surgical procedures or even through the use of inorganic implants.

Then there’s the question of what happens when genitals can be whatever you wish—in style, size, color and whatever else—and secondary characteristics like breasts can be added or removed as easily as changing clothes?

In our sexual utopia, it would mean infinite possibilities for sexual identity and erotic exploration: let the adventures begin!

The end of STIs

This might sound obvious on the surface but that millions of people today still needlessly suffer from sexually transmitted infections means that this is a topic that needs to be brought up time and time again.

Until that is, we arrive at our sexual utopia: where every type of sexually transmitted illness has been eliminated.

This would come, again, from a combination of advanced medical procedures and/or genetic engineering. It’s possible that our future citizens would have their DNA gently tweaked in the womb to prevent infections—which would then lead to the diseases dying off.

And so, with no one ever catching anything, our utopia would be a place where worry and dread of infection would be as extinct as those diseases.

Birth Control

This leads to the last anxiety: unintended pregnancies.

In our perfect sexual world giving birth is always a choice, brought to you—yet again—by genetic engineering or advanced medical procedures.

If you take the genetic engineering route, citizens would be altered yet again so that sperm or eggs would only be viable when a certain gene is switched on. On the medical side, a solution would be an implant doing the same thing—but deactivated either electronically or chemically.

If anyone is concerned about future infertility, there would be an option to have sperm and eggs collected during periods of fertility and then stored until needed.

So we’d have a solution to overpopulation and the imminent depletion of natural resources, eliminating the idea of an unwanted child, giving people new levels of sexual liberation.

Bye bye loneliness

It’s a sad fact that, despite the billions of people on Earth and having access to a great many of them through digital technology, a large number of people are emotionally—and sexually—lonely.

In our perfect world, intelligent agents would match us with possible partners: knowing us better than we could ever know ourselves.

RECOMMENDED READ: Fun With a Future: Romantic Weekends for Humans and Their Digital Partners 

And, if a match couldn’t be found, then there’d be artificial intelligences that would fill our sexual needs. But instead of being parrots constantly telling us what we want to hear, they’d be highly skilled therapists helping us grow as human beings.

There’d also be a complete lack of stigma around them or the advanced sexbots they are part of. Preferring their company would simply be a sexual orientation—and no less respected than any other.

More than anything, this would mean that no one would ever suffer the pain of loneliness ever again.

The end of ignorance

The lack of education and exposure to other forms of human sexuality is the root cause of much of today’s intolerance and fear.

Our utopia, though, will include a wide range of ways to learn about, and even experience, every aspect of human life—especially when it comes to sex.

First, there’d be virtual reality and then eventually direct neural interface: these fully immersive experiences becoming an invaluable tool for creating empathetic bonds with other people.

Ignorance, after all, is hard to maintain when you can digitally walk in another person’s shoes and see through their eyes.

Augmented reality, meanwhile—as either glasses or again as a form of neural interface—would expand our vision, and knowledge, of the world around us.

Walking down the street we’d be able to read every sign, how to speak the language, the history of every structure, the ingredients of every meal and—if the person you are looking at wishes to share such things—a person’s the sexual interests.

All of this leading to seeing the world not as locked door and hidden terrors but as passages to new discoveries.

A world of possibilities

Blockchain technology, genetic engineering, advanced medicine, sexual robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality—they all play crucial roles in our playful sexual utopia.

But technology alone will not solve today’s problems with sex.

We will continue to live in a world of ignorance, bigotry, hate, and fear—no matter what devices we create—unless humanity moves forwards. Subjective or not, we can make the world a better place if we embrace knowledge, empathy, respect, and tolerance.

And, who knows, we may someday be able to bring this sexual utopia—or something very much like it—into reality.

Do you have something you’d like to see in a sexual utopia? Feel free to share in the comments below!

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post A Joyous Life: A Sexual Utopia in 7 Social and Technological Steps appeared first on Future of Sex.

Exciting new hormone-free option passes initial human trial

In what could soon herald the widely available release of the first practical, orally administered sperm fertility inhibitor, YCT-529’s developers at San Francisco-based YourChoice Therapeutics announced in Communications Medicine that it has passed its Phase 1 clinical trial.

While the pharmaceutical’s overall effectiveness wasn’t tested, the fact that YCT-529 appears safe for human consumption is nevertheless a major milestone.

Discussing the trial with Scientific American, Nadja Mannowetz, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of YourChoice Therapeutics, said YCT-529 is the first non-hormonal male contraceptive to undergo successful tolerability and bioavailability checks.

Call me in the morning

YCT-529 temporarily halts sperm formation in the user’s testicles by inhibiting their vitamin A metabolites. 

Mannowetz reported that the trial “saw good and quick bioavailability,” meaning YCT-529 typically remained in the subjects’ bodies for several days instead of rapidly breaking down, indicating that if its effectiveness is subsequently verified, it may only need to be taken once a day.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration eventually greenlights YCT-529, Mannowetz also envisions it being available as a 180 mg daily dose, though the exact amount will depend on further trials.

Time to take your medicine

If YCT-529 may be free of adverse side effects, YourChoice Therapeutics selected sixteen men between the ages of thirty-two and fifty-nine.  To prevent the possibility of their fertility being negatively affected, the study was limited to participants who had undergone a vasectomy.

Subjects in both the control and YCT-529-receiving group were required to fastt after ingesting a high-calorie breakfast, to determine if the medication might negatively affect the medication’s tolerability.

RECOMMENDED READ: Hot Times Ahead: Tomorrow’s Male Contraceptives May Be More About Temperature, Less About Drugs

Promisingly, Mannowetz said her researchers did not detect any particularly adverse reactions among the study participants, while mentioning a small possibility that users might experience a number of emotional or sexual reactions.

Bite the bullet

As we have reported often before, though safe and effective male birth control medications are well-worth pursuing—as is anything that helps people make intelligent decisions about family planning—orally administered doses cannot prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) such as HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B, and gonorrhea to name but a few.

Not to cast a pall over a game-changing, birth control development, it’s even more important that penis-equipped persons taking YCT-529 understand that just because they have popped their morning dose, they are medically protected from taking sex and its myriad repercussions seriously.

In addition to creating effective male birth control options, all societies need to ensure everyone receives a non-biased, scientifically sound, and emotionally supportive, comprehensive sexual education.  

Only then will medications like YCT-529 live up to their promise of aiding thousands or perhaps millions of people to take control of their lives—otherwise disreputable individuals may have yet another way to make their partners’ lives miserable by pretending they really, honestly, no-fooling—took their morning birth control pill.

Image Sources: Depositphotos

The post Easy Pill To Swallow: Important Step Towards Safe And Effective Male Birth Control appeared first on Future of Sex.

Scientists learn how to use heat to decrease sperm mobility rates

According to their Nature Communications study, a team of researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine’s Cell Biology and Physiology Department have discovered why sperm cells are noticeably less or more active depending on how cool or warm their immediate environment is.

Polina V. Lishko, one of the study’s authors, told Popular Science, “Everyone knew that male reproductive organs are maintained at a temperature lower than the core body temperature, but the reason why this is necessary wasn’t clearly understood—until now.”

Armed with this knowledge, someday, it may be possible to adjust a penis-equipped person’s fertility rate without the use of hormone-based medications, chemical sperm blockers, or other contraceptive technologies currently under development.

A matter of degrees

Previously, scientists didn’t fully understand what activated a sperm cell’s CatSper protein, the driving mechanism behind its propelling flagella.

Initially, it was thought that the recipient’s vaginal pH levels might increase sperm speed, but further research, notably that sperm doesn’t respond to progesterone, led the Washington University team to explore the effects of temperature.

RECOMMENDED READ: Good for What Ails Us? Broad Spectrum Morning-After STI Pill Shows Promise

Though temperature and sperm mobility are well documented, the Washington University researchers were able to pinpoint what temperature would kick sperm into fertility overdrive. 

Employing equipment normally used to study cranial nerves, the team discovered a distinctive CatSper response when the sperms’ environment rose above 100.4 degrees.

Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

By determining precisely how temperature affects, it should be possible to formulate a generally reliable method to ensure fertility or decrease it.

An added benefit to this approach is it’s only necessary to heat or cool the testicles and not a person’s entire body.

We reported a somewhat similar approach four years ago when the COSO Testicle Bath was the recipient of a German Dyson Award. The COSO is essentially a small tub that employs a combination of heated water and ultrasonic waves to suspend sperm mobility temporarily.

Good for one thing, less so for others

It’s always worth mentioning that while existing devices like the COSO or practical applications of the Washington University research may help reduce unwanted pregnancies, vasectomies and condoms already prevent pregnancies, and condoms have the additional advantage of helping to prevent the spread of life-threatening Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) such as hepatitis and HIV.

Not discounting the potential benefits of a new and effective male-identified contraceptive technology, it’s important to remember it also might create as many problems as it solves.

For example, it could cause users to develop a false sense of security, mistakenly believing that just because they’re unlikely to impregnate someone inadvertently, then sex is now risk-free.

Gimmie steam

But do we really need a penis-equipped contraceptive and STI preventative, even if it’s a high-tech combination of temperature regulator and barrier protection?  

As exciting as that may sound, the truth is the ongoing search for the penis-equipped solution to these problems might actually be unnecessary.

While some penis-equipped people may not like wearing them, condoms are a mostly reliable way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and infectious diseases. 

Condoms might not be high-tech, but they don’t require batteries, a prescription, extensive training in how to use them, or even that much money. 

Plus, they come in any size, shape, length, and girth, with or without ribs; a bevy of different colors, flavors, and lubricant styles you need or want—and, not only that, but also for nearly every type of sexual activity imaginable. As long as they don’t break, they will do their job.

The Washington University team’s work and other research to improve or diminish fertility rates is commendable.  But so are the sexual health experts, organizations like Planned Parenthood, and sex information resources the world over, working night and day to get people to take sex seriously.

No less so by taking personal responsibility for sexual health and pregnancy prevention by using condoms!

Image Sources: Depositphotos

The post Hot Times Ahead: Tomorrow’s Male Contraceptives May Be More About Temperature, Less About Drugs appeared first on Future of Sex.