We may soon have to add more pages to the Kama Sutra—or pen an entirely new one

Imagine the erotic possibilities of extra carbon fiber arms or additional thumbs! Cybernetic researchers like Dr. Masahiko Inami of Keio University’s School of Media Design and Cambridge University’s Dani Clode and Professor Tamar Makinmay not currently be focused on the sexual possibilities of extra limbs, but in the future, they very well could be.

Featured in a video by WIRED’s Amit Katwala, Dr. Masahiko Inami’s approach involves providing people with four additional limbs while Clode and Makin have been investigating the possible advantages of giving us two additional thumbs.

On more than one hand

Drawing from bunraku, traditional Japanese puppetry, the current iteration of Dr. Inami’s jizai, or “freely moving” carbon fiber arms, may not require an external power source but aren’t, as yet, user-operable.  

As Amit Katwala showed, his prototype jizai’s are primarily controlled via a set of smaller-scale limbs, though autonomy is somewhat possible but with mixed results, having difficulty with relatively simple tasks like picking up a plush toy or not-as-successfully doing the same with a marker.

RECOMMENDED READ: Sometimes I Even Feel Hope: Celebrating Ghost In 

Dr. Inami envisions his extra arms being used for everything from physical therapy to inspiring otherwise unheard-of athletic competitions. “Maybe in the future we attach or detach to play a new kind of sport,” he speculated in the WIRED video.

Thumbs up

Meanwhile, at Cambridge University, Professor Makin and Dani Clode were experimenting with what it’d be like to have an additional thumb.  

Makin and Clode’s third thumb is user-operable thanks to a press-sensitive toe switch. As Katwala discovered, it didn’t take very long for him to get used to controlling his new thumb this way. He was surprised to discover that this brief demo had already remapped some of his neural pathways.

Professor Makin explained that she and Clode were using their artificial thumb to introduce participants to completely new ways to operate their bodies, allowing them to do more than they could with just their hands.

Makin explained that this type of research might eventually teach people to control any number of new body parts intuitively: 

At the moment, which is the very earliest days of the field, I think we want to provide a proof of concept that, yes, we are comfortable in our bodies with our five fingers hand but any limitations in using extra fingers and arms is a limitation ultimately of our imagination as humans.

Reach for tomorrow

Imagine what it’d be like to have as many fingers, thumbs, hands, legs, or arms as we want.

By remapping our brains and integrating bleeding-edge haptic tech into our new, cybernetically augmented selves, we could sense the world, ourselves, and our lovers like never before. We could experience having more than one set of genitals.

Why stop there?  Suppose our new, artificial limbs act and feel precisely the same as the ones we were born with. Why shouldn’t it be possible to construct and remotely operate new bodies as well, ones specifically designed for sexual activities we might not otherwise be capable of performing? 

How does making love in a volcano, indulging in a deep space orgy, or swinging at the bottom of the Mariana Trench sound?

Or it may spark a wildly creative, gorgeously erotic renaissance where our bodies are our canvases, and what we can do with them and each other is our art.

Even if we dial our imaginations back a bit, the availability of optional body parts could aid people struggling with all sorts of dysmorphic disorders.

When all’s said and done, it comes down to the joy of having options. You may not want to have more than two thumbs, two legs, two arms, and so forth, but should the likes of Dr. Masahiko Inami, Dani Clode, and Professor Makin take their work to the next—and the next, and the next, and the next—level, for the first time you’ll be able to say to yourself, I want to try being more than I already am.

Image Sources: Depositphotos

The post Arms Enough for Love: The Erotic Possibilities Extra Limbs, More Thumbs May Hand Us appeared first on Future of Sex.

Today’s self-modifying underground might be tomorrow’s erotic pioneers

Body modification, “the deliberate altering of the human anatomy” (to use Wikipedia), has been around for a very, very, very long time.

How long? Well, let me introduce you to Ötzi, the remarkably well-preserved gentleman who, fortunately for us and unfortunately for him, died back in 3,000 BCE. Ötzi has taught researchers a lot about what life was back then, including the fact that people were “deliberate altering” themselves. In Ötzi’s case, it was via tattoos.

With the arrival of technological innovations like surgical plastics, safer medical techniques, implantable electronics, and a whole slew of other possibilities, it’s kind of natural that we’ve seen the birth, and growing popularity, of people interested in altering themselves—up to and including their own sexual components.

Grinding, biohacking, and the Lovetron9000

Grinders, to use their term, “practice functional extreme body modification in an effort to improve the human condition” (from Biohack.me). Among their modifications are the use of magnets in hands and fingers, granting a new type of sense; implanted RFID (Radio-frequency identification) tags to transmit information and even unlocking doors; and then there’s sex.

Rich Lee recently announced that he is planning to undergo surgery to implant his creation, the Lovetron9000: a tiny motorized device that, if successful, would allow Lee to stimulate his penis without the need for external equipment—beyond an induction system to charge it.

Speaking to Hugo Gray here at Future of Sex, Lee said, “Having sex with a cyborg will be great. Imagine sex, but with deep, unnatural, and stimulating vibrations. It’s like a vibrator and a boyfriend! The question is: will you ever be able to go back to having sex with non-cyborgs? Nope, you will no longer be satisfied by humans. Game over humans!”

Where could this all go?

While non-augmented humanity more than likely has a few more years to enjoy its standard equipment, the expanding interest—and, most of all, increasing safety—in sexual grinding can’t be denied.

And with this popularity will no doubt come greater, even casual acceptance. As Ryan O’Shea of Grindhouse Wetware put it to NPR: “I think once people realize, ‘Oh, it’s OK that my grandma has a pacemaker’… people are going to start to accept this… the era of transhumanism, I would say, is here. So let’s accept that and then see where that logically takes us.”

In that spirit, let’s rub our magical lamp of speculation and play with some concepts for grinding our bodies—specifically in regards to sexuality and eroticism.

A magnetic attraction

As already mentioned, an already pretty well-established mod is the implantation of magnets. Most have used them to gain a new kind of sense: the tug of the magnet reacting to metals as well as other attractors.

It’s fascinating to ponder the use of the same technique to place mini-magnets in parts other than, or in addition to, fingers. Why not place encapsulated magnets in the corona or head of a penis? There’s already an established body piercing called a Dydoe [NSFW]—so why not use a magnetic piece of jewelry that would be attracted, obviously at a low level, to magnets in hands, labia, lips, or other penises? More than likely this has already happened, either by accident or design. so please feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

But there’s another magnetic form of sexual attraction to consider. Using unusual, though safe, forms of tattoo ink is becoming rather common. There are already inks that react to ultraviolet light and even some that are purely luminescent, so why not a ferrofluid tattoo?

Again, extensive research and testing would have to be done but the possibility is intriguing: the tattoo recipient could very easily have the experience of their genitals, or other body parts, being gently tugged by simply being in the presence of an implanted partner’s magnet.

Information is sex

Another already referenced grinder implant is a RFID chip. What’s interesting about this is that the chip can be used to transmit information, as with implanted pet tags, but it can also be a trigger for all sorts of electronic devices, from door locks to the operation of Rich Lee’s Lovetron9000.

Imagine the possibilities of being able to utilize a high-tech form of sexual BDSM control over a partner with an implanted sexual device. For example. perhaps only with a specific RFID key—in hand or maybe even in genitalia—could the Lovetron9000 activate.

RECOMMENDED READ: Forest Floor to Bedroom Drawer: The Promise of Mushroom-Based Sex Toys

There’s also the idea that another form of information implant could read another of its kind. Approach a possible playmate and you’d receive anything from a buzz from a sexual implant or even a text message that this person meets your pre-programmed erotic preferences. There’s even the possibility that we’ll be able to have thin-as-skin implantable LED displays very soon, as reported by Engadget.

For those interested in the Quantified Self branch of grinding, the exploring of the self through the acquisition of all kinds of personal data, having a sensor linked to everything from pulse to sexual arousal, could mean they could sync up with someone else similarly equipped. No more clumsy “you’re in the mood but I’m not” moments.

New genders for a new world

Possibly too large to address in this space, but too interesting to ignore, is the use of body modification to expand on what gender is and could be. We already have extremely advanced medical techniques available, allowing many people to become their preferred gender, so, as with grinders, it should also come as no surprise that people may not just change their gender but create new ones.

The term most commonly used is Postgenderism, and. while many surgical procedures really can’t be performed at the same level of the grinders’, it’s more than likely just a matter of time before humanity begins to really experiment with all the available options.Or perhaps with none at all, as in the case of nullification, the excising of body parts, including sexual ones.

Who owns you?

This raises a question society has been wrestling with since the days of Ötzi: do you own, and, therefore, have the right to alter your own body? Beyond the obvious need to prohibit dangerously unsafe practices, does anyone have the right to tell you what you can do to yourself?

As with many issues we are all facing, we can only hope that in the end we will all be granted the freedom, and wisdom, to become the person we feel we should be, or to be able to enhance ourselves mentally, physically, and, most of all sexually.

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post Do It (to) Yourself: Biohacking, Grinding, and Sexual Self Improvement appeared first on Future of Sex.

How the groundbreaking anime explored the merging of the natural and the artificial 

Japanese animation, anime as it is frequently called, has a long tradition of exploring humankind’s relationship with technology—including times when that relationship goes beyond intimate and into the obviously erotic.

In fact, if you look at any future speculations in anime, with regards to sexuality and technology, you’ll find not just that anime has delved into it but with a remarkably thorough and thoughtful approach.

While we know that an anime otaku (“fanboy” to use the Western meaning and not the literal Japanese translation) can more than likely come up with several others, here are just a few choice examples of anime’s future conjectures: virtual reality (.hack//SIGN), augmented reality (Dennō Coil), prosthetic limb replacement (Texhnolyze), artificial intelligence (Ergo Proxy), gender fluidity (Shangri-La), robotics (Astroboy —one of the very first anime series), and many others.

But there’s one anime franchise that has touched on each of these, and done it in ways that show what could very well be the future of not just sexuality, but the very future of humanity itself.

“I mean, have you ever actually seen your brain?”

Created first as a manga (Japanese comic book) by the legendary artist/writer Masamune Shirow in 1989, Ghost in the Shell (Kōkaku Kidōtai in Japanese) became a movie in 1995, directed by Mamoru Oshii. From there the franchise has followed a long-standing Japanese tradition of re-imaginings and re-interpretations, including three animated television series, a few novels, a sequel to the first movie (Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, also by Mamoru Oshii), several other films, a few video games, and even a stage play.

Taking place in 2029 (to use the date in the original manga), the core story is that of Public Security Section 9, an elite counter-terrorist unit, headed by the main character of pretty much every incarnation of Ghost in the Shell: “Major” Motoko Kusanagi.

The Major (if the title is official or just a handle varies from series to series) is a full-body cyborg, meaning that only some of her spine and her brain is original/organic. This isn’t a rarity in this vision of the future—where partial and full-body replacement is quite common—but Kusanagi is known for being especially adept at not just operating her artificial body optimally, but also in cyber warfare, espionage, and pushing the limits of the technology envisioned by Ghost in the Shell.

“Just a whisper. I hear it in my ghost”

One of the big questions Ghost In The Shell raises is “what does it actually mean to be human?” In the first movie, Kusanagi states several times that she has doubts about the nature of her existence.

For example, the opening scene in the first film shows Kusanagi’s artificial body being assembled: a quasi-erotic scene until the viewer realizes it’s about as sexual as an automobile assembly line.

In her world, a typical way of determining humanity is the presence of a “ghost” of consciousness. Humans have it, robots do not. But that doesn’t stop the Major from wondering if she, with all her artificial components, has left a key part of herself behind in the process.

“It is time to become a part of all things”

Despite, or because of, her doubts, the conclusion of the first film has her accepting the invitation of The Puppet Master (a form of self-aware artificial intelligence) to merge with it: to become a unique mixture of the two minds, one organic and one cybernetic.

What’s intriguing about this is how it speaks to a possible future of sexuality. The Major may look like a woman, but this is just her prosthetic “shell”’ Her real self, whatever it may be, is what she exchanges with The Puppet Master. It’s not a huge leap of speculation to see this as a natural course for digitized human consciousness and artificial intelligence: binary sex, digital merging, then reproduction into an entirely new form of life.

As the new incarnation of the Major says at the end of the first film: “And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.”

“If a technological feat is possible, man will do it.”

Several times in Ghost in the Shell, it’s implied that gender is just a matter of external hardware. The Major’s fellow Section 9 teammate, Batou, in fact, chastises her for staying physically female when she could just as easily put her braincase into a male chassis.

Similarly, in an episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG, Paz, another member of the team, is stalked by a woman so obsessed she wants to physically become him by placing her brain in an artificial copy of his body. The episode is particularly chilling when, at the end, Batou and the Major share some doubts that the surviving Paz may not actually be theirs.

The speculation this brings up is fascinating: if bodies can be anything, what happens to the entire idea of gender? And why do bodies even have to be male or female? Many other characters in Ghost are what could be called a-gender or, with a few attachments when needed, multi-gender. Once we move beyond organic bodies what will happen to sex? Ghost may not have the answer but the franchise does pose some interesting questions.

A Solid State Society

It’s questions like this that make Ghost such an interesting anime franchise. Another way it looks at the future of humankind, and of course sex, is raised in the film (tied into the Stand Alone Complex series): Solid State Society.

Without going into too much of the story, which deals with collective consciousness, the vanishing mediator, and more heady stuff, there is a moment where the Major, after stepping away from Section 9, has set up shop for herself as an investigator. In her office/workspace, she has several artificial bodies that she can operate independently. In fact, a key point of the story is that one of these split-off selves acts a bit too independently.

When we are able to convert our minds, our ghosts, into digital versions why shouldn’t we be able to do what the Major was able to — if not more? After all, a program can be run on more than one platform at a time. Separated digital minds could be later synced together, merging the two versions into a combined whole again.

Is this sex? If not—why not? It could almost be seen as a form of complex masturbation: making love to Your own mind, or a version of it.

Bodies, again, could be used for whatever explorations a person wants to enjoy. You could take your male body out on a date with yourself in a female body, or any combination of gender, or even a new one, you may desire. The net, indeed, would be extremely vast and absolutely infinite.

“And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.”

Ghost in the Shell is a remarkable franchise, delving as it does into humanity, physical identity, and artificial consciousness.

And there’s sex. Even its very first appearance, in Masamune Shirow’s manga, there was a rather notorious explicit sex scene in virtual reality with the Major. But while there is certainly eroticism in every incarnation of the Major’s adventures, there’s also at its heart a penetrating examination of where we all might be heading.

Again, Ghost in the Shell may not have all the answers, but the questions it raises are ones we all will have to face, learn from and use to grow as human—whatever that may be.

Or, as the Puppet Master puts it: “All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.”

Image sources: IMDB

The post Sometimes I Even Feel Hope: Celebrating Ghost In The Shell’s Speculative Sexuality appeared first on Future of Sex.

Part two of The Ten Great Sexual Innovations Yet To Come

In our first installment on future sex technologies, we took a look at upcoming developments in sensory tech: virtual reality, augmented reality, and direct neurostimulation.

But this time around we’re going to explore what may very well happen to the flesh and blood of humanity—and in fact how sex will no longer be just flesh and blood—by examining three promising innovations in sexual biotechnology: cybernetics, body switching, and genetic engineering.

Innovation Four: Cybernetics

Sure, Nathan S. Kline and Manfred Clynes may have coined the term cyborg in 1960, but the concept of enhancing humanity through artificial limbs and organs is actually an ancient one.

Through recent developments in direct nerve connections, exotic materials, and microscopic sensors, we are looking at a time in the not-too-distant future where we won’t just be able to replace missing or diseased organs with artificial ones—but may very well prefer them over the “real thing.”

This is especially true around our sex organs. Just look at how breast implants—in a way a form of artificial augmentation—have changed human eroticism. Right now, breast implants are mostly cosmetic, but what happens when we can alter our physical forms in any way we wish?

RECOMMENDED READ: Give Us a Smile: Tomorrow’s Artificial Companions Could Have Flesh and Blood Faces

That’s the kicker: we’re limited only by our imaginations. More than likely we’ll first see people who look pretty much like people.  Soon, though, we’ll begin to realize that we can become anything we want. With soon-arriving technology, we’ll be able to feel an artificial sex organ just as good, if not better, than the flesh and blood version.

What’s even wilder is that if you get tired of whatever new body part you’ve had installed, then you can just swap it out or upgrade it.

With artificial forms we’ll be able to turn any part of our bodies into sex organs, or use our entire bodies as one. We could make love to clouds, ocean currents, solar winds, or entire planets if we desired.

But we’d still be ourselves. This is where another huge development comes in: the technology that will allow us to become someone else.

Innovation Five: Body Switching

Okay, this one is a bit far out but the idea should be rather easy to understand. First, we begin with the basics of cyberization: direct neural interfaces. Unlike direct neural stimulation, which we chatted about last time, this isn’t just sensing using our brains, but being able to control our new artificial selves like they were our original flesh and blood bodies.

Once we have that, the next step is to link two people together: I see through your eyes, you see through mine; you raise my hand, I raise yours. With enough bandwidth—and some elegant programming—there’s no reason two people connected by wires couldn’t switch physical bodies.

Just think of the sexual possibilities: we could know, without any doubt, what it would be like to physically besomeone else. Why travel when you can step into someone else’s shoes half a world away? Want to be anyone—male, female, or a new gender altogether—for a weekend, a year, a lifetime?

There’s no reason why we couldn’t have artificial bodies designed just for sex play, with unique sensors and totally original sex components. We could share special sensual bodies like we share vacation homes: timeshare eroticism!

Flesh and blood do have their limitations, which is why we will soon see many people choosing to replace flesh and blood for more durable, and flexible, alternatives.

Many will prefer to remain in the bodies they were born in. However, via upcoming new technologies, there’s no reason they couldn’t enjoy a new world of dazzling sexuality either.

Innovation Six: Genetic Engineering

It’s sadly become a frightening concept to some, but the potential to alter the human body on a genetic level shows incredible promise in eliminating so much suffering and pain—as well as changing human sexuality in amazing ways.

We are fast approaching a time when we will be able to clone, or fabricate, pretty much any part of any person we wish. This means organ transplants without tissue rejection—as they’d be fabricated from the recipient’s own DNA—but also that we’ll be able to do incredible things with the human form.

Those with gender dysphoria could be who they always felt they should be. By rewriting our genetic code we could walk in anyone’s physical form; change ourselves for any reason. What happens to bigotry when we can literally see the world through anyone’s race, gender, orientation, age?

As with cyberization, humanity would have close to total freedom of physical form—without giving up their flesh and blood. Want to experience sex as a whale or as an elephant? Drop your gray matter into a vat-grown form of your choosing.  We could live to see a world where changing our bodies would be like changing our clothes: fancy dress, casual, or kinky.

The difficulty with cyborgs is that they still have that pesky meat brain. But with sufficient genetic engineering skill, we could see the death of … death by replacing dead or dying brain cells with new healthy ones.

Hand in hand, these two innovations—artificial organs along with new ones grown from our own DNA—mean that soon our physical selves will be restricted only by our fantasies, sexual or otherwise.

But some of the biggest changes are yet to come. In the future, we will have the ability to not just change how we see the world (real and artificial) or how we interact with it (again, real and artificial), but explore the truly limitless domain of consciousness.

Human or otherwise.

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post Getting Physical: Cyborgs, Mind Switching, and Genetic Engineering appeared first on Future of Sex.