Some hits, some misses, and who knows what’s yet to come?

Science fiction has never really strived to be prophetic. Mostly the genre has used speculation to draw attention to social issues of the day; a funhouse mirror held up to mankind.

And when it has tried to gaze into a crystal ball, sci-fi’s track record is more than a bit lacking—to be polite.

Especially in regards to the future of sexuality.

But it’s fun to look at some notable books and films that tried to envision what sex would be like in the future. In other words, right this very minute.

A lot of things turned out to be flat out wrong. But what’s even more intriguing—and even more than a bit chilling—is what they actually may have gotten right.

If not this year but very, very soon.

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner

John Brunner’s (1934–1995) novel Stand on Zanzibar (1968) is—at the risk of hyperbole—a phenomenal work: literary, complex, insightful, playful, and, despite having been written almost 50 years ago, this Hugo-winning novel reads as it if could very well have been written today.

Media oversaturation, runaway genetic screening, and monolithic corporations replacing government, the book depicts the world of 2010 as one that is both an exaggeration of the 60s and 70s, as well as alarmingly similar to what we’re experiencing now.

One thing that Brunner speculates on is the normalization of polyamory: consensual sexual relationships involving more than two people—to put it in overly simplistic terms.

While the 2010 of Stand On Zanzibar sees polyamory (as well as casual sex, homosexuality, and bisexuality, and more!) as such a common element of human society that it’s all but invisible, but in our current year it is only exercised by a small minority.

But that is changing—and very fast.

Not only are many scientists noticing a growing acceptance of polyamory, but they are suggesting that polyamory may be a remarkably healthy sexual option for many.

Studies have even shown that polyamorous groupings even tend to restrict the spread of sexually transmitted conditions (STCs), as opposed to people who cheat while in a monogamous relationship.

So while Stand On Zanzibar was not quite a perfect vision of the near future, Brunner may not have been that far off. Just give us a few more years.

Soylent Green directed by Richard Fleischer

While the New York of Richard Fleischer’s 1973 film Soylent Green it takes place in 2022 we might call this vision of a nightmarishly overpopulated world a complete miss.

Following Detective Frank Thorn (Charlton Heston) as he investigates the assassination of a high-ranking employee of the Soylent corporation, the audience is shown a world where human life has all but zero value.

In fact, and this should not come as a surprise to anyone, really, it is eventually revealed that the popular titular food alternative is … let’s let the famous line speak for itself: “Soylent Green is made out of people!”

While we are, thankfully, a little ways from cannibalism, another unique feature of this near future is how women are turned into “furniture:” literally property that comes with renting a high-end apartment.

Tragically, Soylent Green may not actually deserve a prophetic miss on this one. It is a global shame that even now there are an estimated 21 to 29 million human beings being held in slavery—and that 22% of them are victims of sex trafficking.

The 6th Day directed by Roger Spottiswoode

This sneer-and-kill Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle from 2000 is, firstly, set in 2015, and mostly, a play to many people’s ethical concerns about cloning.

Cloning is actually more common that you might think. In fact, we’ve managed to do it to quite a few animals—just not ourselves.

But while The 6th Day didn’t get human cloning right, there are plenty of incredible biological innovations that are right around the corner.

One of the soon-to-be everyday biological innovations is the idea of organic 3D printing coupled with a touch of genetic engineering. What this means to the future of sex is pretty mind blowing: for the first time organs, of any kind, will be able to be grown from a material that likely won’t be rejected because they’ll be made from the receiver’s own tissue.

Genitals may soon be a matter of choice and not genetics, as well as opening the door to altering them completely for any number of reasons: increased nerve endings, taste buds everywhere, and muscular control.The sky—and the erotic imagination—will be the limit.

I Will Fear No Evil by Robert Heinlein

Though many see this novel by the science-fiction grand master as one of his less-grand works, I Will Fear No Evil (1970) is still a fascinating read—especially as it delves into gender, sexuality, and the possibility of transferring one mind into another.

Taking place in 2015, elderly Billionaire Johann Sebastian Bach Smith, to preserve his life, has his brain placed in another person’s body. Two unexpected things happen: one, his mind ends up intermingling with that of the donor, and two, the body belonged to his female secretary.

This sets the stage of a very Heinleinian, though always entertaining, exploration of societal roles, biology, eroticism, and the differences —and similarities—between the sexes.

True, we can’t just plop one brain into another person’s body. But we are making some serious headway in making a direct link from one mind to another.

Just last year Spanish scientists managed to send the thoughts “hola” and “ciao” from the mind of a volunteer in India to three others in France—via email, no less.

Even though the result is pretty simple, the implications are staggering. The better we will get at understanding the brain—and the mind—the sooner we will be able to not just transmit thoughts, but maybe even move human consciousness from one person to another.

And what does this have to do with sex? Pretty much everything, actually: as eroticism is a mind thing, despite what our bodies try to tell us, this means that we might be able to timeshare vacations in the body of our dreams—especially our sexual ones.

Who knows? Maybe we’ll also be able to not just exchange but merge ourselves with someone else: sex taken to the ultimate level.

Strange Days By Kathryn Bigelow

For our last failed speculation, we take a similar neuroelectrical trip to just more than a decade ago. Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow’s science-fiction film Strange Days—though shot in 1995—visits the feverish chaos of Los Angeles at the turn of the 21st century.

Our burnt-out anti-hero, Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), scrounges a living selling SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) technology. Want to experience what it’s like to make love as a woman, jump off a roof, fall in love … you name it? Just use one of these illegal headsets and there you go.

While the plot is driven by a pair of ridiculously psychotic cops, the star of the film is the tech itself.

Sadly, 2000 came and went with no SQUID in sight. But, if you read just a few paragraphs back, there’s a very good reason to think that we may be doing pretty much everything the SQUID could, and did, do in Strange Days. And very soon.

After all, once you get information digitally out of a human being’s mind, there’s no reason why you couldn’t record it. We are already doing something like that with mice and rats. Humans, more than likely, won’t be far behind.

Sex, again, is where it’s going to be at. In a mirror to Strange Days, it’s not hard to imagine sexual experiences being sold to anyone who wants them. It could also leave behind so many sexual hangups that still plague humanity. It’s pretty hard to be prejudiced when you literally can see the world through someone else’s eyes—or mind.

Science fiction—books and movies—didn’t really get their future, our present, very right.

But for every miss, every embarrassing omission, there are more than a few that actually did manage to stare into their future … or one that just hasn’t happened to arrive just yet.

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post What Sci-Fi Got Right and Wrong About the Sexuality of Tomorrow—As It Is Today appeared first on Future of Sex.

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.

Sooner-than-you-think technologies could elevate us to new, erotic heights

Recently we looked at what a day in the not too distant future might look like, focusing particularly on the erotic.

In that same spirit here is another bit of playful speculation, but this time on what our future physical selves might be like—based both on the pace of current technology as well as some imaginative musings.

Beginning at the top

One of the most important changes will be in human consciousness itself: how we view the universe, our world, humanity, and even ourselves.

While we will eventually be able to augment our minds through cybernetic implants, that old staple of science fiction, it will take quite a few years for that to become commonplace. Mostly because, let’s face it, drilling a hole into your head just to access the Internet when you can do the very same thing with a smartphone is a bit silly—and risky.

What will allow us to literally change our minds will be a combination of medications, especially when they are made to perfectly mesh with our own DNA. Inklings of this possibility are showing themselves in emerging gene editing techniques like CRISPR as well as non-invasive deep brain stimulation, which is when you can affect the mind using skin surface contacts—no holes in the head required.

RECOMMENDED READ: In the Year 2125: When Your Sexual Possibilities Will Be Practically Limitless

It may even be possible to create new kinds of mental structures, or even personality types: taking what was once a source of discomfort and turning it into a fascinating new way of thinking and living.

It may even be possible to turn on, turn up, turn down, or turn off arousal. Need to focus on some task? Then sublimate your erotic impulses into problem solving or creativity—or even connect an activity like being productive into a form of sexual thrill.

Want a wild day off? Then switch on your libido and dial it up to 11! You could even tweak what you find sexually attractive. What happens to sexual bigotry when anyone can be attracted to everyone and anyone?

This also has the potential of controlling sexual anxiety. Feeling nervous? With a metaphorical flick of the switch, you won’t be. Sure, there’s lots of room for abuse—from the perils of addiction to this technology being used without consent—but let’s hope that from this technology will also come a framework for understanding and preventing these kinds of things from ever happening.

Wearing everything on your sleeve

As far as interfaces go, wearables will be your gateway both to the world beyond and into your own mind—until the era of brain implants arrives. Until then, things like augmented reality glasses and contact lenses, the aforementioned deep brain stimulation devices, and electronic tattoos will allow us to control our homes, our minds, and connect our bodies via the web to anywhere and anyone in the world.

Access to this level of immediate communication and information would mean that you would be able to understand any language from Farsi to Songhay, both spoken as well as written. Hearing it, you’d receive an instantaneous translation via bone conduction. Looking at it, you’d see a translation into your language of choice.

Augmented reality would also give you the ability to understand the world as never before. Glance at a building and you could, if you wanted, know everywhere from its architect to who lives on the third floor. Need to repair your bike? The instructions would be right there in front of your eyes.

And what if you think that person over there looks amazingly hot? A look and you would be able to see that not only is that person into what you are, but is looking for someone to play with.

Worried about privacy? If all goes well, you would only share what you want to share. And if someone else wants to know what you are sexually into, they’d only be able to tell if they were into it, too.

Be who or what you want to be

Much has been written about the average person of the future being an amalgam of what we erroneously call races. While it is true that we are mixing and matching like never before, this doesn’t take into account that, in just a few short years, things like melanin, epicanthic folds, hair color and texture, as well as the structures of the face and body will be completely changeable. Using, once again, gene editing technology as well as advanced plastic surgery techniques, you can choose your own physical form humanity’s vast array of possibilities.

The same is true with what we call gender and so-called secondary sexual characteristics. Our near-future human could have dark skin, epicanthic eyes, blond hair, six fingers, sensual breasts, and both a penis and a vagina. What would you call them? The answer: whatever they want to be called.

The basic shape of our bodies would also be just as flexible. Those living on space colonies might prefer to have extra hands instead of pretty useless feet. Others might choose to replace limbs with customizable tools, swapping them out for regular limbs when the job is finished.

In the area of genitalia, we will also have a staggering range of choices. Even though I just used the words penis and vagina, more than likely those words will be as outdated as the idea of race. Genitals, both artificial as well as biological, could be a phantasmagoria of shapes and uses—changed, even, as their user changes their sexual preference or interests.

A vision of the future

This is all just playful—and particularly hopeful—speculation. Who knows what will actually happen to us in the future. We may very well discover some new technological breakthrough that will change everything here, or suffer some major planetary setback.

But let’s hold onto the idea that as we become as advanced socially as we’ll eventually become technologically, that someday we will all outgrow bigotry, ignorance, and hate.

Here’s to the idea that we all will have the ability to become physically what we want to be—and that humanity will finally become a place of tolerance, acceptance and, most of all, love.

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post You 2.0: How We’ll Be Able to Build Ourselves Sexually Better Bodies appeared first on Future of Sex.

What they foresaw, didn’t see coming, and what might be yet to come

More than half a century ago, while visiting a San Francisco Bay Area Science Fiction convention, the adult magazine Sexscope [NSFW] asked a panel of highly respected writers to share their thoughts on how social and technological changes might change the face of sex and human intimacy in the years ahead.

Though many of the writers’ forecasts were less-than-optimistic—reflecting the tumult of the 1970s sexual revolution—Sexscope’s editor however points out that, “Surprisingly enough, our panel came to the conclusion that sex, while a perennial source of trouble, has a great future.” 

“A mind-stretching force for the creation of the habit of anticipation”

Opening with the above quote from the late Alvin Toffler’s, Future Shock on science fiction’s role in society, Sexscope introduces our experts:

• Robert Silverberg, a Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inductee, genre Grandmaster, and winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards.
• Jean Marie Stine whose underground work of “antipornography,” Season of the Witch, was hailed when it appeared as the first mature blending of science fiction and eroticism. 
• Jack Jardine, whose Agent of Terra books, written under the byline Larry Maddock, were the best-selling science fiction series of their time. 
• Jane Gallion, the feminist literary rebel who wrote Biker, Stoned, and Why Get Married, former editor of the Feminine Response, and a contributor to a number of alternative publications over the years. 
• William Rotsler, a legendary cartoonist, filmmaker, and science fiction writer whose work appeared in Adam, Knight, Galaxy, and many other publications has become legendary.
• Paul Turner, a former ordnance engineer for ballistic missiles, photographer, who also contributed to numerous adult magazines.

“Not the old rules at all”

Though many of the  issues the panelists discussed have become commonplace, this was a time when frank talk was on the rise and a lot of “firsts” were happening.”

After discussing how relationships have begun moving away from traditional gender roles of men working while women raise children. The panelists then began speculating about the shift towards the science of sex and its current and future discoveries:

STINE: Masters and Johnson are finally discovering exactly what goes on during the sex act, which no one ever knew before, physiologically speaking. And as a result of this they’ve gone a long way toward defining what healthy sexuality is, and what impairs it or causes sexual dysfunction, as well as how to cure it. Now there is hope for all those frustrated, suffering millions whose marriages have been one long sexual failure. And freedom from guilt, too—something not to be discounted. They can be free to enjoy their sex lives now instead of later on in life when, if they’re lucky, they get their heads straightened out about sex and get over a lot of their conditioned hang-ups. Because until now, the sad truth is, most people have never gotten their heads together about this, and probably less than one in every fifty is really satisfying or pleasurable to them.

JARDINE: The new people are growing up in an entirely different universe. 

TURNER: The rules are all different today. They’re not the old rules at all. So they’re not going to have to overcome all those hang-ups, because they’re not acquiring them. They don’t have to—they have the means, chemical and mechanical, to avoid having to go through all those traumas.

SEXSCOPE: What do you mean: chemical and mechanical?

TURNER: Contraception. Universal contraception.

RECOMMENDED READ: Futurologist’s 2015 Sexbot Prediction: Laughably off Base or Surprisingly Accurate?

SILVERBERG: The sexual revolution now is something qualitatively different from the sexual revolution of the 1920’s or the1930’s. For the first time there is an absolute separation between sex and reproduction, and that is taking the consequences out of sex, turning it into merely a meeting of bodies, which it has never been before. I don’t mean merely a meeting of bodies, but that anybody, at any given time, is free to do as he pleases without fear of the result. This is something brand new and it is having explosive consequences.

“Sex as media”

Pirouetting away from reproduction, birth control, and how they might fuel sexual liberation in the future, the panels pondered what might happen if the social pendulum should swing the other way:

JARDINE: Somebody had a story a few years ago, “Coming of Age Day,’ by Jorgenson, in which there was an appliance, a living tissue that each person was given on his thirteenth birthday and wore on the genitals from then on, The appliance gave each person a satisfying sex life of his own so there was no need for interaction or contact with other people.

GALLION: Sounds downright unnatural to me. Besides, a thing like that would completely eliminate the aspect of sex as media.

STINE: What does sex have to do with media?

GALLION: It’s a communications device. It’s like words.

JARDINE: Sex is much more than playing skillfully with each other’s genitals.

GALLION: That’s why all these studies, like Masters and Johnson, can only go so far. They teach sex just as mechanics.

STINE: Oh, no. There’s much more to it than that. In the first program they used that approach, but only because no one else had ever investigated it thoroughly

enough to have a clear idea of what really went on. After all, without knowing what it is, there’s no way to start making it better. In the second program, the treatment program, their stated goal was to treat it as communication and to improve the communications system. They sat down with people who had a block against sexual communication in their relationship, and tried to help them learn to communicate on that level. They don’t try to cure the people, they try to cure the relationship. That’s what they say the patient is, not the people.

STINE: I think that one of the taboos we can foresee will be against having more than a certain number of children, and this could be one of the big ones. A guy who fathers six or seven kids could become as much of a social outcast as someone who displays his genitals publicly today. Another future taboo could be that it may become very socially unacceptable not to keep your clap shots up. People may become hung up about venereal disease in a whole new way.

SILVERBERG: That’s not really a hang-up; it’s more like brushing your teeth; it’s a matter of common courtesy. Common courtesy is not a hang-up.

STINE: But what starts out as common courtesy often ends up as a taboo. Don’t forget that in ancient Egypt they had signs warning, “Don’t piss in the streets. That’s what animals do, not what men do.” And it’s no longer just common courtesy not to piss in public anymore, it’s a taboo. And it hangs some men up so bad they can’t even piss in a public john unless they are hidden in a booth. There’s even a specific name for the psychological disorder.

“Exclusive anything is generally a bit pathological”

The panelists next offered thoughts on the evolution of gender and sexual attraction:

JARDINE: There seems to be a trend in the counter-culture towards increasing bisexual behavior. And I think one of the keynotes in the future of sex will be a less gender-oriented sex drive.

STINE: Well, once you take it out of the area of reproduction, you open it up wide because it really doesn’t matter any more who or what or how or why, merely whether or not it feels good.

SILVERBERG: As you move toward a concept of sex as body communication, the more bodies of all sorts that you can communicate with the greater will be the amount of information you take in; and arbitrarily to cut off fifty percent of the possible information flow is something that I think is going to die out when our present hang-ups in that direction, which are very powerful, begin to eliminate themselves. It may become unusual to be exclusively heterosexual.

JARDINE: Exclusive anything is generally a bit pathological. Society itself seems to be becoming less goal oriented than I recall it having been fifteen, twenty years ago… and I suspect that this is slopping over onto sex, Sexual participation is probably increasingly less orgasm-oriented, less looking forward to the con- summation and more concerned with what’s actually happening right now, whenever now is. I agree with Jane, it’s a form of communication, a highly important form of communication. If you really want to get to know someone, that’s almost a necessity, to totally know them, because it’s a form of communication that can’t be done in any other way.

STINE: All of these people enjoying sex, not just having it, not just going through the ritual, but enjoying it and communicating and being close to other human beings, is going to have such an effect on their heads. People are gonna walk up to each other and they’re not going to feel as threatened or frightened anymore.

“Well, we’re living in the future”

Even with fifty four years separating us, it’s fascinating to see the importance of trying to stay positive about the human sexuality’s future:

SILVERBERG: Everything we’ve been discussing so far is really just a small part of what’s going on in the future, right?

JARDINE: Mainly; what’s going on now?

STINE: Well, we’re living in the future, as Dave McDaniel or George Clayton Johnson would say.

TURNER: It’s simply a small part of what’s happening, and sex is going to be affected even further by the technological phenomenon that we’re living in now. A sexual experience is communication at a most basic level. I just don’t see any way to really anticipate that completely. Where we’re at now is the beginning of all that. We’re at the beginning of a complete and total change in all aspects of our lives—sex just happens to be one of them—but it’s really impossible to say what’s going to happen in the future. All we’ve been talking about is what’s happening now, at the moment.

STINE: I think inevitably if we’re going to see increasing sexual activity, we’re going to see increasing combinations, you know, the whole concept of group sex.

It’s not gonna be just little swing parties out in the suburbs, it’s gonna be like four or five people are going to be living together, and one afternoon they’re all going to be sitting down and somebody’s gonna say, “Let’s all go have sex.” Then it’s gonna be this whole writhing pile of bodies, all of whom are communicating seriously and deliberately to each other, and all of them feeling good about it when it’s happening, no guilt, no hang-ups, no inhibitions.

SILVERBERG: That’s a hard act to follow.

TURNER: I’ll drink to that, but not with this water.

SILVERBERG: Even the future of water is deteriorating.

JARDINE: The future of everything is deteriorating, except sex, which seems to be looking up. 

Image Sources: Depositphots

The post Flashbacks & Flashforwards: Legendary Science Fiction Authors Predicted Sex’s Far Future—In 1971 appeared first on Future of Sex.

Places where pleasure, architecture, and urban planning go hand-in-hand

In Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, famed anthropology and geography professor David Harvey writes, “The right to the city is not merely a right of access to what already exists, but a right to change it after our heart’s desire.” 

His use of the word desire, while not explicitly referring to sexual pleasure, offers an intriguing possibility: what if tomorrow’s cities were designed and built to be as arousing as they are efficient and comfortable?

Not necessarily explicitly so, but rather with the understanding that for many people, sex is an essential part of life and, therefore, shouldn’t be shunned, hidden away, and instead should be accepted and, dare we suggest, openly celebrated.

Sound like a more-than-somewhat radical idea?  You might be surprised that these sorts of sex-affirming cities have been around for hundreds of years—and might become more sensual, playful, and innovatively sex-tech-integrated in the future.

Right here, right now

Restricting ourselves to Europe, though other countries and continents have their fair share of pleasure-recognizing cities, Amsterdam and Hamburg’s sex work districts are often considered models for balancing a city’s needs with its citizens’ sensual passions.

In fact, when faced with a number of growing, predominantly tourist-related problems relating to its red light area, Amsterdam began planning the construction of a single, high-tech structure to protect sex workers and their clients.

If approved, The Erotic Center will take nearly seven years to complete, and, in addition to providing spaces for hundreds of sex workers to ply their trade, it would feature a dedicated police presence, on-site medical care, and other support services.

Similarly, Hamburg’s Reeperbahn has expanded dramatically, currently occupying a sizable section of the City. Mirroring Amsterdam, police are on hand, up-to-date healthcare facilities are available, and sex workers are licensed, which involves participating in mandatory, state-sponsored health counseling every year. 

Cities of love

Creating erotically stimulating living environments is also far from new. Several 1960s-70s avant-garde architects envisoned a wide scope of fascinating and frequently intentionally provocative or, depending on who you ask, playful, architectural concepts. Of these, Superstudio, based in Italy, and the UK’s Archigram are arguably the most recognized.

While Superstudio tended towards chilling, monolithic, Brutalist-inspired ideas, Archigram took a different, deconstructive approach like their Walking Cities, a self-contained, self-propelled ambling metropolis.

RECOMMENDED READ: Sensual Spaces: When Architecture, Sex, and VR Move In Together

Their Plug-In and, notably, Instant Cities put forward an interesting model for a possible sex-inclusive city by swapping fixed structures like buildings for individual, easily combinable or recombinable living units.

Meanwhile, Instant Cities are extra-modifiable via inflatable structures and extra-transportable by airship.  Think of them like swarms of mini-Burning Man festivals, drifting apart or coming together whenever or however their residents wanted or, better yet, desired.

Close your eyes and picture—

Echoing Archigram’s modular thinking, let’s put together our own pleasure-positive City, starting by taking Amsterdam and Hamburg’s intelligent, conscientious, approach to consensual sexwork by constructing a safe space for our residents to enjoy themselves.

While we’re at it, we might as well equip it with a bevy of cutting-edge sextech possibilities, from sexbot brothels and on-site shops selling super high-end models to specialized virtual reality experiences—the latter accessible either on-site or from the comfort of anyone’s home.

So why not take a page from Archigram’s book and give people the option to mix and match their accommodations or add any number of sex-related add-ons?  

Want your own BDSM playspace or luxuriously-sensual boudoir?  Merely purchase whichever one you want and snap it to your home, just like clicking a couple of Lego bricks together.

Naturally, our City must be fashioned out of low-impact, infinitely recyclable materials, be as energy and resource-self-sufficient as possible, and be designed from the ground up to be effortlessly upgradable so that when technologies improve, or situations change, we won’t have to tear everything down and start from scratch.

Brilliant, bright, and joyous

The author Amit Ray put it well, writing, “A smart city is a city where humans, trees, birds and other animals can grow with all their glories, imperfections, freedom, and creativity. They are not just cities of technology but cities of love, life, beauty, dignity, freedom, and equality.”

Image Sources: Depositphotos

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From bias to inclusion:the importance of sex in speculative discourse

Let’s talk about sex—solo sex, partner sex, multi-partner sex, and even digital sex—and the ways that some forms of sexual behavior and types of partners are still privileged over others, even by futurists opining about sex with AI. 

Tracy Follows, interviewed in El Pais, and the author of Future of You, describes herself as as a “’truly original thinker’, ‘a visionary’ and ‘scarily accurate’ in her predictions” and Forbes has called her “one of the top 50 female futurists in the world.”

While I’m not disputing any of this, I want to demonstrate how expertise in one area (futurism) does not necessarily grant expertise in another (human sexual behavior). 

Pundits—and the public—sometimes forget this. As a result, the less expert pronouncements or implicit biases may go unchallenged. 

Examples of sex negativity

In the El Pais interview, Follows said: “An AI girlfriend will be so perfectly programmed to please her owner that, in the end, the two will become one. At that moment it stops being interesting and, furthermore, it stops being a relationship and becomes more like masturbation. This is one of the risks.”

Conflating an AI partner’s “perfect programming” with masturbation, and then calling self-pleasure uninteresting, risky, and “not a relationship,” could demonstrate several sex-negative assumptions. It also dismisses those who experience sex with an artificial companion, including AI, as partner sex.

There are other examples in the El Pais interview. For example, though rightfully concerned about the biases of the owners of AI companies and how they might affect users, Follows says:“Imagine that they socially program usage towards homosexuality instead of heterosexuality, or towards trios instead of couples. Then you could end up with a set of desires that you never thought were part of you, but that have been programmed into you through mental manipulation.”

It is difficult to understand why Fellows chose to use these particular examples. Are they used for shock value in a presumably heteronormative context? Are these examples of homosexuality and multiple partners supposed to be scary? In any case, it demonstrates a need to also be aware of the biases of pundits.

Follows also does not explain how AI companies, whose business is to develop, program, and train bots, would also program the human user. This is another aspect of the comment that links sex with fear. 

Counterproductive pleasure?

It could be argued that the interviewer demonstrated some bias as well, at one point saying “pressing a button and having an orgasm in 10 seconds could be counterproductive.” 

Before we nod our heads in agreement, let’s stop and ask ourselves what is it about quick pleasure that could actually be considered “counterproductive?” Pleasure, fast or slow, is pleasure, period. It’s also the whole point behind sextech. 

It’s not all bad

Follows does have some good, though general, things to say about sextech: “Some sextech products and services focus on addressing issues such as erectile dysfunction, low libido or recovery from sexual trauma through guided programs and support. There are also apps and devices that promote relaxation and can improve a person’s sex life by creating an environment more conducive to intimacy. Virtual reality and augmented reality can provide new and exciting ways for individuals and couples to explore their fantasies and engage in role-playing scenarios, adding variety and excitement to their sex lives.”

Follows also predicted that “AI will make us embrace completely new and emerging psychosexual concepts that we have not yet heard of or come to terms with.” 

This is a fairly safe prediction, given that new psychosexual concepts are already emerging and these same concepts—such as the legitimacy of intimate partnerships with AI companions—might be among the harbingers of a far more informed sex- and pleasure-positive future, where the entire bandwidth of consensual human sexual (and asexual) behavior is acknowledged and respected.

Is there a sexologist in the futurist house?

As a sexologist who has a pulsating finger on the clit of tomorrow, I strongly advocate the inclusion of sexologists, sex therapists, and sex educators in futurist forums and discussions of sex tech and AI intimacy. 

Just as many of my colleagues could benefit from learning more about Human/AI intimacy and relationships with other kinds of artificial companions, so could futurists such as Tracy Follows learn more about that sexual behavior bandwidth mentioned above. 

If people from various disciplines and walks of life can learn from each other and share expertise as we envision the worlds of tomorrow, we will be all the better for it. And this just might make an inclusive future more plausible.

Image: A.R. Marsh using Starry.Ai

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