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.

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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.

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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.

How the sextech of today could reshape tomorrow’s pleasures

It’s pretty darned fun trying to imagine what life might be like 10, 20, or even 50 years from now.

It’s even more exciting to imagine what sex would be like in the future.

So here, based on current technological innovations and social changes, is a playful look at what tomorrow might be like—especially when it comes to the ageless playground of human sexuality.

It’s a new dawn

After a perfect night’s rest—your implanted medications guaranteeing it, customized as they are to your own unique genetic structure—you awake bright and eager for a new day.

Using sensors built into its structure, your home detects your emotional state and either warms or cools your environment to meet your needs. It then preps your morning beverage of choice, perhaps even assembling a breakfast suggestion based on what’s in the fridge.

Your shelves are never really bare, food often being delivered by drones and stocked by your faithful home robot. That is when you don’t want to personally shop at the nearest farmer’s market. If you’re not in the mood to cook, your kitchen can do a lot of it for you: 3D printing a pretty complete meal at a moment’s notice.

To people living a few decades prior, your home might appear both remarkably small as well as starkly minimalistic. Your bed’s sheets are nanofabric, and so stain and scent resistant. Your kitchen is clean and smoothly efficient—as is your bathroom.

There might be art, some lovingly handcrafted items from friends. But most of the walls are bare, because for most of the day you won’t be looking at them.

You’re feeling good

From your nightstand you collect your augmented reality (AR) glasses. French Colonial today, or maybe something Japanese? Your choice: what you want your space to look like will be projected into your vision through the glasses. Sitting down in your smart chair, that automatically adjusts to your body, you greet the day: projected images, streams of text, video chat windows all beamed into your sight.

But today your mind is wonderfully distracted so you reach out into your world of friends—and more than friends. Some are close by, so assignations are just a short bike or autonomous vehicle ride away. Is your or their space too small? There are love hotel spaces available all over. Just pick a style you both enjoy and make a date.

Freedom is yours

Alas, your circle of playmates are all busy this morning. But you get a flirty nibble from someone in Johannesburg; you and their sexual compatibility fluidly compared. Smoothly you learn all you need to about this person’s needs, concerns, and desires.

Consent is asked and received, both of you agreeing for your time together to be monitored by a neutral software package.

So many wonderful choices: perhaps you are your morning playmate would like to share direct neural stimulation? Or maybe you just want to have fun the slightly old-fashioned way? If the former, it’s just matter of activating your neural interface: every sense, including touch, being subsequently delivered directly into your brain

Or perhaps a more physical kind of play? You have the suitable hardware, and what you don’t have you can just make in your personal 3D printer, and when you’re done whatever isn’t needed can just be broken down and recycled.

It’s a new world

You don’t have to go out if you don’t want to—over the net or meeting up with a physical playmate in the area. Your personal android, after all, has all kinds of attachments and can please you in all kinds of ways.

And play doesn’t have to be just play: perhaps you want to work on your relationship skills, or your physical lovemaking techniques? Your bot ? can become whatever you sexually want—but also what you emotionally need.

When your house system reads your emotions, it can do more than just dim the lights or turn on the heat. Stress, depression, anxiety—your android will do everything from rub your shoulders to reach out to others when you need help.

Change your mind, change your body

After your lovely morning romp you decide that a shower is in order. Your house, reading your jubilant mood, tweaks the environment with scents and sounds and maybe even slight enhancements to your augmented reality view of your space.

Your body is whatever you want it to be. Through genetic engineering and various implants your body perfectly reflects your true self. Your health is monitored and carefully—and unobtrusively—maintained by your home and your personal digital assistants. Your body is yours to do with whatever you desire.

Evidence of this is your lunch: guided by your software friends, it is perfectly healthy and balanced just for you—and it tastes wonderful.

Afterward you spend a bit of time working. A little creative work, assisting some artificial intelligence somewhere, or remotely operating some piece of hardware.

Then there’s either your garden or the community one, for when you want to get some dirt under your nails. A friend’s birthday is coming up, as well: so perhaps some time creating something handcrafted to mark the occasion.

Social time as well, and like sexual play, it can either be a short trip away or immediate through your AR glasses. Your circles are varied and vast, from your chess club to those you share your sexual interests. Whatever you decide, it is always a safe space because it is one you have selected that fits exactly who you are. No longer do you have to find a circle of people and hope that it works out. Your agents and home know you so well they can locate just the right place for you.

Be who you are

Night is coming—maybe sleep, maybe more sexual play, maybe more work, maybe anything: it is your choice.

You are not just who you want to be physically. The world is all about self-definition: your sexual orientation, your gender, your beliefs, they are all for you to choose—or change.

The structure of society is equally flexible. Some are married, others are not. Some live communally, others solitary. There are polyamorous households with many, or a few, sharing their lives together. There are BDSM communities with members consensually owning, or being owned, by others. There are those in relationships with their androids or their virtual assistants.

The respect and tolerance is common: treating others the way you would like to be treated. You have to right to live your life but not to tell others how to live theirs,though consent is always clear and respected.

The world has become both vast with possibilities and beautifully intimate through a newfound deep understanding of human wants and needs.

Yes, sleep: dreams of what else might come in even a farther future. But for now it was a good day–with pleasure experienced and shared.

And who knows what the next day will bring?

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post A Day to Come: Imaging What Your Sexlife Might Be Like in the Not-To-Distant Future appeared first on Future of Sex.

Everyday things that might be exotic desires in the years ahead

Human beings, especially when it comes to sex, are pretty odd creatures. Unlike a lot of other species, we are often drawn to both the common and the rare.

It’s like a certain percentage of humanity says, on an unconscious level, I’ve never seen that before… and it really turns me on!

As homo sapiens continue our evolution into homo technologicus, we might one day see the eroticization of what we now consider commonplace. But for citizens of the next century, what we currently regard as banal will be unique and exotic.

So here is a playful look at what our descendants might become—and what they may find daringly, erotically outré.

Fire in the furnace

As the possessor of (sigh) quite a few… shall we say “facial folds,” as well as having the lack of what used to be a long mane of dark hair, it’s alluring to think that as we learn more and more about the physical aging process, that sometime in the, hopefully, near future we’ll see wrinkles and gray hair as being fascinatingly unique.

While there may not be any huge breakthroughs yet, all it takes is a glance at history to see that, as a species, our lifespans are increasing at an incredible rate. Mostly due to better care, diet, education, and exercise, we have gone from a life expectancy of mid 60s (for men) and early 70s (for women) only 50 years ago, to where we are looking at breaking the 100 year mark in only the next generation.

As we push back the human biological clock farther and farther, it’s no great stretch of imagination to envision people being drawn to the rarity of physical old age.

Those with natural signs of it could be the adult entertainment stars of this niche genre—though others may very well cosmetically adopt wrinkles, gray hair, and all the rest the same way people today get breast implants, artificial tans, colored contact lenses, and the like.

And who knows, if a certain erotic writer can hang on long enough, he may very well become an adult entertainment celebrity. A man can dream…

Feed a fever

Just as aging could be on the way out, our general health, as a species, is also improving. Sadly, a lot of this is still mostly only in the domain of so-called first world countries, but let’s stay optimistic that good health will eventually be a global human right.

As disease eventually vanishes—and, again, all it takes is a glance at history to see how fast that is approaching—it also doesn’t take a lot of speculation to see that we may have a whole subculture of illness aficionados.

There are already erotic subcultures around many medical practices. Doctors and nurses can tell you that while for some a visit to hospital is not at the top of many people’s lists, there are many who get a sexual thrill out of it: the caring, the sensations, the smells, the atmosphere, and more.

Eventually, as we get healthier and healthier, and visits to the doctor become rarer and rarer, we will more than likely see more directly erotic sexual vacations to days gone by. Perhaps skilled medical personnel will take care your real role-play medical needs—or maybe even give you a nice erotically charged illness for them to cure.

Everything old is new again

I’ve already chatted about the possibilities of what the genitals of the future may be like, so it’s not a big leap to imagine a possible society where going back to the ways things were, biologically speaking, has a huge erotic allure.

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We’re seeing incredible breakthroughs in cosmetic genital surgery, and now even complete transplants, practically every year. So a ouija board isn’t needed to spell out that the next century is going to have a lot more options when it comes to our sex organs. Very soon our gender vocabulary will have to expand tremendously to encompass all the possibilities medical science will be providing.

Naturally, though, they’ll be a percentage of people who wax nostalgic for bygone eras of genitalia. We already have vintage erotica fans—life before breast implants and the like—so it’s safe to say that we’ll eventually have an expansion of that genre producing pre-upgrade erotica and playmates for those interested in trips down the sexual years.

Your plastic pal

Artificial intelligence isn’t a what if but a when will. More than likely in the next few years we are going to see software getting pretty close to passing the legendary Turing test— where AIs will be almost indistinguishable from humans.

On the hardware side of things we are seeing unbelievable developments in soft robotics and other fields. So much so that we’ll soon have artificial sexual companions within the next few decades—if not sooner.

What our “plastic pals that are fun to be with” (to steal from Douglas Adams) will do to the human erotic landscape is anyone’s guess. But as a robot fetish community is with us today, it doesn’t take a huge amount of speculation to see a world where being artificial is a turn on.

Of course you’ll have many who will fetishize flesh and blood, but for these others the great turn on would be to play at being one of these manufactured beings. Beyond the gynoid fans, many find the idea of serving another sexually a huge erotic thrill. No doubt a lot of people would think the next step of playing as an erotic appliance as not just sexually thrilling but beautifully, mechanically logical.

“When you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”

As humanity integrates itself more and more with virtual reality—right now via headsets but eventually through more direct means—the definition of what is, and isn’t, real will get fuzzier and fuzzier. Or, to use Philip K Dick’s definition: “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

Or, you may say, reality is what doesn’t go away when you unplug. I’ve already chatted a bit about the promise of erotic play using virtual and augmented reality and direct neurostimulation, but without a doubt we are looking at a no-holds-barred future where our sexual imaginations will be totally unfettered within the confines of artificial reality.

You more than likely see where this next fetish is coming from. As we sexually play more and more within our dreamlike virtual worlds, they’ll be many who want to take breaks from the illusionary, the fantastic. Maybe they will be the ones pulling off their headsets for an erotic weekend with physical partners of their choosing—or just themselves, solo. Or perhaps they’ll be get-togethers of people who erotically get off by tossing aside all but the barest of technological needs: tribes of naked people cavorting across the African plains, erotically embracing their flesh-and-blood humanity.

Excitement is forever

All this is guesswork, naturally; some fun what ifs. But one thing we do know for certain is that human beings can be delightfully diverse when it comes to sex. Some may be fine and dandy with what the culture surrounding them considers erotic, but there will always be a lively number of people who find pleasure in all kinds of imaginative and unexpected ways.

Let’s just hope that we achieve sexual enlightenment to go with our technological wonders—and embrace the lovely maxim of the BDSM/Power Exchange community: that if it is done safely, sanely, and consensually, then have a good time!

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post Next Century Kinks: Exploring Five Possible Future Fetishes appeared first on Future of Sex.

What physical and mental transformations await us in the years ahead?

Welcome to your body 2.0

Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basic operations of both the new and improved physical structure as well as the operating system.

The first things you may have noticed are the major improvements to the physical sexual perimeters (i.e. the genitals). Don’t be alarmed. Rest assured that not only will they perform just like the previous versions, but they have been totally redesigned to improve just about every aspect of erotic pleasure.

Oh, and don’t forget to agree to the Terms and Conditions.

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Predicting the future is, at best, hit and miss; mostly a lot of misses to a very few hits.

But that’s never stopped me before. So, after looking at a few of the remarkable innovations that have recently appeared, I’ve tried to speculate on the hot new bodies we all could be wearing in the next hundred or so years.

And, naturally, as this is Future of Sex, I’ll be paying particular attention to the erotic fun all of us might be having with our new bodies.

Your new brain

Not to take away from what many people call their favorite body part, but one of the greatest changes coming to our sex lives is actually above the neck—not below the waist.

The field of neurochemistry has made tremendous steps in the last few years. True, there is still a lot to learn, but if things progress at this rate in a few more years—let alone 100—there’s every indication we’ll have the ability to alter our thoughts, our emotions, our intelligence: everything that makes us… us.

Anxiety, shame, guilt, depression, and a whole myriad of psychoses—the whole negative parade of things that makes life barely tolerable for millions of humans—could be managed, or completely edited out, with new drugs or with the aid of AI therapists.

And what does this have to do with sex? Well, everything; after all, our sexuality rests much more in our minds than in our bodies. With this conquering of consciousness, we’ll have the ability to not just increase or decrease our libidos but change the focus as well.

Your new psyche

Let’s get a touch more specific. After all, I more than likely won’t be around in 100 years to be criticized for getting any of this wrong.

Jumping a tad ahead from mind to bodies, one almost guaranteed innovation is going to be longevity. Some have even speculated that soon we’ll see the death of death within the next few decades.

Others have conjectured that this will lead to crippling boredom. But I think that with our mastery of consciousness, that too will be a thing of the past. Why not take a vacation with a new orientation? How will bigotry and intolerance fare in a society where you can actually live someone else’s sex life—take a lifetime’s long walk in their sexuality?

Think of a world where experience is the new currency: where we’ll be able to know what it is to be, and love, as an entirely different person.

But why stay with human desire? A tweak of our minds and we could get aroused by the wind, the stars in the skies, music, or by creating a work of art.

Or, taking this into a new direction, how’d you like to see the world through completely innocent eyes? Software can be edited—or copied and deleted—in all kinds of interesting ways. You could be with your lover like it was that magical first time by putting a copy of those years on a virtual shelf and restore your mind to when you first met. Just think of the possibilities of creative and sensual amnesia.

But let’s not stop there. Once we bridge the software/meatware barrier we’ll have the possibility of uploading our minds ourselves into other bodies, even customized erotic ones.

We could spend a long time playing in this possible mental playground of the next century but let’s drop down a bit; to what could very well happen to our genitals.

Your new body

First, a word about the rest of our bodies: just as huge steps are being made in the neurosciences, we are making equally staggering strides in biology.

From gene therapy to bio-printing, from cloning to advanced surgical techniques, we are fast approaching a time when our bodies will be almost as flexible as our upgraded minds.

Someone (I think it was me) once said that the future can be summed up as having options.

Looking back only a few years, limited mass production—and costly customized fabrication—meant that, to paraphrase Henry Ford on his Model T, you could have any color you wanted, as long it was black.

Soon, however, we’ll be able to quickly alter pretty much anything about our biological selves. Skin color, gender, and age could go from genetic destiny to personal choice. Life could become a form of art we can barely contemplate, where many will push the limits of not just sexuality but what it means to be human.

Your new sex

Let’s face it, evolution is a wonderful thing, but when it comes to the playground of our sex organs there is definitely room for improvement.

Neurologically, we may be able to treat any part of our bodies as an extension of our genitals. Arousal from a fingertip, a nose, the palm of the hand—we’ll be able to remap our sexual body to any point we wish. And, again, we’ll be able to switch it off, change the frequency, or ramp it up to 11 without a thought.

As we gain more and more skill in reshaping our bodies, the whole concept of gender will more than likely vanish.

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Biological sexual response will be a matter of when and not —due to age or medical difficulties—if. We’ll be able to engorge, lubricate, dilate, or whatever we want whenever we want with just a thought. The headache of having the spirit willing but the flesh uncooperative will be long-forgotten.

Sticking with the antique definitions of male and female, though these too-narrow terms will be like talking about sock garters and television to coming generations. So let’s indulge in some playfully sexy speculations for the upcoming century.

For penis-preferring humans, again, erection will be an easy, and variable option. As, more than likely, will be customization of length and thickness. Face it, various sizes don’t always work for certain activities. But in the coming decades that won’t be a problem. Think of it as putting the top up or down on a car—though those terms, too, might be obsolete in a few more years.

Your new erotic options

As we’ll have the whole of human biology to play with, why not do some mix and matching? Taste buds, for instance, could be placed anywhere (thank you, Adam Warren). Special glands could be created to ease—or enhance—all kinds of activities. There’s also no reason why we couldn’t add unique musculature to the male member to add wild new position possibilities. We could also add new nerve types there, changing the entire neurological landscape of the organ.

Reproduction would also be a matter of conscious decision and not biological imperative. The whole idea of birth control will be not preventing it, but making a conscious decision make it happen.

For those who prefer to have vaginas, the entire architecture is a possible playground. Nerves could be rerouted or increased in any part from interior to labia. Lubrication, again, would be a when and not a hope. Let’s not forget about taste buds, as well as streaming the whole menstrual cycle. I know a lot of people who would consider that an absolute priority.

The clitoris could equally benefit from some of that penile nerve tweaking and muscle manipulations. It doesn’t take a very polished crystal ball to see the potential in a full penis/clitoris hybrid.

Then there’s the sexual matching of technology and biology. Why not do with engineering what flesh and blood can’t? We’ll more than likely have implanted vibrators, neurological stimulators (where a touch could generate a world of new sensations in a partner), recording devices, artificial muscles, and worlds more.

The groundwork for this kind of technology is already out there. Right here on Future of Sex we’ve talked about both the development of prototype artificial genitals—as well as the homegrown biohacking movement where dedicated self-modifying hobbyists are taking important steps in becoming cyborgs, particularly sexual ones.

Your new EVERYTHING

A century ago we were in the middle of the First World War: biplanes ruled the skies, the already-mentioned Model T was changing the world, and sex was as perilous as it was pleasurable. A person from that time, a century later, would barely recognize us.

Agreed, trying to see the future is mostly misses—against a few rare hits. But, if anything, I think this playful speculation is a bit too conservative for what we will be like in 2125.

It’s all a matter of time—plus, of course, desire.

And humans, I think we all can agree, certainly have a lot of that.

Image sources: Depositphotos

The post In the Year 2125: When Your Sexual Possibilities Will Be Practically Limitless appeared first on Future of Sex.

Father and son share a fascinatingly organic/orgasmic view of the future

Science fiction cinema may have given us masterpieces like Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the bubble gum delights of Star Wars, but it took David Cronenberg, and as of 2012, his son Brandon, to give us—albeit often unsettling—glimpses at human sexuality’s potential evolution.

Shivers (1975)  

The elder Cronenberg may have begun exploring similar ideas in experimental films like Stereo and Crimes of the Future; it took Shivers, aka They Came From Within, to establish him as a groundbreaking director with a penchant for disturbingly erotic body-horror imagery.

Set within the claustrophobic confines of an ultra-modern Montreal apartment complex, Shiver’s plot revolves around the illicit creation of a bioengineered parasite, which, once taking hold of its host, drives them into a sex-fueled frenzy.

Like many of Cronenberg’s works, Shivers relishes showing the dark side of future sexuality, noticeably when technologies like genetic engineering get in on the fun.  

Though frightening, the concept of a desire-enhancing or more beneficially regulating, self-contained organism is intriguing. Grown, not manufactured, it could be affordable, and sufficiently genetically tweaked, it would mesh perfectly with its host’s system, reducing the possibility of rejection.

eXistenZ (1999)

Reality isn’t what it once was in Cronenberg’s latter film, which deftly inserts his fondness for organic ickiness into an endlessly recursive virtual experience for its characters and the audience alike.

As the old saying goes, getting there is half the fun, and in the case of eXistenZ, the titular game exists as a classic, old-school console or, during its initial introduction, a squishy, glistening, pulsating organism not played with buttons but plugged directly into the player’s spine.

RECOMMENDED READ: The 15 Sexiest Robots in Movie History

Interestingly, Cronenberg doesn’t depict eXistenZ as neither a positive or a negative, merely the biogenic McGuffin everyone’s pursuing.  

Again, cultivating rather than assembling pleasure devices or virtual reality interfaces has a respectable number of pros in their favor, and when they die, could be composted or used to make biofuels.

Crimes Of The Future (2022)

Sharing its name with his early 1970s short, Cronenberg’s 2022 Crimes Of The Future is jam-packed with increasingly outré concepts from a deathless/painless society for whom Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen)—aided by his wife Caprice (Léa Seydoux)—performs as a surgical artist to rebels fighting a ruthless government for the right to adapt their bodies to consume plastics and toxic waste.

Off to the side of all this is Tenser’s move away from today’s physical intimacy, as he succinctly puts it, “I’m afraid I’m not very good at the old sex.”  

Crimes of the Future intentionally or inadvertently shares a commonality with anti-sextech advocates who fear pleasure devices might supplant good, old-fashioned human sexuality.

Unsure if that’s Cronenberg’s intention, I prefer viewing the film’s message as more about the underground’s rejection of outdated societal norms by opting to evolve socially, psychologically, and sexually.

Antiviral (2012)

Not so much following in his father’s footsteps as contributing his unique perspective, Brandon Cronenberg’s second full-length release spins off today’s celebrity worshipers with a dash of medical fetishism by constructing a future where obsessed fans can get unsettlingly close to their favorite A-listers—by infecting themselves with their illnesses.

It may be hard to face, but considering our already celebrity-obsessed culture, it’s not difficult to imagine Antiviral’s fantasy eventually becoming a contemporary reality, especially in light of how many people are already willing to pay top dollar for a lock of a famous person’s hair, their worn clothing, or even more intimate aspects of their lives.

Infinity Pool (2023)

Like his father’s Crimes Of The Future, Brandon’s recent Infinity Pool is replete with enthralling possibilities.  The difference is in Crimes, bodies are inescapable prisons, while in Infinity Pool, they and the people whose minds inhabit them are as unendingly reproducible as they’re utterly disposable. 

A maze of interlocking who’s who, Infinity Pool plays havoc with the audience’s expectations, killing or, in some cases, psychologically warping its protagonist, James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård), over and over, steadily unpeeling his personality like a blood-soaked onion.

Infinity Pool’s reality might appear too far-fetched, but approximating it may not be.  For instance, keeping cloned or bioengineered copies of ourselves in storage, fitting each with a high-speed neural implant, using artificial intelligence to smooth out any problems and jumping from body to body, or putting one or more on personality-mirroring autopilot might give us a more benevolent version of Infinity Pool’s world—one where we could try on bodies or selves at a moment’s notice.

Flesh is here to stay

Despite the Cronenbergs’ shared fondness for viscera, father and son remain two of the few writer/directors willing to delve into some of our darkest, most disquieting sexual nightmares or, more troubling, our fantasies.  

In cinema, as well as the rise of new and perhaps potentially challenging sexual technologies, it’s up to us, the audience and/or consumers, to fear the future or dare to dream of a better one.
Image Sources: Depositphotos, IMDB

The post Long Live the New Flesh: The Cronenbergs’ Take on Tomorrow’s Sexuality Might Grow On—or In—You appeared first on Future of Sex.