Tomorrow’s pleasures will be recyclable, energy efficient, and arousing!

Unlike cyberpunk’s high-tech/low life aesthetic or atompunk’s stalwart heroes, solarpunk depicts an eco-conscious future—which, if we play our cards right, could inspire a brilliantly green sextech revolution.

But what is solarpunk, and how could a relatively new science fiction subculture save the planet and change society for the better while potentially transforming human sexuality in the process?

Think globally, act locally

Solarpunk is, by its nature, futuristic, though it involves less wildly speculative and more actually doable technologies such as its titular solar panels, zero waste manufacturing facilities, 100% recyclable products, and ecological stewardship.

Gadgetry aside, solarpunk is hopeful more than anything else, typically involving thoughtful, conscientious problem-solving without resorting to pew-pew violence—with everything ending on a positive, life-affirming note.  

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

In short, no towering glass towers, no sprawling megalopolises, no roaring starships but rather grass-roofed villages, bicycles or sailboats, naturally sourced clothing, locally farmed produce, and living at a sedate, more thoughtful pace—which would likely extend to the sex lives of its inhabitants, though erotic solarpunk fiction isn’t—as yet, at least—particularly popular.  

Still, we’ve already seen the roots of what could bloom into an ecologically responsible, sexually liberated world.

Every day is earth day

As we’ve written previously, solarpunk’s green philosophy is showing signs of impacting the sextech industry.  For instance, fetish fashionistas pushing for low-impact fabrics or pleasure device manufacturers are beginning to realize they have a stake in keeping their customers—and the planet—safe and healthy.

Using solarpunk as a jumping-off point, this rise of green positivity might extend to those very same customers passionately insisting the sextech industry pledge to reduce unnecessary waste. 

For example, tomorrow’s vibrators could be made from either infinitely recyclable or completely biodegradable materials.

It might also mean the end of mass production, replacing it with toys 3D-printed on demand, so no more churning out hundreds of thousands of anything and then destroying the tens of thousands that failed to sell. 

Or not construct but instead grow our solarpunk playthings?  Add a dash of genetic engineering, and your garden might sprout more than just edibles.  

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Another solarpunk maxim is ditching mass consumerism for a more thoughtful approach to buying, selling, or creating, well, anything.  It doesn’t take a dedicated eco-warrior to understand it’s a monumentally bad idea to have hundreds of different toothbrushes when only a few very carefully designed ones would do the trick.

To its credit, the sextech industry isn’t quite that reckless. Still, it’s far from comforting to realize how many pleasure devices—often looking, operating, and feeling the same—are made and sold each year. 

Before you protest, having a large number of choices means you’re able to get precisely what you need to show yourself a good time; imagine when you won’t buy a ready-made sextoy but would design whatever your desire and then 3D print it—all without wasting power, water, and other precious resources.

A brightly shining tomorrow

If solarpunk can teach us anything—in addition to doing whatever we can to preserve our world—it is to never lose hope.

Sure, we shouldn’t shroud ourselves in reckless optimism, but it’s equally dangerous to automatically assume the future is tragically unalterable.

Solarpunk doesn’t wear green-colored glasses, telling its readers tomorrow will be an ecological paradise filled with friendly, socially-conscious hippies, but delivers the message it can be if we keep trying.

A sentiment we could—and should—extend to sex.  Just as solarpunk is about efficiency, savoring the moment, and caring for the planet, so too its philosophy could guide us eroticicall: replacing kindness and tolerance with selfishness, living in the moment instead of racing to the finish line, and understanding and respect and not indulging in ignorance and frustration.

It may be a science fiction subgenre, but solarpunk could inspire us to create a better, sexier world—and not merely dream of one.  

Image Sources: Depositphotos

The post Max Pleasure, Low Impact: The Green Pleasures of Solarpunk Sextech appeared first on Future of Sex.

Why not have a blooming-good time with organically grown pleasure devices?

Seed a speculative biology field with plenty of imaginatively tweaked DNA and, in the not-too-distant future, we might be able to pluck our fully-customizable sex toys straight from the ground.

Sound far-fetched or something better left to body horror auteurs like David Cronenberg? The truth is the technology isn’t just feasible, but considering how much work has already been done in the field, it might more accurately be called inevitable.

So, what would organically grown sextech be like, and why might it be more appealing and much less creepy than you imagine?

Cultivating our garden

Over the years, we’ve looked at how genetic engineering might lead to everything from improved birth control options to transforming us into superpowered lovers—as well as uplifting us towards posthuman quasi-godhood,  

Not to mention, CRISPR-related research could potentially be used to refashion otherwise run-of-the-mill plants into a brand new species of nearly limitless sexual possibilities.

Case in point, why not begin by optimizing a cucumber for pleasure? Give it something like a cartilaginous spine for enhanced durability and flexibility, then build in a chamber or two into which a set of specifically designed reusable motors and electronics can be easily inserted.

RECOMMENDED READ: Can the Solarpunk Movement Give Us the Sexual Utopia We’ve Been Waiting For?

Naturally, we’d also want to adjust its biochemistry to make it hypoallergenic, then alter inherent juiciness so it’ll secrete any number of arousal-enhancing compounds depending on your excitement level. Not forgetting making it taste like anything you want, including if you’re especially kinky, like a cucumber.

Another great feature of grown-and-not-made sexual devices is their flexibility—not only how bendable they can be made, but all that’s necessary to change its size, texture, color, or anything else about it is a little more genetic resequencing. 

Personalization, perhaps made simpler compliments of your favorite artificial intelligence, first reading your DNA and then modifying your garden of organic delights to maximize your excitation to the max—perhaps, as the AI would be reading your subconscious desires beyond your wildest dreams.

Flowers are happy things

But why, aside from its arguably weird-but-also-coolness factor, would anyone want to grow, let alone use, a genetically manipulated organism as a sex toy?  

Beyond their infinite changeability, they’d be the ultimate in green technology: once you’re done with it—unless you want a post-orgasm snack—just toss it into your nearest compost bin.

Grown toys would also use less water and resources, far fewer than the most recyclable plastic toys, by requiring just a small plot of land, sufficient moisture, and sunlight. No mining, no refining, no waste, no infrastructure of any kind—except for its reusable motors and electronics, of course.

Another approach to harvesting tomorrow’s sextech devices is to make them neither purely biological nor totally artificial, like the work being done by University of Vermont, Harvard University, and Tufts University scientists who’ve developed what they refer to as reconfigurable organisms based on frogs’ eggs.

“You can think about this like using the different cells [as] building blocks,” Douglas Blackiston, one of the team, told NPR, “like you would build with LEGO or with Minecraft.”

So if the idea of pleasing yourself with a genetically altered descendant of a common-variety cucumber doesn’t turn you on, you might want to consider toys assembled from not-quite-organic, not-really-inorganic materials—something that’d be as warm and adaptable as living tissue while hopefully not feeling or looking disturbingly creepy.

A microcosm of a just and beautiful society

Genetic engineering is one of those emergent, bleeding-edge technologies that often tends to make people decidedly uncomfortable. The thought of it running amok triggering ecological disaster nightmares, fears of breeding so-called superior humans, and fears that we might end up accidentally eliminating what makes us so wonderfully, unpredictably human—the list goes on and on.

But it also holds a lot of promise: treatments for otherwise incurable diseases, elimination of fatal or debilitating genetic conditions, ending pandemics before they can start, feeding the hungry, enabling us to be who we really are, gender-wise to be their true gender, etc. It certainly appears like its positives might equal or even surpass its possible negatives.

The bottom line is, as with every new technology, it’s up to us if genetic engineering turns out to be a problem or a solution—which may or may not include getting it on with something you grew in your backyard.

Image Sources: Depositphotos

The post Garden of Earthly Delights: Dreaming of Genetically-Engineered Sextech appeared first on Future of Sex.