The Electric Orgasm and Other Visions from the Future of Sex

Human beings will capture and replay sensory experiences through small microchips on the skin by the year 2030.

According to futurologist Ian Pearson, this technology not only has implications for individuals who wish to relive their greatest sexual memories, but for those unable to engage with a partner and experience the sensation of sex real-time. For marginalized and socially isolated individuals, perhaps struggling with physical disabilities or mental illness, this vision of innovation is hope for a very pleasurable future.

Of course the lonely and alone aren’t the only market who can see the appeal in this kind of technology, which gives a completely new meaning to the idea of instant gratification. Individuals with predilections of the kinky kind can enjoy the feelings of those sensations without ever being unfaithful to a disinterested partner.

The implications are as varied and far reaching as selling celebrity orgasm replays to feeling adult entertainment in synch with the performers. Lovers could simultaneously experiencing both their own and their partner’s physical sensation, an idea that isn’t just wild imagination. Pearson cites a recent experiment from UC Berkeley that used magnetic brain scans to reconstruct visual data, along with current trends like wearable and immersive technology as the basis for his ideas.

What would you want to borrow from The Library of Sensory Experience? Do you worry, as Pearson does, that decoupling pleasure from physical experience may cause humans to lose interest in intimate relationships altogether?

You can hear more from Ian Pearson soon speaking about the future of sex, sleep, and play, as videos are uploaded of the If Conference at the Royal Geographical Society in London from November 25th and 26th.