I’ve been asked to address the future of sex but I want to start with the past, the very recent past, last night, in fact. How many of you had sex last night? It may surprise you to know that the average Briton in a stable relationship, either married or cohabiting has sex only 100-150 times per year. That’s not as often as we think. I don’t think as we move into the future, we are going to have more or less sex of this natural kind. But we stand at the beginning of a technological revolution that will enhance not the amount of sex but the way we have sex and the diversity of sexual experiences on offer.
The very best sex can leave us feeling euphoric. The neurotransmitters send messages to and from our brains to the rest of our bodies as we feel increasing excitement towards orgasm. The chemicals that flood our blood stream as we climax count among the best legal natural highs we ever get, so it is unsurprising that sex, like other great feelings, can become compulsive and addictive.The worst sex leaves us feeling dissatisfied. It is this drive for euphoria and dissatisfaction with less that drives men and women forward in the pursuit of better sex. Over the next 10-15 years social, scientific and technical advances will give us supersex: the chance to never again have to suffer unsatisfying sex.I’m going to take you through Technosex: the use of sophisticated technologies in delivering sexual experience, Biosex, the use of naturally occurring sex hormones for recreational purposes, Remotesex, which is sex between people who are separated geographically and Mind Sex which is having a virtual sex experience without the body getting involved.
Men are less embarrassed to have their sex bots accompany them and many see them as life long companions. In Japan, a shrinking aging population has made it increasingly difficult for young men to find companions. For those who are socially awkward, a virtual girlfriend has always been a possibility. So I predict a growth in the social acceptability of virtual girlfriends. There is a resort town south of Tokyo called Atami which welcomes young men and their virtual girlfriends. These aren’t sex bots but a character in the game called Love Plus. These schoolgirls manga/anime characters are capable of holding conversations on line, making decisions and accepting or rejecting ideas about how to spend the holiday. Hotels such as Ohnoya in the resort will check your girlfriend in, and provide places where you can have your picture taken with a hologram of your girlfriend, just like holiday snaps, and have beds and restaurant tables that provide space for her.Even in the sexually repressed southern states of the US, it is becoming more socially acceptable to have a virtual companion. This excerpt from Lars and the Real Girls explains what I mean.
Pornography currently exploits the familiar channels: TV, computer, smart phones, media. It allows people to get access to sex, principally for purposes of masturbation, through visual and aural stimulation. Its easy, free (or relatively cheap), it can to a degree be tailored to your specific needs, including the filming of your own sexual activities. It has even been used to co-create erotic material by crowd sourcing. But it remains an activity shared by one or two people in their own homes. In the future, through gaming technology, sex games, specifically Massive Multiplayer Online Role Play Games sex could become a gaming activity. Online gaming industry already allows virtual sex through avatars in Second Life, Final Fantasy and Red Light Centre, which is a site set up specifically for cyber sex and adult behaviours. In fact, in Second Life, there are avatar prostitutes, working girls who earn their wages in Linden Dollars. Maybe we should anticipate large numbers of consenting adults playing these games together online in the future.
Remote sex. Couples who are separated by geography might like to take up the offer of teledildonics where one partner can operate a sensor to produce a stimulation in another. This brings phone and video sex to a whole new level.RealTouch is a male masturbator made up of synthetic orifice that lives in a plastic tube and connects to a computer. Based on data from an Internet connection, the unit warms up, lubricates, pulses and grips any item stuck into it. On the other end of a connection, their partner, or someone performing the service for them, hand-operates a sensor-covered rod to run the motors in the RealTouch. It can even coordinate what it does to you with film images of your favouritepornstar on screen. It’s a snip at $499. It’s the same technology that allows surgeons to perform operations across continents. It can use this clunky technology or the more sophisticated technique of movement sensors such as found in wii. Promising use of haptic technologies where one or both partners wear suits lined with sensors and stimuli which allow real physical responses on the body are currently in laboratory phases but will be expensive.
On the positive side, these developments should mean that we have better sex. In particular, women may use hormones to improve attachments, bonding and romance. And they can improve the masturbatory experience with intelligent dildos. Men can also use equipment to improve their experience and couples living apart need not sacrifice their sex lives. It also means that the socially awkward and the lonely can improve their sex lives without visiting prostitutes, which entails some degree of risk of STIs, breaking the law and supporting sex slavery and human trafficking. Women engaging in cyber sex don’t get pregnant either.But on the negative side these developments offer the vulnerable, the lonely, the addictive and the compulsive, another slippery slope to slide towards self-destruction. Other downsides include the increased social isolation of those who use internet, dolls and virtual companions for sex, rather than attempting to have real relationships with real people. And, as with any internet use, security of data is an issue.
On the positive side, the amount of money to be made in the adult entertainment industry continues to grow. It is now estimated to contribute $12bn annually to the US economy, $75bn globally. If we add the invisible and black economies to this figure it grows further. The amount of money to be made will ensure that the big as well as the small players seek ways of moving into the sex industry. Indeed, I understand that there are brokers on wall street who are now trying to connect investors openly with adult entertainment companies. With their technological know-how and ability to exploit efficient routes to market, the main stream corporates will be there before long. But they need to be careful. In the same way that the online gambling industry (Betfair) has attempted to be socially responsible by turning off the accounts of customers who lose too much, the adult entertainment industry will need to examine its increasing role in psychopathy of sex and pornography addiction and come up with measures that will reduce harm to its customers.
Another interesting challenge that arises from not really being prepared for the future of sex is the familiar lagging of the law.How many of you in the audience are lawyers? Of course, legislation follows precedent and there have to be test cases that challenge and create new laws. Some that I predict we will see in the next ten years includeIs a weekend away with a virtual girlfriend grounds for divorce?Does cybersex count as infidelity?Should sex bots (and all robots for that matter) have rights? Humanoid rights?Should virtual partners have rights?Should sex with machines be regulated like it is with animals and children?Who owns the intellectual property when a sex toy is programmed by its owner and then sold or passed on for others to use?
One final thought about sex in the future; we’re all looking to save the planet, even prostitutes. This story caught my eye about the brothel in Germany that takes its green credentials very seriously, strives to be carbon-neutral and offers a discount to punters who arrive by bicycle or public transport. The owner of the MaisonD’Envie (House of Desire) says that custom has been badly hit by recession and this move to offer discounts is “Good for business, good for the environment, and good for the girls”.
