The future isn't all flying cars, jetpacks, and express travel to Mars - on the other hand, it could also provide the ability to get an orgasm at the push of a button.
At least that's what he believes Justin lehmiller, social psychologist and researcher at Indiana University's Kinsey Institute. Lehmiller recently released an interview with Wall Street Journal in which he hypothesizes some fascinating developments in the future of sex and “sextech”.
The orgasm button
“There are doctors working to implant electrodes near the spinal cord that cause an orgasm at the touch of a button,” Lehmiller tells the WSJ.
This technology could help people with disabilities or difficulty achieving orgasm. And obviously there is the risk of it becoming a drug. People may become slaves to orgasm “on demand” instead of cultivating fulfilling sexual experiences.
Justin lehmiller, social psychologist and researcher, Kinsey Institute
According to Lehmiller, sex tours will also become more sophisticated in the future. In fact, we will also see the rise of the Sexbot, or sex robots. In addition to satisfying physical desires, the expert believes that these robots will be able to satisfy our emotional needs.
“Some sex toys will be about intimacy, not just sex,” Lemiller says. “Robots will be able to hold our hand or perform other comforting behaviors.”
The current situation
Some examples of devices currently available are remote-controlled gadgets that allow partners to provide sexual experiences from a distance, and even a pillow that “transmits the partner's heartbeat.” And what about virtual reality, which risks completely absorbing many people?
The dangers in this area, Lehmiller warns, are many.
First of all: to have virtual sex with someone, do you need their consent? Using your own image, or the image of others to create avatars with which to experiment with fantasies will pose legal problems. Another downside is that we don't know what the impact of these activities will be. As long as it is an orgasm, the danger is limited, but will exercising virtual acts that would be illegal make people want to practice these behaviors in reality as well?
Here we are helped by video games, which have always been avant-garde. And no, you don't see many people out there actually doing what they do on screen. Who knows, however, how they will react to much more immersive environments.
What about privacy?
There is also the issue of privacy and security. After all, we may see more companies offering virtual sexual experiences. This could mean giving up privacy and offering our sexual data to private companies.
Whatever we do in the virtual world, there will be a digital footprint. Who will have access to that? What if our sexual data were hacked and revealed publicly?
These reasons lead me to think that although this technology has enormous potential to benefit people's lives, the amount of ethical, privacy and security issues is enough to contradict Lehmiller about orgasm "on request".
