Source: flickr.com/photos/sergioaraujo
That we are intimate with the world is not news. That we have extended this intimacy to our tools is a reality; the idea that we are becoming cyborgs is already here.
There is nothing mysterious or futuristic about being a cyborg, part machine part biological organism. Using our smartphones to remember our appointments, a long list of telephone numbers, addresses and shopping lists is a cyborg activity. The extension and externalization of our memories in electronic devices makes us de-facto modern day cyborgs.
Deploying devices to upgrade and extend our insufficient neuro performance is only part of what we do as cyborgs. We use these extensions for training, for life tracking, for calorie counts, for sleep, you name it, there’s an app for that. But lest we forget, we also have our loves, our cares and our motivations to deal with, our desires both of the flesh and of our imagination. Also these are slowly coming into this symbiotic relationship.
The accelerated tooling times we are living in, allow us to gradually expand the notion of what it means to be human. For, make no mistake; we are far from being similar to our ancestors. A modern day, urbanized, cyberneticaly hyperconnected human, exists in a state of interdependence and sense extension, the like of which no one could have predicted.
We have a new relationship with technology, one we truly cannot extricate ourselves from, and this changes everything. Cyber technologies and information science have brought to bear, not a new tool but a new world with which to be intimate, a cyberspace horizon of potentiality that extends into the material world.
Source: flickr.com/photos/mtonic
What happens when these cyber-technologies, broaden our nervous system, into other nervous systems, weaving us with the emergent nervous system of the Internet?
Virtually Yours – Techno Desire and Virtual Sex
A plethora of new technologies offers us a wide swath to expand our sensations and emotions into, and our desires and hidden imaginary wishes. Virtual worlds such as second life already thrive, but a growing segment of virtuality is directed, how else? Into sex.
Red districts offering every conceivable sexual wish, from the Toy Slaves Brothel (NSFW), to Fantasy Escorts (NSFW), are here for the take. One of these virtual worlds, appropriately named Red Light Center, (NSFW), carrying the tag line: “EXPAND Your Fantasy”, is modeled after Amsterdam’s red light district and claims a few million users.
Now come the tough questions of course: “is it infidelity to have sex in virtual worlds?” when no ‘real’ sex has occurred? It is hard to come by numbers, but it does make sense that for many it will be considered as such, creating novel situations where the ‘competition’ is an avatar. The ubiquitousness of cyber sex virtual worlds is however only part of the story. It is still you, probably alone, clicking on a button, playing a game.
Enter Synesthesia, literally the coming together of sensation (from the Greek Syn- together and Aesthesis – sensation), a term, which may well denote that which we are experiencing and will increasingly experience as the electronic tools at our disposal evolve. Though the experience of Synesthesia is anything but common and is considered to be of genetic origin, its idiosyncratic nature is what makes it so convenient and adaptable to the extension of our senses via technology.
In fact new developments in haptic technologies, especially those involving vibrotactile feedback, will soon allow us to ‘really’ feel objects in virtual worlds, to feel, to sense and to enjoy the pleasures provided. Feeling the coldness of steel, the weight of a rock or the warmth of a body in a virtual world, is a revolution of the senses, the like of which we have not yet seen. For once the stream of impressions coming to our nervous system is no longer subject to the immediate, the possibilities open to our perceptual apparatus are limited by imagination only, and that we have abundantly.
Once the new mesh of Haptic and Synesthesia comes together the avatar of our own making, will be able not only to see, but touch, feel and sense remote objects to a fullness of satisfaction, that will practically overwhelm us. One of these technologies already available is offering products such as the real touch award winning male masturbator (NSFW), which pledges to be the future of adult entertainment, followed closely by the Mojowijo (NSFW) promising: “The motions of one device are transformed into vibrations in the other, literally allowing you to share the mojo with anyone, anywhere in the world.”
Though these devices are only the very beginning of what cybersex promises to be, a ‘real’ virtual alternative to common relationship, already their problematic implications abound. While Internet enabled sexual toys proliferate and multiple 3D online worlds offer everything from multiple partners, to every single imaginable fantasy one can have it is their descendents, which offer a real glimpse into the future.
The following is a fascinating excursion filmed, written, and edited by Tutsy Navarathna, NSFW but worthwhile watching. Navarathna: “This film is an investigation into the transformations that human relationships face when interacting in Virtual Worlds. Love and sexuality are on an important factor in any human relationships. However, what is new in Virtual Worlds is the ability to exercise those relationships without any real risk, external censure or imposition from an internal “super-ego”. (NSFW)
VIDEO – Meta sex:
The ever-present state of being a cyborg however is only a fraction of the story. The complete story we will know only in the fullness of time, today we will do well to look deep into our minds and ask ourselves what is it that we are becoming? What kind of human do we desire to be, and what is already available or is on the horizon for our use and transformation.
If online virtual cyber sex, extended via prosthetics, is the natural next step, then our evolution as cyborg beings is far from obvious. According to David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, not only is it the case that love and sex with robots is inevitable, but by 2050 the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots.
What happens when our emotional make-up is no longer a given and our sexual preferences receive a boost of new options never before encountered? What happens when our sensations can be amplified tenfold? What happens when ‘cool’ means- dating a Gynoid or Android?
To quote from Woody Allen:
“Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty good questions.”
Cyborg Love will be the theme, for the next part of this series.
3 comments
Spaeweaver says:
Mar 30, 2012
Ok… more interesting and profound than it looks at first sight.
Two points for further thought:
1. Using technology to augment sex is one of the more profound aspects of humans becoming cyborgs. What technology (and especially those technologies having to do with the virtualization of human characteristics) does to sex is the eventual complete subversion of its socio-biological function. Namely, the facilitation of that process of bringing offspring to the world (excuse me but there are too many of us already and more are coming…)and not less important organizing human society into that interlocked banal stability of gender oriented games (same-sex sex included). Well, with the help technology, slowly but surely, sex will not be what it used to be. We might even discover free sex (free as in free unbound pleasure), gender free sex for starters, and than we might finally undress entirely our human form and play, naked. Seriously play I mean and seriously naked. Sex was initially invented by evolution so it can play with new combinations. So why not follow the example; play and stop repeating ourselves…
2. Synesthesia and sex. What a brilliant association! Coming to think about this, with just a carefully designed rewiring of our brains (a feat that can already be accomplished to some extent by pretty simple molecular agents some of which are known to humanity for millenia), we could channel pleasure in unfathomable new manners. This idea is worth expanding on.
Loved the movie, and yet… why should fantasy go in such familiar paths? People, at time are so excited from the prospect of becoming other that they do not notice how profoundly they stay the same… that is why second life needs perhaps a second life.
Wildcat says:
Mar 31, 2012
Thanks for the comment Spaceweaver,
The idea of discovering gender free sex you describe ‘as in free unbound pleasure’, is, I assume, an idea that most humanity will be pleased to hear about. Though we need take into account that for most humans, the pleasure derived from sex is tightly coupled both with gender and with a number of ideas of a socio-cultural context. The new combinations you mention I believe are in our future but until some rewiring of the brain and of society happens this I surmise will remain on the fringe. We will keep on repeating ourselves until other options will be as ‘normalized’ and available as the style evolution has made common. In the next part of this series, Cyborg love, I definitely intend to dwell on this subject.
The idea you posit that:” we could channel pleasure in unfathomable new manners” could potentially be liberating but will it not also change us forever? In what ways will this change our so-called ‘nature’? I believe these questions and similar should be thoroughly investigated before we rush head on into these new options, though again I am quite certain, the options will be there before we have a coherent stance and perspective. The question therefore, to my eyes, should be, given that the technology of change precedes the stance to change (as was always the case) what kind of approach should we take? Cautious? Embracing ?
In principle I advocate an optimistic mid range approach, basically get informed , check it out and proceed with caution, but yes proceed nevertheless, there is no other option.
I will try and tackle these and other questions in the next entries on this fascinating subject.
TuroeterceRox says:
May 29, 2012
Who and where to condense this summer on furlough, portion your information.