The discussion of sex and "sex toys
First I want to distinguish between "sex for reproduction" and "sex as play". Playful sex is explicitly not done for reproduction. Playful sex in my opinion should be done as safely as possible. The goal of playful sex is to allow the voluntary participants to have as much fun with their own bodies as possible.
Playful sex in my opinion is about exploring bodies, fantasies, and sensations. It does not require fluid transmission or direct intercourse. It does not require intimacy or even another human being. In other words, the dildo or sex doll or sex robot or VR sex, are all in the realm of "sex as play".
Sex for reproduction is the serious kind of sex. This kind of sex is risky and the goal of this kind of sex is to produce offspring. This kind of sex requires intimacy because if you create a baby with someone you're what I interpret as "biologically married" to them whether you like the situation or not. The baby is the result of this "biological marriage".
Sex as play is a type of gaming, with safe fun experiences being the ideal. Serious sex isn't a game, and is a potentially life changing (life creating?) activity. If a baby is produced from it then it's an action which cannot be taken back at that point. Intimacy in my opinion is separate from "sex". Intimacy is bigger/better in my opinion than sex. If people choose to have sex then in my opinion they should also be able to control the amount of risk they have to take and the among of intimacy required.
The potential benefits of VR Sex:
- It's safe. It's the safest form of sex that can exist in my opinion. No risk of STDs. No risk of being abused or raped. No risk of reproducing. Consent is algorithmic and clear.
- It's potentially far more fun. Virtual reality gives complete control of the fantasy to the participants. You can have sex in any fantasy, in any kind of way (even impossible ways), with as many entities as you want, such as people, augmented people (people who have AI helpers), or commercial businesses (group entities). All the physical senses can be represented digitally and electronically.
- Location independence. It does not matter where you or the other entities are physically located. You could be on different sides of the earth or you could even be in space and as long as packets flow (a connection made) then with enough bandwidth a digital sexual experience can be had. This could be useful for couples who are far away from each other, or it can be useful for people who are in prison or literally in space (astronauts).
- Utilitarian argument, it will make millions of people happy. Whether it builds or increases intimacy is debatable but it will increase pleasure which means more happiness. For this reason a strong utilitarian argument can be made in favor of VR sex both in terms of the security benefits (lower potential for rape, for abuse, for unwanted pregnancies), and in terms of the happiness it can produce (if we think of the potential sum of all pleasure resulting from the industry).
Possible costs of VR Sex
Of course there can be costs but these costs have to be weighed against the current reality of sex. The current reality is that direct intercourse (traditional sex) is high risk. Rape, abuse, or disease transmission as examples of this high risk. In addition, as people age their ability to have traditional sex which matches up with their fantasies may decline. This can be due to under performance (their physical body just not performing as well, or just their looks or fitness declining (by societal standards), or any number of reasons. The benefit of VR is that while the cost could be that there is less intimacy in sexual experiences, it does have benefits which I think outweigh the costs. For that reason I initiate a discussion on this topic.
Some obvious risks:
- Loss of intimacy for people who seek intimacy through sex.
- Potential to be romance scammed (this is possible to some extent if a person seriously falls in love with for example a business entity posing as a virtual character).
What do you think? Do you see a potential cost of virtualized sexuality which I'm missing? Is there a nightmare or dystopian scenario? Share your thoughts.
Great topic and analysis. It would be interesting to compare VR sex to the use of sex toys and dolls. This may take safety out of the discussion as both seem safe.
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I hadn't read a serious post about sex in steemit for a while. I think there's a lot of taboo and many people still retain the idea of traditional sex. I think that beyond the advantages that you mention, there is also the economic, psychic and sentimental investment that you must make in a common sexual relationship, which you don't have or do with the virtual sexual relationship. When we talk about fantasy, we have to be clear that most of them are individual and that sometimes they are not shared with our partners, which means that many times we keep them secret and never comply with them. With virtual reality, "the other is yourself" and you can enjoy the pleasure you need, when you need it, in the amount you want without harming anyone. Thank you really for sharing such great material.
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Well then it depends on the values. For me, I care about measures of happiness and safety. Quantitatively speaking if VR Sex is shown to be safest (no rape, no abuse, no potential for physical harm), then these are points in favor of it vs traditional sex which almost everyone recognizes is very risky in the physical sense. As far as happiness goes, would it not be the case that if the senses are triggered electronically or analog or "traditional" the same impact is happening in the brain? If video games for example made people just as happy (neuroscience) as traditional games then we would say video games encourage happiness? Well if we see VR Sex as a kind of game which creates happiness then couldn't we simply let people rate how happy the experience made them feel in an anonymous fashion? The ability to review their sexual experiences would actually allow for improvements over time and for that reason more happiness as the network or machine intelligence learns what a person prefers.
The secrecy aspect is true yes but also a lot of fantasies might never be possible in real life but people still have them. Impossible fantasies in the same way people want to play shoot em ups but no sane person is going to go on a rampage.
On this I don't know if this is true. I would think economic investment could be much higher in fact for virtual experiences. But then I guess it depends doesn't it? I cannot predict how much it will cost in economic sense because I don't know what business entities will capitalize on the desires of people.
Theoretically the industry could create elaborate sex games and fantasy worlds which require "pay to play" or fees. In that case I could see it becoming far more expensive than it is now but maybe this is for the better because people would be kept safer and maybe it will reduce demand for human trafficking? It's something in my opinion which would have to be deciphered from analysis of the data which currently we do not yet have.
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Thank you for your excellent response, @dana-edwards. Maybe sex has that particularity: each person has the possibility to discover himself in it and enjoy it in a unique way. Formulas don't exist!
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I guess this is where the future is going, but imagine how much power this will grant certain people? it could bring people momentary happiness to millions but at the cost of heavy addiction.
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Like video games, drugs, junk food, alcohol, cigs, and anything else?
It really depends on how the industry plays out. If it's centralized like that then you could be right but it doesn't have to be.
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That's a very interesting read. A taboo topic not many will want to write such articles, but for sure they are very informative.
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In order to write on a taboo subject I have to be willing to accept the possibility that everything I think is wrong. I can only find out if it's wrong by sharing what I currently think.
I cannot say my thought are informative except that it expresses my particular viewpoint on the topic. I don't think it should be a taboo topic. I think if more people would talk about it we could have some progress on areas of shared concern.
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