From: rstevew@deeptht.armory.com (Richard Steven Walz)
Newsgroups: alt.industrial,alt.cyberpunk,alt.sex,alt.sex.bondage
Subject: Wire-Head Sex, VR sex, Sex with Droids and Noids.
Date: 12 Nov 92 09:20:21 GMT
Organization: The Armory

In article <1992Nov11.151644.1@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz> quirke_a@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz writes:
>sgreever@nyx.cs.du.edu (Steven Greever) writes:
>
>> Maybe this sounds naive to you, but I come from a very religious family,
>> and I have learned through custom and experience that only Christ
>> through His miracles can save us.  Stories about having sex with airplanes
>> and other things even worse - too horrible to even mention just take the
>> issue away from Christ.
>
>   Note well: None of the four groups crossposted to had anything to do with
>religion. "Taking the issue away from Christ" implies that He was bought into
>the matter at all, which was not the case.
>
>> Anyway, I am impressed by the sincerity of your posts and the general
>> quality of Usenet. 
>
>   Really ? Keep reading. Sturgeon's Law applies to the UseNet in all it's
>glory.
>
>> I cannot believe in the things you do but in retrospect I had no right to
>> criticize them. 
>
>   Actually, you have a perfect right to criticize. The problem is, by basing
>your criticism on a particular interpretation of a moral system which is NOT
>followed by the vast majority of the audience of said criticism, you find
>yourself open to flaming.
>   Given the large and diverse group of individuals found on the Net, ANY
>moral precept cannot be automatically assumed to be universally held. With
>such groups as alt.sex, criticism should probably be based on factual or
>scientific grounds.
>
>> You believe what you believe, and I shall continue to believe what I do. 
>> Until then, it's ok with me if we all stop bickering.
>> Wouldn't the world be a much better place if we all could be friends?
>
>   Agreed.
>
>AND, just to get it back to the original subject of sex and machines, consider
>the idea of wire-heading in the works of many authors, notably Niven. If you
>could get the ultimate sexual experience from a wire into the brain, would
>personal social interactions become obsolete ?
>
>Tony Q.
--------------------
I don't think that people would use their wire-head rigs alone. One
can already have some pretty heady sexual experiences alone, if one
works exotically at the erotic, but we somehow still crave sex with
another person. Yes, I know that sex is better with real soft mucous
membrane, not to mention the fondness for the preferred bodily form,
whether inherent or learned. Now if people could wire-head in with
other people remotely with complete realism or even hyper-realism or
surrealism, then maybe people wouldn't get together physically to have
sex. But that's just it. I think that telephoning is a social
interaction, whereas people probably said when the phone came out that
people wouldn't ever see each other any more, they would just talk on
the phone. Instead, we probably actually spend more time with people,
the close real and the distant voices on the phone in toto than we
have ever done before. Even if we could simulate personae with whom to
have sex, they would have to pass the Turing test for sentience before
anyone would value that interaction above or equal to one with a real
sentient. Sentience is engaging to us. I doubt we will give up on our
penchant to commune with other sentients, whatever their origin. And
having wire-head sex can be as good, as long as you keep your real
body's needs met sexually, since an empty prostate is a healthy
prostate, as the urologists say.
- Steve

-- 
* Richard STEVEn Walz   rstevew@deeptht.armory.com   (408) 429-1200  *
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