back to article 21st Century Sex: the shape of things to come

Reg Hardware Sex Week In the 1980s, when the first HIV and AIDS awareness campaigns were launched, alongside the crashing tombstones, leaflets gave frank advice about the risks involved in digital intercourse. In those days, of course, that just meant pleasuring someone with your fingers. Concerns about computers and sex …

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  1. Paul Renault

    OK, I'll be first:

    ..So, which security company will be doing the penetration testing?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I don't know, but it won't be...

      Trustwave.

  2. Mike Smith
    Thumb Up

    Marvel at...

    "the shape of things to come."

    Fnarr, fnarr!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Is it just me

      That thinks that first real touch image looks like some sort of dual belt sander? I don't think I'd be brave enough to put any actual body parts into it but it might be useful for sharpening pencils I suppose!

      1. Local Group

        Re: Is it just me

        Never judge a sex toy by what it looks like. It's the happy grin on your face that we all are looking for.

  3. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Joke

    Sir

    Anyone complaining about onanism is a wanker.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The reason for the term Pseudo-photograph is because, as has been correctly argued in court, a jpeg is not an image. It allows you to display an image on a screen but unless they discover you with the image on a screen, you're not in possession of an image but rather an image file. Why they didn't choose to call it an image file instead of a pseudo-photograph is something I'm less clear on

    1. Semaj
      Thumb Down

      "Why they didn't choose to call it an image file instead of a pseudo-photograph is something I'm less clear on"

      Because they wanted to leave in a really open ended term, which could apply to tracings, renders or even regular "realistic" drawings if argued by enough of a snake.

      1. Graham Marsden

        @Mycho and Semaj

        The thing is, it's not just "pseudo photography" or jpegs etc, nor is it any longer drawings taken from actual photographs of the abuse of children (which were already, quite rightly, illegal).

        With the passing of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, even entirely fictitious images (ie drawings created without reference to a living subject) or Poser renderings have been deemed to be "child pornography" meaning that a whole load of Anime and Manga could be caught by this simply because, in someone's mind, a drawing looks "underage".

        1. badger31
          Childcatcher

          @ Graham Marsden

          I had a brief discussion about this with my professional issues tutor at university during my computer science degree. You are right, an image is deemed to be child-porn, even if no children were involved in the making of said images, if the subject is somehow judged to be child porn. I also believe that photographs of naked children are now classed as child porn, even if they are not pornographic - so my mum had better burn all those naked photos of me as a child before the feds get her. Oh, and didn't someone in America recently get done for possession of child pornography because a doctor looked at some images on his computer and decided that the girl looked under age. The model even stood as a witness at his trial with proof she was over 18, but they did him anyway - madness! Meanwhile the real nasty people are still harming real children.

      2. P. Lee

        not a photo

        Photos are easily run through an "oil painting" or "line drawing" (er) gimp or photoshop filter. That shouldn't be enough to launder them for legal use. If you destroy the originals, who's to know?

  5. Semaj
    Thumb Up

    Reverting to Form

    That is an interesting article and raises a lot of nice points :)

    For me, I see the technology as a massively positive influence in all things sexual. Without going into too much detail; without it I would not be the confident, happy and successful person I am today. Finding that I was not alone in the kind of things I like really brought me out of my shell.

    What I see more and more really is humans reverting to form. You say that it takes a long time for society to adapt to change and you are right. The thing is, the very prudish society of recent times was actually very short lived. Look at how people acted in pre-Christian times - much more liberated.

    Humans, both male and female are very sexual creatures and always have been. Combine that with our amazing ability for abstract thought and it's no wonder we have the wide and wonderful variety of sexual desires that we do.

    The Internet and technology in general is helping people to embrace their desires again and opening up whole new possibilities and after we've been repressed for so long, it's wonderful. And the best part is, no matter how much "they" try to stop it happening, it's going on anyway - it might not happen in our lifetime but future generations should be MUCH more liberated, happy and accepting of others than ours. And Good on them :)

    1. KevinR
      Stop

      Re: Reverting to Form

      Just using porn makes me feel horrible about myself, far from what you describe as happy. I cannot admit that using porn feels right, especially if I am motivated to relate to other people with a measure of openness. It's embarrassing to admit to using porn, which is what made me work at stopping my use of it, and it is extremely difficult for me.

      All of this technology just looks like one big gigantic trap for people to think they will get some kind of replacement for the lack of intimacy they may be feeling in their lives. Porn is empty and destructive, and technology only seems to be trying to take it to the next level.

      1. Lamont Cranston

        Re: Re: Reverting to Form (@KevinR)

        I know what you mean, but the technology discussed here has the potential to allow people to connect in different ways, in addition to just tossing oneself off.

        Let people make of it what they will. We've had our right hands and imaginations since forever, and society hasn't completely collapsed, yet.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Man-in-the-middle sex

    > If you’re having remote sex with someone, and go further than they want, is that assault? Does connecting imply consent? If someone else takes the controls without telling you, is that rape? Or is it something else?

    That would be man-in-the-middle sex. Seriously, what you are describing is virtual insanity. Stimulating someones genitals remotely through bluetooth is merely anothor form of solitary sex with the added delusion you are 'doing it` with someone else. Most of the people who visit these 'dating sites` are temperamentally unable to engage in real-life relations. Jeez, just go down to the nearest singles bar ...

    --

    ps: fap .. fap ..fap ...

  7. TRT Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Wow...

    things have really moved on since the 5.25" floppy.

    1. gerryg
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Wow...

      which would be as useless as an 8" floppy.

  8. Tim Jenkins

    It Gets Better

    Just a minor quibble; the 'It Gets Better' campaign (www.itgetsbetter.org) is primarily to try and reduce suicide rates amongst LGBT teenagers who suffer homophobic bullying at school, rather than 'to try and effect change in attitudes towards sex' (which would be a description better applied to something like the Spanner Trust - www.spannertrust.org). IGB might have that as a side-effect, but the main focus is not necessarily even to do with sex itself, but rather issues around hostility to gender identity and same-sex attraction, which is subtly but significantly different.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only one use

    For the poor sods married to the Thatcher/Bush/Cheney/Blairs of this world.

    Anything else would be cruel and usual punishment.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Amazing how times can change...

    I don't quite care for this topic but....

    Seeing Fonda aka Barbarella in the excessive machine again after so many years I can't help wonder how things have slid down a bit and how much used we've become to so many things we never talked about in public 'back in the days'.

    For better or worse is something I really don't know nor really care about. IMO its for the better; having these topics more easily discussed will only help parents to better inform their children.

    Still, its amazing. I still recall seeing Barbarella the first time and the impact it left. But now its hardly as "excessive" (lame pun ;-)) as it was back then.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Technology and sex,...

    has made it easier to learn about new types of sex, and easy to find videos or participants over the web, but not yet replaced "proper sex". Just like 3D is not "actualy like being there" (see "The Matrix"). But people are becoming more prudish if anything, from the oversupply of information.

    Be honest, do people eagerly look in their spam folder to learn some new fetish or sexual more to try?

    Disclaimer: Am going to the gym more to lose weight so I can partake in a filmed orgy this year in the midlands and download a copy as a souvenier. So am slightly biased.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But people are becoming more prudish if anything

      I think the general public is becoming less prudish (at least in the US), but the older more prudish generation trying to push back and prevent this that making it seem otherwise. Like many things, I think the older generations will try to fight openness about sex to their grave while teenagers these days only see it as taboo when dealing with "adults".

      1. Nigel Whitfield.

        I would tend to agree that people are becoming less prudish, and even some older people are - certainly chatting with my own Mother, and to friends about theirs, people may not necessarily approve, or want to join in, but if certain topics crop up in conversation, they aren't shied away from the way they used to be. Relatives wouldn't have asked, for example "motorcycle leather or kinky leather?" regarding a club night I organise - previously they'd have commented on the weather rather than the leather.

        But, set against that, there is a reactionary rump (Baroness Warsi, anyone?) that seems determined to resist any and all change; in fact, it often seems as if the way governments react is to toss a bone to the stricter elements to try and counterbalance liberalisation, so we've seen crackdowns on porn, internet imagery, extreme porn, while at the same time (and often the same governments) equalising ages of consent, allowing civil partnerships, and reforming some sexual offences laws.

        I fear that while many people are broadly relieved that some of the more bonkers restrictions have been removed (yay! threesomes a-go-go!), and are just mildly simmering with discontent over some of the new rules, those of a more religious or simply puritanical mindset have taken the bones tossed to them to mean that if they push just a bit harder, they really can roll the clock back. They have, in effect, taken what may have been intended as pacifiers, and treated them as appetisers instead, and are now determined to try and shape society's morals to fit their own warped visions.

        1. KevinR

          If my boss wanks it at work, am I expected to do the same?

          To me, on the individual level, I find it more difficult than it should be to live without pornography. I don't think it should be this way because it is personally shameful and embarrassing.

  12. Local Group
    Happy

    "even the Victorians had vibrators"

    A victorian vibrator.

    Are you refering to a blindfolded footman in m'lady's chamber operating a drain snake with an inspired headpiece, by turning a crank on a long metal cable? Or, more likely, just a good looking footman having drunk many cups of coffee and his britches down?

    1. Franklin
      Thumb Up

      Re: "even the Victorians had vibrators"

      Steam-powered.

      Seriously. The Victorians developed actual steam-powered vibrators.

      1. Local Group

        @ Franklin

        Do we credit Victorian men, as they delved into the sensual mechanization of genitalia with their stream driven tools, with the words, 'hot' and 'hottie'?

        Just askin'.

  13. DF118

    Standards falling at Reg subheads dept.

    Bits and bytes but no peek and poke? Tsk.

  14. Eddy Ito
    Thumb Up

    Ambisextrous

    There was a man from Racine

    Who invented a fucking machine

    Concave or convex

    It could take either sex

    And play with itself in between.

    1. chrishansenhome
      Facepalm

      Re: Ambisextrous

      The last line scans better as: "And was perfectly simple to clean."

      1. EddieD
        Coat

        Re: Re: Ambisextrous

        There's a somewhat more painful variant -

        on the forty-fourth stroke

        the bloody thing broke

        and whipped his balls to a cream

  15. oddie
    Thumb Up

    dildos as part if the womens liberation... (and aparently lots of fun)

    For the male equivalent, check out 'tenga', the most fun you will ever have on your own... And actually better than some of the two person fun that i have had..

    Captain jack would approve :)

    1. Local Group
      Joke

      @ oddie. Do you sell this stuff?

      Can you mail me a catalogue?

      1. oddie
        Thumb Up

        :D

        No shares owned I'm afraid... or any stacks of catalogues in my garage :P

        most reputable online retailers stock them.. lovehoney and bondara amongst others....

        and no, I have no shares in either ;)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: dildos as part if the womens liberation... (and aparently lots of fun)

      Am I the only one who thinks this is really depressing? It seems a bit like facebook. It appears to be a good thing to keep people in touch and its fun, but it generally does the opposite by inoculating people against wanting a proper relationship.

      The whole point of these devices appears to be to replace another human being with something under my control. RealTouch's claim is that you can pay for someone, sorry, something, to pretend to like you. You can have sex with all these people you've never met and never will. It is about removing the need for a human being. If that isn't anti-human I don't know what is.

      As far as women's lib is concerned, it's like your manager coming to you and saying that you've been liberated from the payroll, have some Farmville credits. This isn't liberation from oppression, this is liberation from anyone caring about you.

      With porn, sex becomes about what I want (and what the company wants to sell), what I can afford. It's a commercial transaction and your real partner probably doesn't have the assets to compete with a whole industry. She probably isn't willing to pretend and just see what happens when you offer her money like the real stars get.

      The anti-vibrator "experts" the issue is not that they don't work, but that they work too well. Used in a relationship, the men get lazy (which was probably a problem in the first place) and the women become "tuned" to the device and less responsive to real people, leading to dis-satisfaction and antipathy all round.

      It's fake, its damaging and its the perfect money spinner. Sell the porn, ruin the real sex, sell the vibrator, remove the need for the relationship, with the relationship gone, sell the porn...

      1. oddie
        Happy

        Re: Re: dildos as part if the womens liberation... (and aparently lots of fun)

        Sex with other people is lots of fun, and so is masturbation, and neither will bring about the end of the world, or give you hairy hands :)

        The 'tenga' is actually called the tenga fliphole, but is usually referred to as the tenga (which is actually the company that makes them). I think you're confusing it with something else, this RealTouch that you mention.

        (I swear, I'm not a distributor :P)

        As you point out, masturbation is not the same as sex with someone else, but you don't have to pick one, you can have both (and you can even mix the two) :D

        The bit I put in about womens lib was in regards to society's acceptance of female sexuality, up until that time it had been quite heavily repressed (vapours, hysterics, claims that the female orgasm was a myth, etc). Now it's more the male sexuality that is seen as a bit 'dirty' and 'unclean', as if having a penis is somehow 'bad'. An example of this would be shops catering to womens sexuality on the high street. Men.. not so much :)

        anyway, the point I was trying to make was that these kind of devices and opinions are starting to bring about an acceptance of male sexuality again, that you aren't necessarily deranged for not having sex just to procreate... and that it's even ok to have fun on your own sometimes :)

  16. Andy Gates
    Thumb Up

    3D printing is currently being used by -ahem- artisan sex toy houses to produce very creative bits of kit in small production runs. Design onscreen, fab off a mould, fill with elastomer glurp and ta-da. Expect custom scan-and-fab kits once a nice detailed 3D scanner is available (mmm, kinect hax)...

  17. Wombling_Free
    Thumb Up

    Thanks to the internet...

    ...I found out I wasn't a freak for being into balloons & inflatables.

    As for that Real Touch - you wouldn't want to get that mixed up with an electric shaver, would you?

  18. Jess--

    Its interesting that almost every discussion of sex & technology on here quickly steers towards the UK's extreme porn laws, anyone would think these forums were full of perverts, of course its more likely that people here realise just how far reaching the law has become with what can now be described as extreme porn.

    seeing barbarella appear here took me back to my youth when I discovered a video copy of it in the early eighties at the tender age of 8 or 9, for the techies the video machine was an original Philips n1500 which used the VCR tape format (2 reels stacked on top of each other)

    1. TRT Silver badge

      You should...

      go and get one of the books by Devon Scott. Seriously. Do it, read it. Man porn.

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