WWW. SEX .COM   (hit enter.)

Electronic sex.

It is with us and our technology has overwhelmed and  infused our society with it. It is called “electronic sex” and it is like a laser  that can’t be stopped.

There are now as many women on line as men and electronic sex is the stuff of fantasy and nightmares.

"Stepford Wives." Remember?

It was a a society where women could be replaced with robots. On the other hand , how often have women said that a good man is so hard to find? Perhaps, a good man is not human.

Enter electronic sex. What will it do to the relations between the sexes? What will  the moral complications be if  this impersonal sex invades households ( which has already occurred ) and it becomes the secret life of  scores of millions of Americans? In a recent US NEWS & WORLD REPORT  article,

electronic sex, was described as the Saturday night date. Another issue of the same periodical noted that America has the dubious distinction for being the number one producer and consumer of pornography.

It is really here. Rental movies.  Cable sex. Computer sex. Phone sex. Sex toys.  And....

Sexbots or sex robots.

The FUTURIST’S Edward Cornish in his “92 ways our lives will change by the year 2025, The Cyber Future”  details in “Private Life” two types of sex robotics. One is an attractive model that will provide pleasure to the user.

 The  attractive models are now coming from Japan.

Imagine. The models have life like features and  are  soft and pliant like the latest dolls for kids.

There is a vibrator in the model within the vagina or penis or other cavities for that matter. It won’t say no. It won’t have disease. It comes in plain wrapper. It doesn’t judge your sexual performance. It won’t tell. There is a tape recording inside the model which  elicits  various “prompts” that encourage the individual consumer to orgasm.

You can hide it in the closet.

It may save marriages.

Once again, there is a technological fix for the human condition.

Or is it?

Consider the following:

Spouse loses sex life to robot.

One partner loses their husband or wife or significant other (50% now cohabit before they marry) to a robot. The marriage becomes a shambles.  Bitter spouse is outraged and takes recourse by destroying the model or suing the manufacturer.

Spouse changes  gender orientation.

Although married to the other sex, they choose a same sex model for additional enjoyment. Are they

bi-sexual? Or is there another name for those who would not be gay with a human, but would  do so with a  robot.

The robot is child-like.

The robot is an approximation of  a nine year old. Isn’t that pedophilia? And/or the model is the same sex.

What do you call that activity?

Kids get involved.

Mom and Dad are out for the evening and the kids try out the robot. What do you call this? Is it good for children? What are the implications or complications  for  the emotional and moral growth of the child

Robots become addictive.

The model is always available. It does not say no. One can arrange their life around this addiction.

Support groups begin to form. The twelve step movement begins with a statement about the individual’s

personal responsibility that they are “powerless to robotic sex.”

There are technovirgins.

A generation of humans emerge that have not had sex with another human and may not desire to do so before they marry. Are they not virtuous?  Now factor in that pre-marital sex has occurred with a robot.

So what judgment is made?

Electronic sex becomes “better” than human sex.

Really? Really. Like so many other technologies that have replaced human endeavors, electronic sex becomes better than human sex. Arguments are made that shot gun marriages, teen pregnancy, sexual disease and abortions are dramatically reduced because of electronic sex.

Prostitution  withers because of electronic sex.

Prostitutes charge money. They may talk. They are diseased. One does not have those problems with a robot Millions of young women and men are no longer demeaned, humiliated or die because of prostitution.

Couples include a robot in their sex play.

Is that a sin?

There  are hundreds of other surprises (wild cards) in our future with electronic sexual robots.

One of the major problems with electronic sex in general and sexual robots in particular is that the boundaries and barriers once attached to these activities are now gone. Temptation is just seconds away

from the habits of the heart. Any room in the house is a libertine sexual playground.

Perhaps, it is now the time to think about the awesome consequences of something that appears laughable at the end of the twentieth century. This technology will not be a blessing to society.

We clone now, don’t we?

Joel C. Snell

Research Fellow

Arlington Institute

2101 Crystal Plaza Arcade #136

Arlington, Virginia

22202

Professor

Social Sciences

Kirkwood College

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

52406-2068