Blending technology, graphic design, and animation, the representations can range from fairly realistic to totally off the wall. For example, you'd like to "date" a partner with the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the face of Keanu Reeves? Simple. You'd like to be female instead of male? No problem. Black instead of white? Easy as the press of a button. Users get to externalize and advance the kinds of fantasies they have all the time during sex.
The average man will never know what it's like to be female--unless, of course, he's aided by serious medical procedures and hormones, and even then the results are not always guaranteed. Like no other medium, virtual reality lends itself to all types of sexual and gender experimentation, without the commitment to permanence. Put on a pair of goggles and your new "virtual" body is that of a physically fit, medium build, 26-year-old brunette, and maybe that will add to your pleasure.
Uncoupled from the necessity to confront physical boundaries, users are fully free to explore the byways of personality and identity. "The opportunities for gender exploration--and hopefully, increased sexual tolerance--are enormous," observes Glenn Cartwright, Ph.D., professor of psychology at McGill University, who teaches a course on "Consciousness and Virtual Reality." "What's it really like to be the other sex? With virtual gender-swapping we might come closer to finding out." While the switch is only virtual, it is a step toward better understanding between the sexes.
Of course, as with most good things, VR can be abused, although the issue does not crease the brow of marketers. Nevertheless, it hovers at the edge of cyberspace: What happens when we voluntarily step into an alluring, machine-made, alternate reality--and surrender contact with the real world? Sexual pleasure is a powerful reinforcer, the big hook. How will we deal with users who won't, or can't, return to their average lives? Will there be a new class of schizophrenics who are simply jacked-in forever?
"There are many Americans who already can't distinguish between fantasy and reality," observes Jack Levin, Ph.D., professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University. "VR is a more sophisticated form of optical illusion." It's not uncommon, for example, for fans to send flowers to the weddings of their favorite soap opera stars, or to threaten and harass particularly villainous ones.
The division between virtual reality and reality will be even harder to distinguish. While some suspension of reality is quite normal with most media, virtual reality may be too convincing.
Unlike movies or television shows, VR has no defined beginning or end. There is nothing forcing users to return to the real world, making it a tempting escape for those with unpleasant realities beyond their goggles. "We try to hide from ourselves," Levin points out.
The Mask, a Hollywood comedy about the dangers of realizing your wildest fantasies, characterized some of the problems--dissociation, depression-- associated with assuming an all-powerful alter-ego. Substitute a pair of VR goggles for actor Jim Carrey's bouncing green maniac, and the movie's surreal fiction becomes the user's personal virtual reality--or nightmare.
Voicing concern about the implications of virtual reality for the human psyche, McGill's Cartwright uncannily echoes warnings by critics of pornography, violent movies, and most recently, gangsta rap. There are certain acts that our society rightly fears, whether they get played out in reality or remain as someone's fantasy. "What if a person's fantasy is to kill people, or their sexual fetish is violent and bizarre?" he muses. "Should we be happy if they act these out in virtual reality instead of reality?
1A person can murder an infinite number of victims in virtual reality. How long will it take for the virtual act to not be enough, and for a VR user to go out and do the real thing?"
The scope of VR may be as limitless as the human imagination, but the many uses of virtual reality, and especially teledildonics, will bring with them a whole new world of technologically induced trauma and disorientation and, subsequently, therapy. Although some people have always had reality problems, teledildonics actually has a fairly tangible alternate reality to call its own. How to convince someone who has a brilliant and rich virtual world to dwell in, that his or her mundane and often ugly reality is necessary?
Teledildonics will also spur psychology to grapple with the concept of consciousness, says Cartwright. "VR will force people to reexamine what it means to be conscious of your environment. If seeing, hearing, and touching are attributes of the virtual world, reality can no longer be defined as what we see, hear, or touch."
Teledildonics is only one of the forms of cybersex currently available. Like the others, it promises to be what pornographic videos are today: just another sexual aid. And like any aid, it can't replace the act. What it can do is help people figure out likes and dislikes, create an atmosphere, explore sexuality, or simply satisfy a curiosity (are you absolutely sure you like being tied up?)
Teledildonics won't necessarily make your love life wildly different; after all, what you do with it depends on the scope of your desire. Nevertheless, if your imagination is vivid, teledildonics can be used as an easy, safe way to explore your most secret desire, leaving you both more satisfied and more knowledgeable about yourself. It's definitely the safest sex around.
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