Essay in English V

PASSABLE SEX FOR THE THIRD MILLENIUM?

(PART V)

Essay written in 2000

THE NEXT STEP -- INSTANT SEX?

Because the rising demand for these fashionable commodities, we may expect, sooner or later, a race for the artificial orgasm. The aim will be to reach a standard orgasm by technical means. This is only seemingly impossible. There is one not commonly known feature. It is assumed that the human brain contains an organ for the perception and appreciation of pleasure. The Czech psychiatrist Prof. Vondráček in his book, ‘Behavior and Its Failures’ discusses experiments uncovering the sources of erotic stimulation in brain: “When the electrode touches the septum, the animal begins to auto-stimulate until complete exhaustion, 2 000 times an hour, over 24 hours. Auto-stimulation is a greater reward than food... Experiments with auto-stimulation were also made on humans, in connection with brain surgery (predominantly in cases of the Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, but also tumors).”

This may not seem very appealing at first glance, but if we allow ourselves to embark upon a little science-fiction journey, we can come closer to the possibility of a remote-control climax. All we need is a vibrator, a chemical stimulant (perhaps a light drug), and a dose of course Virtual Reality to create the adequate, ideal partner... Does this remind you too much of ‘space sex’ as suggested by Jane Fonda in her memorable role as an intergalactic vixen in the 60´s film, ´Barbarella´? If you remember well, she had genuinely safe sex (together with a refreshing portion of humor) with a quite agreeable partner. Similar scenes were offered in movies ‘Brave New World’ and ‘Cocoon’. Is it too much fantasy? ‘Journey to the Moon’, written in 1865 by Jules Verne, was also originally just a harmless sci-fi. If we so easily gave up the traditional ritual procedure of making coffee, which indisputably produces better taste, for the speed and convenience of making instant coffee, what will prevent us from a gulpy consumption of the above mentioned ‘instant sex’? Do not forget -- a novelty for men, vibrating and pneumatic vaginas, are already at the market...

Current attempts to offer to female customers a “Pink Viagra”, this one with guarantee of standard orgasms seems to fulfill soon above-mentioned ideas. If we assumed that the vibrator is not only safe but hygienic and always on hand without any of those annoying features of real males (snoring after intercourse during the night, for example), we may expect this will very much fitting to feminist aim of self-sufficiency in sex. But men in high-ranking positions will also welcome similar kind of novelty for them for very practical reasons. A ‘virtual woman’ will have at least some of the same advantages. First, she will not demand to arrange another job for her in reward for her intimate oral performances; also, the artificial woman of the future will sure be not to write letters that might be later published in newspaper to discredit those ‘whom it may concern’...

PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE -- ADAM & EVE FOR THIRD MILLENIUM

This hypothetical sex-act of the future may have other practical advantages over classic human intercourse. It saves time and energy, and should not be a threat to health; in fact, it will almost certainly be delivered with a guarantee from the ‘manufacturer’... But above all, human beings the future are bound to be more practical and pragmatic. It is assumed that in developed countries after the year 2000 there will be more 65-year-old people than 15 year old. The significant switch of the demographic curve towards the elder, even pensioner, age groups seems very likely. Let as suppose that in this time the ‘career girl’ will be the prevailing model of a woman... Their personal ambitions nowadays do not totally eradicate their desire to give birth to a child. However, they often delay this to an age when, from the biological point of view, it is too late to have a child. Nevertheless, advanced modes of hormone therapy are already capable of condition the uterus of a 60-year-old woman like of a 16-year-old. Bearing a child at a hazardously old age has become so widespread that People magazine dedicated detailed analysis to this phenomenon, examining several child-births among mothers over their 40´s. This is undoubtedly an interesting topic, but we are more curious about one often-neglected ‘side-effect’. Healthy born children of old parents are often extremely intelligent, occasionally even geniuses (for example the Nobel Prize Laureate Konrad Lorenz). Families with only one child have become general trend anyway, even with normal pregnancies and not only in developed countries. In China birth-control laws have limited the growth of the population to hundreds of thousands of single children. No one doubts their highly developed inherent consciousness of being exceptional, egoistic. Notwithstanding the inevitable portion of simplification, in the future, population waves may expect a significant share, or even prevalence, of highly intelligent, but hypersensitive and emotionally unstable egoists. With all this in mind, it is worth to quoting from an essay by J. Kott, ‘A Short Report on Erotism’, published in the Czech and Slovak edition of Lettre Internationale: “...during masturbation, the partner is the product of one’s own sexual ego...” Drawn your own conclusions.

ASEXUAL OR A SEXUAL SOCIETY?

Babies prefer milk from the bottle to mother’s milk from the breast these days. It's much easier from the bottle. For the mother too, it is easier to buy a warmer with a thermostat, thus creating the illusion of the warmth of mother's milk. For significant amount of spectators, a football game on TV is much more attractive, comfortable, safer, cheaper, and they even see a lot more than if they stood in an x-th row on the stadium. If these principles apply to our civilization in general, why should they not also apply to sex? Are we threatened with substitute sexuality? The famous Polish science-fiction author Stanislav Lem advanced a remarkable idea in his discussions with prominent virologists regarding AIDS. Lem, voicing his fear concerning the fatally effective progress of the so-called ‘slow viruses’ (which include the HIV virus), in combination with overpopulation and a high level of worldwide promiscuity, writes: “Lenteviruses (slow viruses) mostly threaten those species with eradication who live socially and exercise sexual promiscuity”. He compares our civilization with an organization of socially living insects, and speculates that twin-sexed (i.e. male-female couple) living prehistoric insect species were decimated by ‘slow viruses’. The strategic advantage of these viruses lies in the fact that they spread rapidly in a sexually overactive, excessively multiplied population. The delayed effect will be catastrophically manifest at a time when the majority of the population has already been infected and thus becomes incapable of defending itself from the viruses inexorable onslaught. Lem gave as an example of ants, about which the Czech author Jan Werich once said: “An anthill is a miracle, but at the same time, it is a warning, because the ants work there up to a loss of sex. Ants are asexual for to be capable of work with all their might...” If you think about our striving for super-efficiency, if you think about sex-tourism, and the till-now practically uncontrollable spread of AIDS, plus the 100 % fatal slow viruses that are spreading and waiting -- do you still consider the concept of an asexual society so bizarre?


Translation Peter Duba, edited by Jerry Weir and Tom Reynolds