SXSW Panel Recap | Will there be sex in the future?

A couple weeks ago, I was on a panel at SXSW. The topic? How sex would evolve in a world filled with sexual technology—technologies that may offer better sensations than our human partners could ever dream of competing with. In this potential future world, would people even want to have sex with each other at all?

This event occurred against a nasty backdrop, with Texas stripping reproductive rights and bullying trans kids. For me, this formed the perfect dichotomy of barbaric reality versus science fiction aspiration.

I wanted to outline some highlights, quick takeaways, and current thoughts after a couple weeks reflection.

Let's jump in.

The Panelists

Inspired by a futurist report written by Maiko Miyagawa, the panel was moderated by Rocio Pelayo of Hablemos SexTech and included researchers Haruna Katayama and Lex Gillon (yours truly) as well as Miyagawa-san herself.

The Four Highlights

1. The future of tech enabled sexuality must be consent-based

The Argument: Tech has a mind of its own and, if big tech today is any indication, can have unintentional negative impacts on society. Any products that are going to enrich our sex lives must have consent woven into the code from the beginning. This means enabling consensual sex with others, but also mitigating abuses that could arise.

My Thoughts: Yes. Absolutely. However, I think this is just the tip. Consent is already missing from our pornography, our app-controlled vibes, our sex apps. Consent is a NOW problem, not a futurist problem. For me the question is more, how does consensual non-consent and consensual body-language look in a digi-sexual world?

2. As sex incorporates more advanced technology, we'll see societal stratification along SexTech haves and have-nots

The Argument: The question of the panel was "Will there be sex in the future?" Answer: yes, but the type of sex will depend on economics. Sex toys are expensive. Paid pornography is a luxury. The people without money or without the will to spend money on pleasure purchases will continue to have "flesh" sex. When they get access to technology, it will either be the most basic or the run-off of the elite. In a future of digi-sexuals, there will be different classes of sexual access.

My Thoughts: I think this is true and in some ways already happening. Let's look at the sexual empowerment movement which disproportionately lifted cis-heterosexual western white women. While I think this tide will eventually lift all women, all people even, I think you can see a hierarchy of people who have sexual power enabled by sex products and those who have not gained sexual power...and even those who have encountered sexual harm (revenge porn for example). If we map the current divide onto the future, we will see bigger rifts with implications for all levels of the hierarchy.

3. A shift towards high-tech sexuality may be a symptom of broken social systems

The Argument: In some ways, the need for sexual technology indicates a problem with sex as it exists today. The pleasure gap leaves straight women high and dry. Young men substituting healthy sexual education for porn school. Sex products can help people fill a void in their lives. Advances in sex technology could further dissociate people from one another and delay solutions for underlying societal ills.

My Thoughts: I obviously think sex products can be used for good. However, I do think there are structural problems with sexual attitudes and communications that need to be attended to concurrently. If we focus solely on pleasure, we perhaps risk breeding an escapist culture over a sex-positive one.

4. A shift towards SexTech integration and mainstreaming may offer respite and rehabilitation for certain populations

The Argument: Ayaka Hahn from Imagine VR gave a talk in 2017 at the Asia Adult Expo in Hong Kong. She hypothesized that VR sexuality could offer a sexual outlet from those relegated to the fringes of society. Could SexTech be used to rehabilitate people who have committed sexual harms? It's perhaps a slippery slope, but an interesting conversation around using sex products to reduce harm, loneliness, and negative sexual outcomes.

My Thoughts: I enjoy this as a thought exercise—after all Modality Group was founded to amplify consensual sexual pleasure while reducing sexual harm. However, I worry about the actual implications for using sex products to reform and am unsure of the effectiveness. That said, we must think about harm reduction as we move into a digi-sexual future.

The Questions

I left the event with more questions than answers. I found myself thinking about the following:

• What role will sexual education play in tech driven sexual universe?
• How will the introduction of more niche sexual products impact the existing social isolation already driven by social media?
• Will a SexTech future be more Altered Carbon or Ready Player One?

Let me know what you think!