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Are sex toys alone actually fulfilling to most people? Given the number of people on thw internet complaining about misery from sexual loneliness, it clearly i

Are sex toys alone actually fulfilling to most people? Given the number of people on thw internet complaining about misery from sexual loneliness, it clearly isn't enough. Sex toys, porn, and enculturing cowardice stave off the war, I guess. You just get Elliot Roger instead.

henearkr 6y ago
The connectedness of the new generation of toys, combined with worlds such as VRChat, are contributing to make the loneliness of "not skin-to-skin sex" a thing of the past. Also you start to see (unmanned) virtual characters sophisticated enough to trigger emotions of love, and in some case commitment. It is clearly still extreme and a bit too early, but in the near future I can see people becoming really in fond of their virtual AI character partner. We agree that not only immediate endorphins levels, but also mid and long term serotonin levels, are important for happiness, and I think that this connected tech is helping in the right way.
- qdot76367 6y ago
  VRChat via a few different plugins (that I should really link from my awesome-buttplug repo) makes up a BIG chunk of my users. Which kinda makes me sad because VRC is an absolute nightmare to work with. Can we please all move to NeosVR? :3
- morlockabove 6y ago
  Sounds like hell. Nothing personal, but I really hope your enterprise fails miserably.
  - henearkr 6y ago
    It's what some people need. People who don't need it just won't use it. It's not a "smoker / passive smoker" effect, they will not disturb other people.
    - morlockabove 6y ago
      Some people need heroin. I'm against the war on drugs, but I still despise dealers.
      - henearkr 6y ago
        But in the case of heroin there are huge side-effects on health of the user and on the security of the surrounding people.
        johnisgood 6y ago
        I know someone who takes it on a daily basis. You would not be able to tell that he uses. It makes him productive (he works in IT), he takes it to combat anxiety and depression. It works for him. He voluntarily goes through withdrawal occasionally so he will not have to increase the dose. He is in a healthy relationship, and so forth. He might be an exception, I do not know. All the side-effects are a result from the War on Drugs: not knowing the purity of the batch, adultered products, and so forth. This is why accidental overdoses happen. This is why it is bad for your health for the most part, because God knows with what it is mixed. Intentional overdoses happen too, but that happens with OTC medications, too, so heroin is not so special in that regard.
        henearkr 6y ago
        Thanks, yes that's true that if the {legal, moral, medical} context was better most of the problem would be gone. People able to workaround the difficulties of this drug may well be fine. My point was that, in the current context, the use or heroin is hazardous -- in our current society, for most people -- which is not the case for virtual sex and related toys (if not horribly dysfunctional).
        johnisgood 6y ago
        Yeah, he does not use it for recreational purposes or escapism, so I believe that changes a lot. He has been doing it for years without any side-effects. He had MRI, blood tests, and so on. Everything's good. I do not know much about virtual sex. What are the possibilities and limitations of virtual sex today?
  - qdot76367 6y ago
    looks at you looks at Project Melody I got some bad news. (This is not to say I'm pro-virtual-emodel or whatever the current name for this is, but it's definitely a thing, and it's definitely popular)
    - morlockabove 6y ago
      Yeah, I know it's big. I just don't like it. I guess I'm raging against the future that seems to be coming- I'm finally old!
- justsupersayin 6y ago
  If that is the society you are building, it deserves to be mercilessly destroyed.
  - henearkr 6y ago
    On what basis? And, I'm not personally building any of this, it just already exists, and some people are enjoying it. Heck, it is even being developed and hacked by the users themselves, when it is hackable, like in this very HN post. Sounds like you just want everybody to be happy only your way... Even without this kind of tech, the paths for happiness are probably beyond everything your little window of a mind can imagine. PS: it looks like somebody has called their local church's friends to retaliate on this how unholly HN thread, and they come up here and create new accounts and answer my comments without even realizing that I am not the OP...
t-writescode 6y ago
Did you know that couples can and do use sex toys? There's a whole industry for it! And, with long-distance relationships, smart sex-toys can facilitate the more intimate times in a more fulfilling way than standard phone or type-sex. A loving and committed couple could, while apart due to, perhaps, a conference or business trip or anything else, enjoy the company of one-another in that way perfectly well.
- morlockabove 6y ago
  Of course! There's good uses for everything. It's all this talk of poorly susbtituting emotional bonds with simulacra that annoys me. Seems like a motte-and-bailey. Oh, it's for couples! Now let's go back to selling our subscription model AI anime girlfriend
  - henearkr 6y ago
    And what do you think about people who develop their own AI anime girlfriend? Even sharing their work as free software libraries? In your wording it only looks like it is the exploitation of people by businessmen selling the happiness as a product, whereas it can actually be the user themselves developing it for their purposes (like when it's opensource, hackable, or even DIY, etc).
    - morlockabove 6y ago
      I'm a lot more sympathetic to someone who manufactures their own drugs for personal consumption, yes, but only because the difficulty involved means you need a minimum of discipline to get there which would hopefully meliorate the negative effects of the habit. It's in the same vein as writing games being more virtuous (to yourself) than playing them. Anyway, my vision of the future is hundreds of millions of obese NEETS who spend their entire monthly UBI check on overpriced insect-protein food, clothing, video, porn and AI girlfriend-as-a-service products. Pigs at the trough, given just enough slop that they don't kill themselves, while the people who can resist temptation (say, helped along by their upbringing) get to be human.

henearkr 6y ago

The connectedness of the new generation of toys, combined with worlds such as VRChat, are contributing to make the loneliness of "not skin-to-skin sex" a thing of the past. Also you start to see (unmanned) virtual characters sophisticated enough to trigger emotions of love, and in some case commitment. It is clearly still extreme and a bit too early, but in the near future I can see people becoming really in fond of their virtual AI character partner. We agree that not only immediate endorphins levels, but also mid and long term serotonin levels, are important for happiness, and I think that this connected tech is helping in the right way.

qdot76367 6y ago
VRChat via a few different plugins (that I should really link from my awesome-buttplug repo) makes up a BIG chunk of my users. Which kinda makes me sad because VRC is an absolute nightmare to work with. Can we please all move to NeosVR? :3
morlockabove 6y ago
Sounds like hell. Nothing personal, but I really hope your enterprise fails miserably.
- henearkr 6y ago
  It's what some people need. People who don't need it just won't use it. It's not a "smoker / passive smoker" effect, they will not disturb other people.
  - morlockabove 6y ago
    Some people need heroin. I'm against the war on drugs, but I still despise dealers.
    - henearkr 6y ago
      But in the case of heroin there are huge side-effects on health of the user and on the security of the surrounding people.
      - johnisgood 6y ago
        I know someone who takes it on a daily basis. You would not be able to tell that he uses. It makes him productive (he works in IT), he takes it to combat anxiety and depression. It works for him. He voluntarily goes through withdrawal occasionally so he will not have to increase the dose. He is in a healthy relationship, and so forth. He might be an exception, I do not know. All the side-effects are a result from the War on Drugs: not knowing the purity of the batch, adultered products, and so forth. This is why accidental overdoses happen. This is why it is bad for your health for the most part, because God knows with what it is mixed. Intentional overdoses happen too, but that happens with OTC medications, too, so heroin is not so special in that regard.
        henearkr 6y ago
        Thanks, yes that's true that if the {legal, moral, medical} context was better most of the problem would be gone. People able to workaround the difficulties of this drug may well be fine. My point was that, in the current context, the use or heroin is hazardous -- in our current society, for most people -- which is not the case for virtual sex and related toys (if not horribly dysfunctional).
        johnisgood 6y ago
        Yeah, he does not use it for recreational purposes or escapism, so I believe that changes a lot. He has been doing it for years without any side-effects. He had MRI, blood tests, and so on. Everything's good. I do not know much about virtual sex. What are the possibilities and limitations of virtual sex today?
- qdot76367 6y ago
  looks at you looks at Project Melody I got some bad news. (This is not to say I'm pro-virtual-emodel or whatever the current name for this is, but it's definitely a thing, and it's definitely popular)
  - morlockabove 6y ago
    Yeah, I know it's big. I just don't like it. I guess I'm raging against the future that seems to be coming- I'm finally old!
justsupersayin 6y ago
If that is the society you are building, it deserves to be mercilessly destroyed.
- henearkr 6y ago
  On what basis? And, I'm not personally building any of this, it just already exists, and some people are enjoying it. Heck, it is even being developed and hacked by the users themselves, when it is hackable, like in this very HN post. Sounds like you just want everybody to be happy only your way... Even without this kind of tech, the paths for happiness are probably beyond everything your little window of a mind can imagine. PS: it looks like somebody has called their local church's friends to retaliate on this how unholly HN thread, and they come up here and create new accounts and answer my comments without even realizing that I am not the OP...

t-writescode 6y ago

Did you know that couples can and do use sex toys? There's a whole industry for it! And, with long-distance relationships, smart sex-toys can facilitate the more intimate times in a more fulfilling way than standard phone or type-sex. A loving and committed couple could, while apart due to, perhaps, a conference or business trip or anything else, enjoy the company of one-another in that way perfectly well.

morlockabove 6y ago
Of course! There's good uses for everything. It's all this talk of poorly susbtituting emotional bonds with simulacra that annoys me. Seems like a motte-and-bailey. Oh, it's for couples! Now let's go back to selling our subscription model AI anime girlfriend
- henearkr 6y ago
  And what do you think about people who develop their own AI anime girlfriend? Even sharing their work as free software libraries? In your wording it only looks like it is the exploitation of people by businessmen selling the happiness as a product, whereas it can actually be the user themselves developing it for their purposes (like when it's opensource, hackable, or even DIY, etc).
  - morlockabove 6y ago
    I'm a lot more sympathetic to someone who manufactures their own drugs for personal consumption, yes, but only because the difficulty involved means you need a minimum of discipline to get there which would hopefully meliorate the negative effects of the habit. It's in the same vein as writing games being more virtuous (to yourself) than playing them. Anyway, my vision of the future is hundreds of millions of obese NEETS who spend their entire monthly UBI check on overpriced insect-protein food, clothing, video, porn and AI girlfriend-as-a-service products. Pigs at the trough, given just enough slop that they don't kill themselves, while the people who can resist temptation (say, helped along by their upbringing) get to be human.