MIS(S) Presentation Notes - Nathan Shedroff

Make It So (Sexy):
Presentation Notes, Nathan Shedroff and Chris Noessel
MIS(S) is a subset of larger research and writing we are doing for a book called Make It So which
explores how Science Fiction and design and development of real products and services relate to
each other. In essence, itʼs a book about what interaction designers can learn from interfaces
from Science Fiction films and television shows. Notes from this book are posted here:
www.nathan.com/thoughts/MakeItSoSexy.pdf
These notes cover our exploration of sexual interfaces in science fiction. We looked for
appropriate references in SciFi pornography and, though by no means an exhaustive survey, we
found very little sex interfaces. The typical approach in porn is something like Anal Intruder 9 (a
pair of outer-space aliens land on Earth and plot to take over the planet, and their scheme
involves having anal sex with every woman they can find), i.e. any SciFi conceits are merely set
dressing, discarded when it comes to the actual act.
As in the larger book, Make It So, weʼve uncovered paradigms where the development and
design world influences Science Fiction by establishing paradigms on which SciFi must relate and
reference in order to be understood. In this way, current technologies shape our understanding
and context for future visions. Also, weʼve found several ways in which SciFi, in turn, influences
the development of real interfaces by inspiring engineers and designers, setting expectations in
our audiences and users, establishing a social context for interfaces, and by proposing wholly
new paradigms. These influences are explored more deeply in Make It So.
Because weʼre looking primarily at interfaces, this restricts the categories of scifi that is useful. It
must be visual (no books), it must be moving (no graphic novels or illustrations), it must be

consistent (no hand-drawn depictions). This leaves us with television and movies. And for this
particular subset, some porn, though it is surprisingly devoid of interfaces.
In terms of the relationship between sex and technological interfaces, weʼve found three primary
domains in which this happens:
• Matchmaking
• Coupling (Augmented and mediated)
• Sex with Technology
The authors note that future iterations of this content may distinguish between “augmented
coupling” and “mediated coupling.”

All of these range from body interfaces to brain interfaces (and everything in between)

Match-making:
Loganʼs Run (The Circuit) 1978
Jessica puts herself on the Circuit only to end up
in a Sandmanʼs residence.
Total Recall 1990
John specifies the type of love interest heʼd like
in his manufactured memory vacation.
Firefly 2005
Weird Science 1985
Gary and Wyatt specify the physical aspects of
their ideal woman.

Inara, a companion (courtesan), is reviewing
client applications at her next port of call when
she is interrupted by a live video message.
Matchmaking interfaces let the user specify some aspect of their target mate, or help people
physically meet interested parties.
Realworld examples:
• Alt.com/Manhunt.com/Craiglist
• iTrick (sex data fetish)
• Lovegetty (only 3 settings, toy)
Lessons:
• Some of this is already happening as shown in past and current SciFi (alt.com, iTrick, escort
review sites, etc.)
• SciFi interface narratives too narrowly described to be of much use—not enough detail, though
there are some representational aspects that might be inspirational. What we experience in real
life is already better. Could re-establish the bar scene (loganʼs run) that Craigslist has destroyed.
We can make some assumptions that preferences are not used in Loganʼs Run but it may be the
case with Inara (Firefly)
• General matchmaking interfaces have not been seen in scifi in some time, partially because the
audience has likely experienced them in the real world first hand, and they
• Where it can go: collaborative filtering, “magic” (realtime/nearby) matching, (ubiquitous
sensing?)
Sex with Technology
Device-like interfaces:

THX-1138 1971
THX receives physical gratification from a
mechanical device while watching a sexy
hologram.
Sexbots:
Buffybot, Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2001
Spike becomes frustrated when the Buffybot
breaks his illusion that it is really Buffy.
Pris and Roy, Bladerunner 1982
Though Pris is described as a “standard
pleasure model” replicant for use by military
peronnel, we only ever see her kissing another
replicant.
Serenity 2005
Mr. Universeʼs sexbot wife helps him deliver a
Space Truckers 1996
Cindy is both a little excited and terrified at the
sexual prosthetic sported by the cyborg villain
Macanudo.
Futurama 2001
Fry downloads and dates a Lucy Lui-bot, much
to the distress of the rest of the crew, who show
him a PSA explaining the dangers.
Creation of the Humanoids 1962
Esme defiantly flaunts her love of the “clicker”
Pax despite social prejudice against it.
The Stepford Wives
The Stepford Wives are perfect domestic

posthumous, final message to Mal. servants, right down to their sexual duties to
their husbands.
Battlestar Gallactica, 2004
Though not specifically created for sex, the
human-like cylons in the modern reboot of
Battlestar Galactica are fully capable of having
sex. The only way in which this act is unusual is
the fact that the cylonʼs spine glows through the
skin during the act.
Westworld, 1973
Peter expresses his discomfort to a sexbot in
Westworld.
Device-like and cybernetic sex is almost always characterizes negatively. Sexbots are often
treated more sympathetically, but just as often are treated with disdain or as morality warnings.
Sleeper (The Orgasmatron) 1973
Luna and a guest spend 6 moaning seconds
together in the Orgasmatron.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Data reveals that he is “fully functional” in a
scene with Lieutenant Yar.

The Outer Limits: Valerie 23, 1995
Frank meets Valerie for the first time.
VR/Holodeck:
Star Trek: Voyager 1999
The Doctor prescribes a tactile-holographic
remedy to a vulcanʼs Pon Farr.
The Outer Limits: Bits of Love, 1995
…but can interact physically with Aiden in a
special pod.
Star Trek: Voyager 1999
Tuvok satisfies his Pon Farr and avoids
philandering with a holodeck version of his wife.
Other VR/Holographic sex: The Matrix (reference), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Outer Limits:
Bits of Love
In Start Trek, sex with holographic characters is considered acceptable as long as it doesnʼt
interfere with a current relationship. However, relationships with holographic characters (emotions
and not only sex) are definitely taboo.
Brainstorm
Michael rescues Alex from a stupor induced by a looped full-sensory sex recording.

Realworld Examples:
• State of the art of dildos, fucking machines, 10-T electrostim, (variable control?), seXbox 360,
OhMiBod (dildo that vibrates to the beat of your iPod), Real Touch
• Real Doll (Lars and the Real Girl): Asimo (gap between where we think we want to be and
where we actually are).
• Toshibaʼs Kenji emotional comfort robot
• Virtual Jenna
Issues:
• Body to brain continuum
• Device to Human (anthropomorphism) dimension very relevant. Uncanny Valley (Masahiro
Mori): The more "human" the representation, the higher the expectations of behavior. When we
cast technologies or processes in anthropomorphic ways, it raises expectations about the extent
of their behavior. In SciFi this doesn't, necessarily, have to only be human (animals, aliens, etc.)
but the effect is the same.
• Addiction? Healthy depiction of sex?
Lessons:
• Why isnʼt it more prevalent/popular? Itʼs just the mechanics, not the other dimensions of sex.
• SciFi typically extends the existing paradigm and teledidonics isnʼt a dominant paradigm
Where it can go:
• Not exploiting the network, feedback (as partner, gender…), synesthesia, combined
experiences (bests, averages, etc.), realtime reporting of sex in the world/location, sex data
fetish, sex with devices/spaces through transposing sensors signals (grad central station, world)
• Havenʼt seen cybornetic sex parts (Robocop, terminator, six million dollar man/bionic woman,
borg, steampunk sex parts?)

Augmented Coupling:
Barbarella 1968
Barbarella and Dildano have sex “like they do
on Earth” by taking a pill and touching hands.
Sexworld 1978
A client to sexworld is distracted when music
appears from out of nowhere.
Barbarella 1968
Barbarella undoes Duran Duranʼs murderous
plans by outlasting his sexual torture device.
Flash Gordon 1980
Ming uses his ring to enthrall Dale, testing her
sensual response as a prerequisite for
marriage.

Demolition Man 1993
John is surprised when Leninaʼs frank offer for
sex turns out to be a virtual one.
The Outer Limits, Skin Deep 1995
Sid deactivates his holographic disguise, with
which he plans to seduce his online love
interest.
Strange Days, 1995
Lenny tries and critiques an amateur porn
recording.
Lawnmower Man 1992
Jobe treats Marnie to a psychadelic
introduction to cybersex.
Brainstorm, 1983
Michael rescues Alex from a stupor induced by
a looped full-sensory sex recording.
Realworld examples:
• Second Life pose balls/Redlight Center already doing a little of this
• Greg Larsonʼs The Machine
• Benjamin Cowdenʻs Eating my Cake and Having it Too
• Michale from CoxyProʼs Ultimate Sexual Arousal Vehicle (USAV)
• Thrillhammer
• Malebots.com (Jonathan DeMichaelʼs extensive mod and cosplay community focused, primarily,
on cyborgs and robots, including resources for body tech modification): www.malebots.com
(started around 2000 but flourishing today). Now defunct site and project: MechaMan Project
• Some of the most interesting examples and ground to cover
• Costumes (similar to The Outer Limitsʼ Skin Deep): leather and fetish communities like furries.
Issues:
Healthy? Technically impossible (so far)
Where it can go: fantastic people/creations: lot of opportunity (Lawnmower Man only example),
one/some/many to one/some/many, mass group sex (not exploiting the network), licensing
likeness for avatar sex

Overall Lessons/Conclusion:
Whoʼs leading the way?
Sci Fi is a powerful cultural influence. It affects designer's ideas as well as those of our clients
and audiences, however, in the subject of sex, itʼs not breaking new ground. Sex in Science
Fiction and Sextech are on very different paths and have very little influence on each other, unlike
"legitimate" technologies and interfaces. Sex in SciFi is driven by titillation and story while sextech
is driven by an honest interest in being or doing something new sexually. The two just don't meet
much. Unlike other technologies, itʼs the real world hobbyists that are advancing the state-of-theart,
not Hollywood (despite their budgets). Very parochial and prudish. Sex can be strange and
wonderfully new for those sex culture explorers.
Why is there so little sex in SciFi?
Itʼs about money and risk, ratings and sexual morays in the audience. The general prudishness of
American media is a deterrent to more experimentation in narratives with sex. This is especially
true in comparison to SciFi literature.

What about narrative?
In cinema, every scene must establish something new (implying change, advancing the story).
Interface, technology, and sex are prominent enough to take the focus off the story those scenes.
So, what changes: the interface fails (we see a lot), or the sex itself has to have meaning. You
canʼt really have a scene where two people have sex successfully through an interface because
itʼs pure tech-porn and canʼt advance the plot (unless the tale is specifically and only about
seduction or developing the tech in the first place). Sex needs to drive the story in cinema but in
the realworld, sex is the story. Essentially, sex breaks SciFi storytelling. But there may be
something more fundamental at work here…

The sex imperative is millions of years old, and deeply coded. Evolution is slow anyway, but the
sex drive in particular seems resistant to anything that gets in the way of getting it on. Our
hypothesis is that the reason we donʼt see a lot of sex tech in scifi isnʼt just that Hollywood is
prude or greedy or sensitive about narrative. Itʼs respecting the purity of the sex drive. Itʼs
mirroring nature.
Essentially, SciFi (storytelling) breaks sextech.

• Thereʼs not enough sex in SciFi—at least interesting sex
• Not interesting SciFi sex in porn!
• Watching Science Fiction can be beneficial to your career!
• Weʼre now available as consultants for conceiving of here-to-fore unconceived sexrelated
interfaces. : )