MIS(S) Presentation Notes - Nathan Shedroff

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?)