THE display list runs like a restaurant food menu except it is a gourmet menu for our sexual appetite.

On the erotic menu are "Sex chips, cybernetics, sex robots, teledidonics, penisthetics, webcams, synthetic oxytocin, neuromacrosensing, nanobots, melanocortin agonist" so on and so forth.

But for the future, the descriptive list of gadgets, sex toys, surgical techniques and bio-chemical drugs to enhance sexual pleasure and control o the "neural" functioning of the brain are beginning to blur the division between human sexuality lust and desire.

"Throughout history, technological advances and social changes have had very different outcomes than were originally planned or predicted.

"This is the rule, not the exception and it is true regarding human sexuality," wrote American Sexologist Marty Klein, Ph.D in his research paper on the history and future of sex.

Klein contended that societal developments affect Man's sexuality directly and indirectly, citing the invention of birth control pill, the discovery of ovulation and vasectomy as illustrations.

Technology adds variety

In every era, new technologies are always being invented by sex users.

The invention of the VCR led to porno films, telephone to phone sex, photography to pornography, Internet to cybersex (i.e. webcams).

American Robotics scientist Prof Rodney Brooks said he had no reason to doubt that the technology is playing the role as "sexual drivers."

"Sex robots will pleasure humans in the foreseeable future.

"Every technology that we have had, there has been a sexual driver for it," Brooks cited an example of the invention of photography to video players in the 19th century and present day webcams.

Or using computers to control sex toys over long distances as today's virtual reality sex could seem quite real.

The invention of "teledidonics" with web-based outfit enabled users to engage in sex play using vibrator connected to a computer that receives electronic instructions submitted by somebody sitting at another computer.

Futurist and author Brian Alexander speculates on bio-chemical drugs like "neuromacrosensing" and millions of "nanobots" cruising the body and enabling the whole body to act as a sensory communication system.

A long way off

"That ought to make sex pretty good but you'll have to wait. Such things are a long way off," the Futurist said.

But a few new bio-chemicals drugs like "melancortin agonist" have arrived.

Acting through the nervous system, the drug is supposed to rejuvenate desire in women who are suffering from post menopausal sexual dysfunction.

As researchers are beginning to understand how human emotions like bonding and love are actually influenced by the human body's chemicals, and the brain mapping of sexual arousal, technology is playing an increasing role in "sexing" up our physical sex life.

"Since time immemorial men and women have searched for and found techniques and tools to spice up their sex lives," Buzzle.com wrote in an article "Is Technology Sexing Up Your Sex Life."

"From various oils and aphrodisiacs to the latest vibrating dildo, men and women and organizations have created and improvised upon different tools.

"Individuals such as Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine have become billionaires fulfilling people's wildest visual fantasises.

"The sex-toy industry is worth today approximately USD 2 billion, widespread throughout the world," reported Buzz.com.

Virtually replaced?

What about a "sex-chip" in the brain?

Neurosurgeon T Aziz of University of Oxford speculated that better knowledge of the brain's pleasure centres combined with improved surgical procedures and control of electrical pulses may one day make a sex-chip in the brain, a reality.

With technology playing an increasing role and shaping our human sexual activities, like virtual sex or cyber sex, some sociologists are concerned that we may end up as "cyborgs" (an organism that has both artificial and natural systems).

Increasingly, sociologists have compared "virtual sex" to being a cyborg because a natural human activity (engaging in sexual activity) is being mediated by technology and this technology becomes the person's identity.

Cyber-sex is interpreted as a sexual act where two or more people are gathered together via some form of equipment to arouse each other by transmitting sexually explicit messages (i.e. hot-chat, phone sex, webcams).

What is the future trend of human sexuality?

Will body to body sex going to be less common as more and more people tarn to mediated experiences?

Or will mediated sex become a preference over the old fashioned sex that we have had for the past 4 million years?

People want to feel each other

Sex Blogger and author Violet Blue thinks otherwise. "Virtual sex gadgets
and high technology will eventually be a big yawn and boring.

"Having sex with a partner who is actually not in the room isn't all that much fun. People want to feel each other. A lot of interactions we have are most intense and meaningful when we use all the sensory information we get," Blue argues.

Whatever, one thing is certain. The trend of technology and scientific experiments on human sexuality will further be transformed at a greater pace in the next 30 years than it has been in the previous 30,000 years.

Our future will be one wherein sex is linked to more pleasure-seeking rather than procreation like classifying sperm-banks, surrogate mothers and test-tube babies as ancient history.

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