What is cybersex?

Class Discussion: "What is cybersex?"

• Cybersex is sex that depends to a greater or lesser extent on technology.

  According to Richard Glyn Jones, editor of Cybersex–a collection of science fiction stories about sex in the future–cybersex is sex that depends to a greater or lesser extent on technology. He writes, "I have taken a broad view of what the ‘cyber’ part of the title means (we all know what sex is, I take it), using it not just in its current vague form meaning ‘something to do with computers’ but more in its original sense, which derives from Norbert Wiener’s cybernetics: the study of all systems that show some degree of self-determination, whether they be machines, computers, or indeed human beings. Cybersex in this context is therefore sex that depends to a greater or lesser extent on technology" (p. xv).
  
  If we define cybersex as a simple combination of sex and technology, we could consider that cybersex had its start in the late 1860s, when—according to Rachel P. Maines (1999) in her book, The Technology of Orgasm—American physician George Taylor patented a steam-powered massage and vibratory apparatus to cure women of the "hysteria" stemming from a lack of orgasmic relief (p.14). Soon after, in the 1880s, the battery-powered electromechanical vibrator, equipped with various interchangeable vibratodes, was designed by British physician, Joseph Mortimer Granville (p. 15).
  
  *show picture of Fig. 3 from page 15
  
  For the purposes of this class, we will focus on cybersex as a combination of sex and computer technology, ranging from hot chat to gadgetry, to virtual reality (VR), online porn, and more.