Dirty Dishes	Dirty Dishes Archive

Dawn was intrigued to read about the burgeoning field of "teledildonics," an evidently fast growing high-tech industry which allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes.

At a recent gathering of sex researchers, Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, said "What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex. There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction."

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Right now, though, the technology is relatively simple, allowing remote activation of vibrators, providing separated lovers a chance to "reach out and touch" each other even when thousands of miles apart. "The Iraq war... was kind of a boom for our company," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does."

While teledildonics promoters are bullish on the feasibility of full-size, human-like sex robots, others, including Dawn, are more skeptical. If they can't get a robot to do a good job sweeping a floor, Dawn suspects that a rewarding rim job, or skull fuck, or piss hose-down will remain the job of human partners for the foreseeable future....