According to this: orgasmatron
someone has finally invented the orgasmatron, a device that will let women have orgasms using a button on a remote control.
What kinds of restrictions are needed on such a device, which appears to have at least as much potential for “abuse” as many outlawed drugs?
I would guess that this technology, if it works as stated, could be used to replace many psychoactive drugs, including recreational drugs. If there are no significant side effects will society allow such devices to be sold on demand, or will the same arguments that are used to justify the restrictions on recreational drugs be used to restrict these devices as well?
Um, beg to differ. Has not “been invented”. Is “in the process of being researched” if he ever gets any funding. Notice the words “could offer”, “could allow”, “could begin”, and “could be”.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled debate on The Ethics of the Orgasmatron.
People have known for years that you could implant electrodes in rats’ brains and teach them to push the lever to get an orgasm, and that they’ll keep on pushing the lever to the exclusion of all else, until they starve to death. So what’s new here? Installing it in women? Ooo, the wonderful myth of the cyborg nymphomaniac, except that in this variant of the story, she doesn’t need a man, she needs a battery… I can see where that would be very threatening to the male power structure, so no, I don’t see this gadget coming into widespread use at all. As a matter of fact, I seriously doubt it’ll ever get much farther than the CNN story.
Speaking as a female, I’d like to point out that IMHO, half the fun of an orgasm is getting there. An orgasm isn’t something like taking a vitamin pill, where you check it off your list for the day. “Push the button, okay, I’m done, what’s next?”
And as for installing it in men, it was my understanding that after a guy <ahem> experiences orgasm after a certain number of times in a row, it just starts to hurt. Do you guys really want to come so much it hurts?
So I’m putting myself in the shoes (so to speak) of a woman who’s in bed with a guy with one of these installed. Nice, huh? All he has to do is push the button and he’s done. But the article doesn’t say, “Push the button and you’ll have a nice long-lasting erection and can go all night”, it says, “Push the button and you’ll ejaculate, boom.” So from my perspective, what’s the point? Why should I go to bed with this guy? Oh, sure, if he’s the hubby with ED problems, I’ll be grateful that modern science can come up with a way to let him have his fun, too, but for the Girl On The Street (so to speak), what’s in it for her?
And for the guy without ED, again, why would you want one? Mother Nature pushes the button for you. It doesn’t say anything about delaying ejaculation, only triggering it.
I’d also like to point out that the article doesn’t say, “This will give a woman an orgasm”. What it says is:
This doesn’t sound like an orgasm to me. It sounds like “about one-third of the way up Eve’s Mountain” to me. I don’t merely “exclaim emphatically” and then say mildly, “Oh, you’ll have to teach my husband to do that”, when I <ahem> experience an orgasm. I think that this Dr. Meloy’s just stumping for research funding, and CNN is happy to assist him in his quest.
It was my understanding from reading the article that the implants would be, you know, implanted under very specific circumstances. The procedure costs $15,000, which ain’t exactly pocket change, so it will be a while at least before this would become as common as the vibrator.
I got the impression that this surgery would be performed only on people who are sexually dysfunctional, not on anyone who coughs up the cash. I think this compares better to, say, getting a pacemaker than getting LASIX. We’re talking about electrodes implanted along your spine. That’s pretty serious stuff. When other measures have failed, this would become an option.
That said, I don’t think this has all that much more potential for abuse than other sexual devices. It appears to offer more or less instant gratification, but so what? If someone’s in the mood to get off, they’ll find a way to do it, implants or no. And the benefits of allowing people to obtain or resume a more normal sex life outweigh, in my opinion, the dangers of a person deciding to come whenever they want.
My 1983 Introductory Psychology textbook contains a section describing what happens when experimental subjects had electrodes implanted incertain areas of their brain and were allowed to press a button to send a small electric current down the electrodes. One subject pressed his button over and over again, and when the researchers asked him about it, he said it was giving him a sensation similar to approaching an orgasm. He said it was quite frustrating because he never got all the way there.
If this new device produces an effect like that, there are going to be more frustrated women out there, not less!
Why? People don’t smoke pot or drink alcohol because it feels like an orgasm, after all. If that’s all they wanted, they’d masturbate instead.
Well, I don’t think it’s really any of “society’s” business, but I have no doubt that it would be illegal in some places. After all, dildos are illegal in Georgia.
Why? People don’t smoke pot or drink alcohol because it feels like an orgasm, after all. If that’s all they wanted, they’d masturbate instead.
Well, I don’t think it’s really any of “society’s” business, but I have no doubt that it would be illegal in some places. After all, dildos were illegal in Georgia until 1999, and still are in Alabama.
Laws prohibiting any kind of cybernetic implant would raise some serious questions.
Let’s say someone gets one of these, and the government subsequently outlaws them. Can the government force that person to have it removed?
After all, it was ruled that women have a right to be able to recieve abortions on the grounds that people have the right to control their bodies. Couldn’t the same argument be made with regard to cybernetics?
Right, but the Male Power Structure prefers not to believe that. They’d rather think that women need them for sex.
Lemur, yeah, okay, maybe the Male Power Structure doesn’t really care whether women have orgasms, but they sure do care whether women are having sex, with or without an orgasm. If women had orgasm implants, they’d never have to put out again. Can’t see the MPS going for that.
pld replied to RoboDude: *“After all, it was ruled that women have a right to be able to recieve abortions on the grounds that people have the right to control their bodies.”
