I remember seeing the Woody Allen film, Sleeper, and wondering about that Orgasmatron...well it looks like some doctors are setting about making this sort of "instant pleasure" a reality:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Telegraph UK
'Sex chip' being developed by scientists click to show
'Sex chip' being developed by scientists
The chip works by sending tiny shocks from implanted electrodes in the brain.
The technology has been used in the United States to treat Parkinson's disease.
But in recent months scientists have been focusing on the area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex - this is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.
A research survey conducted by Morten Kringelbach, senior fellow at Oxford University's department of psychiatry, found the orbitofrontal cortex could be a "new stimulation target" to help people suffering from anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from such activities. His findings are reported in the Nature Reviews Neuroscience journal.
Neurosurgery professor Tipu Aziz, said: "There is evidence that this chip will work. A few years ago a scientist implanted such a device into the brain of a woman with a low sex drive and turned her into a very sexually active woman. She didn't like the sudden change, so the wiring in her head was removed."
He added however that the current technology, which requires surgery to connect a wire from a heart pacemaker into the brain, can cause bleeding and is "intrusive and crude".
He continued: "When the technology is improved, we can use deep brain stimulation in many new areas. It will be more subtle, with more control over the power so you may be able to turn the chip on and off when needed.
"In 10 years' time the range of therapies available will be amazing – we don't know half the possibilities yet."
An electronic machine, named the Orgasmatron, taken from the 1973 Woody Allen film Sleeper, is already under development by a North Carolina doctor, who is modifying a spinal cord stimulator to produce pleasure in women.
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On the one hand, I find this could be an interesting invention. It could be useful to many, who have trouble achieving their O whenever they want it, and to people with health problems that make the big O harder to come by. I can also seeing it turn into some kind of masturbatory device!
On the other hand, I can see all sorts of awry problems coming from this too, like it being used against someone's will or it substituting "normal" routes of achieving pleasure, leading to people even forgetting how to achieve it any other way.
It could certainly simplify our lives considerably. But like all simplifications, what would the price be? With the Internet, and TV, we read and learn less and less, I have heard say countless times. I read somewhere the other day, in an interview with a well-known Portuguese author, that the problem with today's generation is that we want for nothing, and are curious of nothing. She said that lack of curiosity is a terrible thing, we have no thirst for knowledge and become more and more apathetic, unappreciative, and less able to cope with the curve balls life throws our way. Well, this is a bit of a stretch with regards to this orgasm machine, but you get what I mean.
If it came around I think I'd try it, if I was able to. If only once. But it may be akin to a plastic surgery of sorts - a quick fix that masks the deeper reasons behind our dissatisfaction. What do you think of this device? Would you try it?