ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of the most important ethical issues raised by sexual technologies. I distinguish between two waves of sexual technology. I classify as first wave technologies those that connect us to human partners or (in the case of online pornography) provide an approximation of such a connection. There are also what I call second wave sexual technologies. These are different from first wave sexual technologies in that they are designed to offer users an intense and immersive experience and one that is meant to operate in the absence of human partners. The chapter begins by considering the overall environment in which sexual technology operates to consider whether this environment is designed in such a way as to best serve people's needs. I consider ethical issues related to specific technologies. First, I discuss sex robots. They are coming. Should we welcome them? Then I discuss the difficult issue of virtual child exploitation: technologies that enable sexual interactions with representations of underage persons but that do not involve any actual human victims. Finally, I consider the ethics of “love drugs”: pharmaceutical interventions designed to control our emotions.
