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Will humanity always have love, attraction and sex? No matter how! Scientists suggest that the culture of individualism and robotics will significantly change this area of our lives. Even the birth of children will acquire a new format. What kind of predictions do researchers give and what should we prepare for?
Futurology paints plausible pictures of the future in a variety of fields. But, in essence, all these studies are looking for an answer to a single question: what awaits humanity in the future?
Predictions of volcanic eruptions, changes in the configurations of continents, the replacement of diseased human organs with artificial analogues – all this excites our imagination, but suddenly fades when we get acquainted with the conclusions of scientists about possible changes in relation to love and sex.
It is possible that it is the changes in this area that will most radically transform civilization, culture, and our ideas about what is good and what is bad.
Basic instinct is the engine of civilization
We do not think about how much love and sex define the face of our civilization. Production and advertising, promotion of consumption… Everything that is called complex economic terms is somehow tied to satisfying an important human need – to find a sexual partner.
The design of not only clothes, but even automobiles, is aimed at the need to increase sexual status and, if successful, serves as a backdrop for demonstrating: “I am the cutest, rosiest and whiter in the world.”
All culture – literature, music, painting – all plots and harmonies are built around attraction, passion, delight or tragedy. Loyalty and jealousy, happiness and sorrow, betrayal and betrayal – almost all the masterpieces of world culture in one way or another reproduce these stories. No wonder linguists believe that there are only thirty-three of them. But it is they who have shaped the paths of our search for happiness.
American biologist Matt Ridley argues in his book Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature that these pathways will change radically in a decade. While the question remains open, what should we expect, losses or acquisitions. Let’s look at the main predictions.
Body contact is a thing of the past
Scientists refer to the data that the libido loses its power over desires and aspirations. And in each next generation it becomes stronger and stronger. The trend is manifested not only in psychological attitudes, but also in physiology.
Researchers are juggling a wealth of data on declining testosterone levels and sperm activity in men. Forecasts say that the process will only intensify. Moreover, in addition to such obvious reasons as environmental degradation and a sedentary lifestyle, changes in the social sphere play a significant role – the reformatting of gender roles, the strengthening of the cult of individualism.
The generation born at the beginning of the XNUMXst century is considered the most asexual in history – here both a relatively late onset of sexual activity and a decrease in interest in sexual contacts. This is most clearly represented by survey data from the US, Canada, and the UK.
However, the most frightening data for traditionalists relate to the Japanese. According to research by the Japan National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, about half of women and a quarter of the male population prefer not to have sex with real partners. This phenomenon has received the name “celibacy syndrome” in Japanese sociology.
In parallel with this, technological progress has already provided us with robots capable of imitating caress, tenderness, and even a sexual act. So far, the quality of the processes is inferior to natural physiology, but it is already clear that a full-fledged imitation of a human sexual partner is not far off.
And neither you cheating, nor unrequited love, nor tragedies, but only sheer pleasure, at least that’s how it looks at first glance.
But what about the children?
Here, too, scientists are in a hurry to dispel our fears. With the withering away of sex, humanity will not die out, and perhaps, on the contrary, it will become healthier. The risks of random combinations of genes will become a thing of the past.
Genetic engineering and the use of stem cells will help find the optimal combination of genes and eliminate the risk of hereditary diseases. It can be assumed that in a couple of decades, supporters of natural conception will be looked at in the same way as opponents of vaccination are now.
And artificial insemination, according to Stanford University professor Henry T. Greeley, author of The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction, will become the natural norm of a civilized person.
And no “together forever”?
Here we are predicting the most radical changes. We will live longer, without losing sexual attractiveness. The prospect is beautiful, but with it another, no less beautiful, fades away – to live together happily ever after and die on the same day.
It’s just that with the increase in time intervals, the probabilities of personal changes for each of us increase and others decrease – the possibility that a single person is able to make the happiness of our whole life.
And the consequences here are very different. From marriages lasting five to ten years and regular separations, which will be perceived approximately as we now relate to a change of residence, to the triumph of polygamous unions.
How does the heart calm down?
At the same time, according to the author of the book Love and Sex with Robots, David Levy, the progress of technology will create robots that can give us those romantic emotions that are lacking in relationships with a real partner. Thus, the level of claims to each other and conflicts on this basis will decrease. That is, the cyber partner will help keep the relationship with the real partner.
At one of the Moscow exhibitions, as an illustration of the idea of an additional friend, a robot girl was presented, penetratingly reading Blok:
And only with a gentle smile
Sometimes you will remember
About that childhood dream, about unsteady,
What they used to call happiness!
Who will be closer to the truth – Alexander Blok or futurologists who contradict each other in their forecasts, is not yet completely clear. And the question of whether our grandchildren will understand what was the problem with Romeo and Juliet remains open.