Neuroscience and sex

Another great photo by Curtis Joe Walker.

Last month (thanks to, and with my friend Ed Hunsinger) I got exclusive access (more thanks to CerebralHack) to try a NeuroSky headset and video game that I controlled with my mind. I’m not joking — read more in this post (cerebralhack.com). As you can see in the video below, I levitate things, throw cars around, and of course, set cars on fire and blow them up. I actually didn’t know Ed was filming me until I saw this video go up on CrebralHack’s post! It really worked. It felt… strange. Setting cars on fire felt strangely natural. My photoset from our tours of Neurosky and our visit to a researcher at OCZ Technology are here. In short, I really, really want a mindset headset and the FUN game that comes with it, NeuroBoy.

I’m reminded of this by an interview in h+ Magazine, “This Is Your Brain On Neurotechnology” where they interview Zack Lynch, author of The Neuro Revolution and he talkes openly about sex and neurotech. Here’s a snip:

(…) h+: Sex drove the development of both the videotape markets and the Internet as a commercial entity. Your book only has one specific mention of sex, and yet the application of neuroscience and neurotechnology has great potential to enhance human sexuality. What role do you envision that sex will play in the evolution and marketing of the Neuro Revolution?

ZL: (pause) Isn’t it sort of obvious? (laughter) It’s not necessarily a major driving force, but sex is an extraordinarily important component of human behavior – if not the fundamental component along with eating – and neurotechnologies will be developed (and they are being developed) to treat people that can’t fully appreciate and experience sex. These same technologies will be used by others to improve their sexual experiences. And this doesn’t just include drugs, it includes neurostimulation devices.

h+: You describe both oxytocin (important to human bonding) and dopamine as “emoticeuticals” that will likely have a big impact on a future neurosociety. Will these become FDA-regulated drugs like the antidepressants of today?

ZL: The FDA is already involved. But the reality is that we live in a highly complex, global economy. If an individual group or a company can develop safe and effective neurotechnology outside the United States, and it then becomes popular and it’s used and creates a competitive advantage for an individual or a company or an entire country, then those technologies will seep back into other countries where perhaps they haven’t been legalized. (…read more, hplusmagazine.com; thanks, David!)