 Hi everyone, my name is Nastya and I am a philosopher who studies cyber sex. You know, usually when people hear this they start to become very interesting and also a little bit confused. So they start to ask me such questions like, well, you know, how philosophy this very sophisticated discipline with all these ancient guys can study sex. And also, what do you mean by cyber sex? Is there some sort of sex with cyborgs? And even have you ever tried? So today I will try to answer at least some of these questions and show how actually philosophy can study sex and all influences that technologists have on human sexuality. So my first question is, what is cyber sex? You know, if you open philosophers and you will try to find the answer, you will see that there are a lot of different definitions. Some of them are really broad. For example, Lansford will think that virtual sex is basically something starting from simple masturbation and when you just fantasize about something and ending with sex with robots. But other philosophers are really narrow. For example, Benzaev thinks that cyber sex is just a digital messaging in real time. But my favorite definition is actually by Doring and she thinks that cyber sex is a computer mediated interpersonal interactions in which participants are seeking for sexual motivation and they want to have the sexual arousal and satisfaction. I love this definition for several reasons. First of all, I really love that she tells that it is an interpersonal interaction and she underlines about that there should be at least two participants. And the second one, I really love that she tells that it should be at least two of them. Then we will exclude your fantasies about Benedict Cumberbatch last night, so you should have at least two people. And also I really love about this definition is that it's a computer mediated interaction. So I will also exclude from this definition robots because when you have sex with robots, you do this in your physical reality. You do this with your bodies. But cyber sex is actually about having sex in the virtual reality through the virtual technologies. So you go to this internet or maybe in the future something else and you interact with people. However, I do not deny that in the future maybe we can have sex with robots because maybe in the future robots become so independent that they can enter their virtual reality and also engage with humans. And also I do not deny the possibility that we can fall in love with artificial intelligence or some software programs like this guy from the movie Her and we can have sex with them. But everything will happen in the virtual world. So what I want you to remember from that is that cyber sex is basically an act of sex that happens in the virtual space. So it's always in the internet or somewhere else. But the second question that now when you know what is virtual sex, you can ask me then okay, but how can I do cyber sex? What are the ways? And philosophers can give you different answers. And the first way that you can do cyber sex is actually a virtual reality technologies. But unfortunately for now it's a matter of future because if you want to have cyber sex for virtual reality technologies, you should enter to some three dimensional reality and there you will like engage with other people and you not only see them or hear them. You can also touch them or even smell them but all of this can be possible in future when we can exchange a big amount of data. So maybe it's not a really satisfying answer. Then what are the other ways that you can try even now? The second way is to try it through video. Basically you just open Skype or any other technologies, call to your partner and then you have sex. You just masturbate with each other or you just perform some other sexual actions and then you have cyber sex through video. The third way is game-based cyber sex when again you open browser or something else and create a character and then enter to this game and participate in sexual activity with other characters who are created by other human beings. And the fourth way is actually text and this way is like old fashioned one and also the first one that appeared in computers. It's when you just exchange it with your partner with all these digital messages and you verbalize sexual actions and reactions and for you everything feels so real. So this second, this fourth way actually can be a really problematic for philosophy because then you can ask what is the difference between talking about sex and having sex through words. Because you know when you're just exchanging these messages maybe you just talk about sex like for example we are doing now. But I want to underline that cyber sex it's not talking about sex and the main difference lies in the purpose of such act. Because when you have cyber sex you really do this because you want to have sexual satisfaction or you want to be sexually aroused. But when you just talk about sex your main purpose of this act can be something else. For example you want to enlighten yourself about something or you just want to gossip or to discuss something else. So this is the difference that lies between talking about sex and having sex. And the second difference lies that when you do cyber sex you actually believe that what is happening is really real for you. To understand this I can compare that when you read a book or you watch a movie you also if you're really interested in what is happening you can forget about everything that happens in real world because you're really engaging in this book or movie world. So for you it will feel like real. The same actually happening when you have cyber sex through text or maybe some other technologies. And then people still can ask what is the difference that lies between just watching porn or reading some erotic literature and having cyber sex and the difference lies in active role of you in this action. Because you know when you just watch porn or read erotic literature you basically just a passive consumer of what is happening. You can't influence on this at all. But when you have cyber sex you actually and actively engaging in this activity and your influence of your body of partner and also your partner can influence on you. So this active participation in cyber sex is really different. But then still some of us can be skeptical and ask is cyber sex than sex if it's okay like you have this active component but still maybe you just you know just like read or co-create some sort of book or do some movie. So for these people I want to tell that cyber sex also showed that sex is not only about body it's actually about the mind. And for argue for that I want to tell the difference that lies between other basic human desires and sexual desire. So we have these basic human desires like desire for sex, desire for food, desire for water and the difference lies that lies between sexual desire and desire for hunger and thirst is that if I show you a picture of some people who eat food or picture of food you will not satisfy your desire of hunger. But you know if I show you a picture of people having sex I actually can satisfy your desire of sexual satisfaction. So this also underlines that sexual desire is a really social desire and sex is not just body with all these secretions and everything it's actually about the mind with all emotions feelings that we have. And even empirical research confirms that. For example, Benzeev, Danbeck Cooper-Mensen ask people that do you think that if your partner is cheating, is this cheating for you? And most of the people answer that yes, even if my partner having this cyber sex with someone who is on the other part of the world for them it will still feel like cheating. So a lot of people our intuitions confirm that cyber sex is a real sex. But still, cyber sex also shows that we don't know what is sex because we have this really traditional definition of sex like vaginal penetration but then with the development of our human sexuality we also started to include oral sex, anal sex, mutual masturbation and all other different sexual activities. So we see that human sexuality is actually something that is developing through time, through history also changing in different cultures. So why we cannot include cyber sex now and call that yes, this is sex. And in the end of my talk I want to leave you with some of questions that also cyber sex brings to philosophy of sex. Like the first question is how do we know that we have sex? Because you know if in cyber sex there is no body, it's also only mind. How do we know that we are now having sex and not just talking about it? So what are the conditions for us as humans to have sex? The second question is still is cyber sex cheating or not? Because if I never see my partner and my partner of cyber sex lives somewhere else maybe it's not cheating because you know when I cheat with my partner in real world maybe it's something more serious. And the third question is should we reject our real life sex in favor of cyber sex? Because you know cyber sex for now at least feels like more safer because you cannot be pregnant through cyber sex. You cannot have these sexual diseases. You also in cyber sex you can have a lot of partners in one time. You can also find any sexual activity that you like and for you it's more easier to do. So it feels now that cyber sex maybe is a better way of having sex. So why we still continue to do real life sex if we have this cyber sex technology? I'm still actually struggling with all these questions and I hope that today I show you how philosophy can challenge our sexual activity. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. Okay there were quite many questions from you and just to clear it up. So is sex with robot is cyber sex? No. Because when you have sex with robots you do this in the physical reality like with your bodies. But cyber sex actually underlines that you have sex in the virtual world in the internet or maybe in some other virtual reality. Okay there was a question that got many likes. Like about, okay if literally if I masturbate and watching the porn video is it cyber sex or not? Not at all because again as I underline that you should have at least two participants or even more. But when you just watch porn the movie star is not right here. So it's not like really like engaging with all this. Okay so there must be mutual. Yeah. Okay that's quite clear answer. So now question to you. Would anybody of you like to try cyber sex? Please raise your hand up. At least something. Okay did anybody, did anybody try cyber sex actually? Don't be shy. And there was one more question. Did you try cyber sex but you actually answered this question. So I think that's it.