What is "teledildonics"

n. Technology which can be used remotely control dildonics, allowing mutual masturbation over the Internet.

Teledildonics (also known as "cyberdildonics") is real or fictional technology for remote sex (or, at least, remote mutual masturbation), where tactile sensations are communicated over a data link between the participants. The term can also refer to the integration of telepresence with sexual activity that these interfaces make possible — the term was coined in 1975 by Ted Nelson in his book Computer Lib / Dream Machines.

The term has also been used less accurately (since there's no "tele-" element) to refer to robotic sex, i.e. computer-controlled sex toys that aim to substitute for or improve upon sex with a human partner. Promoters of these devices have claimed since the 1980s they are the "next big thing" in cybersex technology. A report in the Chicago Tribune in 1993 suggested that teledildonics was "the virtual-reality technology that may one day allow people wearing special bodysuits, headgear and gloves to engage in tactile sexual relations from separate, remote locations via computers connected to phone lines."

Sex toys that can be manipulated remotely by another party are currently coming onto the market. These toys sometimes come with movies to which the toys' actions are synchronized by means of a previously-written script. Other products being released fit a new category called bluedildonics, which allow a sex toy to be controlled remotely via a Bluetooth connection. A report in 2008 suggested that teledildonics, along with text and email and webcams, can be used to "wind each other up to fever pitch during the working day" as a prelude to sex with a human during the evening hours. New technologies can help people establish "emotional connections" via the web. Indeed, teledildonics technology has already been integrated with adult online webcam services and certain sex toys.

A book reviewer of David Levy's Love and Sex with Robots in The Guardian in 2008 suggested that teledildonics was "but one stage in a technological and social revolution" in which robots will play an increasingly important role, with artificial lifeforms that will "attend to our needs with magic fingers"; Levy argued that by 2050 "sex with robots will be commonplace." Some products have been shown at the Museum of Sex in New York City.