When I was a kid, I loved thinking about the future. I was sure we would all be wearing one piece space rompers. We would eat all of our meals via pill and be able to taste things in our dreams. I thought I would own hover crafts in multiple shades and that I would have a holographic butler to tend to my every need. None of that has happened (except for like, maybe the rompers).

The closest today has come to matching child-Becca’s dream of the future is the rise of virtual reality technology. What started as a trend has become something more.

Virtual reality isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s becoming a part of our culture, much in the way of 3D printing. And, just like with 3D printing, it was only a matter of time before human beings figured out how to use it for sex. Sure, in the not distant future we will regularly be able to 3D print organs for transplant, but until that happens you know someone was already like, “Do you think we can 3D print… my penis?

How does VR porn work? Here's how ExtremeTech.com explains it:

The most straightforward way for most people to start watching VR porn is with Google Cardboard. Any pair of compatible goggles should work, but you should probably consider investing in a pair with a strap for… better immersion. If you have an iPhone, Naughty America recommends using either an app called Mobile VR Station or an app called Homido 360 VR Player to watch the videos. However, the Homido app is much easier to navigate, and it doesn’t hide any functionality behind in-app purchases.

If you’re using an Android phone, Naughty America suggests an app called AAA VR Cinema. However, the Homido 360 VR Player is available on Android as well. Either app should work without issue. ...

Of course, there are other options available if you’re willing to spend a bit more money on a real VR helmet.

It’s not surprising that virtual reality is booming in the porn industry. As of today, the rise of people watching virtual reality porn is up by 250% from just one year ago. On Christmas Day, 2016, PornHub reported more than 900,000 views of its VR porn content.

Porn is supposed to be an escape, a way to discontent, objectify, fantasize, and ideally orgasm. It makes sense that a more immersive and personal interactive experience would be appealing to anyone who enjoys porn.

However, as virtual reality porn becomes the norm, do we run the risk of disconnecting ourselves from other people now more than ever before? It’s a tempting thought to believe. After all, if you do not have to worry about the humanity of the so-called "person" you’re having sex with in VR porn, surely that would change the way we interacted with real life people when we encountered them outside of a porn-inverse for sex times.

I don’t buy it. Saying that virtual reality porn is going to create some dangerous Westworld-type reality causing us to dampen our humanity is underestimating a human being’s ability to compartmentalize.

In a way, it’s no different from saying that porn negatively effects the way in which men treat women. I know lots of very good men who watch porn, and pretty rough stuff at that. These men love their wives and in some cases, they also love their children. They are feminists and allies. They understand that when it comes to masturbation they are tickling a little lizard-like section of their brain that has nothing to do with how they behave in the real world or what they believe when it comes to morality.

If I were ever to try virtual reality porn, the first thing I would do is see what it feels like to have sex with a woman as a man with a penis. Using the logic above, that virtual reality porn dehumanizes women to men, having imaginary sex with my imaginary penis would mean that I wish I were a man and that from now on I won’t be able to enjoy receiving a penis in my own vagina during sex.

We all know that’s ridiculous. Because I love receiving some penis, dawg.

Human beings are complicated. We are highly intelligent, questioning, moral animals — but we often forget that last word; animal. For all our high-minded thinking, at the end of the day we have basic (in the truest sense of the word) needs that require scratching and doing that doesn’t make us any more or less connected to our fellow man. If anything it makes us better appreciate reality for what it is.

Sex will never be the same as pornography. Pornography will never be the same as sex. The two can share characteristics, but the truth will always remain that people look for very different things out of sex than they do from porn. It's a bit naive to think that some fancy goggles are going to change things.

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