Sure, sometimes it feels like we are living in The World Of Tomorrow, what with all the social and technological changes we’ve all been experiencing these last few years but just wait for what’s coming: very, very soon things are really going to be changing… especially in regards to sex!

I’ve discussed virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing, haptic technology, and even neurochemistry but perhaps the biggest change to human sexuality isn’t even human.

Right off the bat, I have a question for you: like most people these days you must have all kinds of online friends: online gaming buddies, flirty Facebook friends, social Tumblr pals, Twitter comrades… all kinds of people you communicate with on almost a daily basis, right? Well, the question is this: are you sure – really sure – that they are really, actually people?

Sure, maybe today – but who knows about the next few years? The research into artificial intelligence is progressing in leaps and bounds. We already have bots that can be eerily ‘human’ in their dealings with us. In fact, that staggering achievement may have already been achieved by Eugene Goostman, a program created by Vladimir Veselov that may very well have passed the famous Turing Test – named for computer pioneer Alan Turning – during a recent event at the Royal Society in London.

Companies like AiBliss and Karigirl have created some amazing programs that can carry on some very realistic – and erotically provocative – conversations. So it doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to conceive of what might be coming next.

In many ways artificial intelligence is the apex of all the coming technology that’s been brought up here: with augmented and virtual reality we will be able to create a synthetic environment… that will be populated by both real humans as well as the products of advanced artificial intelligence. 3D printing advances means we will be able to manufacture perfectly customized hardware aiding in our erotic immersions. Haptic tech will give us the ability to touch and feel whatever we digitally create, making our interactions all but indistinguishable to reality. And neurochemistry and other advances in medical technology mean that we will be able to shape our own minds – and bodies – just as easily.

As with a lot of future tech, lifelike artificial intelligences are a matter of not if but when. Just imagine the world in just a few years, where our friends – and lovers – include not just fellow humans but sophisticated programs designed not just to meet our wildest sexual needs and desires but also act as elegant therapists and healers?

So many ills that still plague mankind, after all, are the result of things like jealousy, envy, a lack of empathy, or loneliness. Why couldn’t our future artificial lovers help us with our passions but also to become even better people?

It’s a cliché to think of developments in artificial intelligence as always leading to the human race being sublimated by this technology. But for every doomsayer there are others who say – as with all the developments I’ve been discussing here – it’s all a matter of approaching these coming changes with an open mind.

And in the case of artificial intelligences why wouldn’t our own creations care for us? When they come – and they will – let’s embrace them and accept them, and maybe in the process come to embrace and accept that we can create something good… and not just an adversary.

After all, what’s the alternative? It’s always better to have lovers and friends, after all… human or otherwise.