Quick like a bunny rabbit?

**Disclaimer - links in this post may not be work safe***

Ladies and Gentlemen, virtual sex has arrived. No, I'm not talking one handed typing in chat rooms or obsequious porn scattered about the internet, or even performance in front of a web cam. Sex toys are going high tech.

Before I go any farther, I suppose you're wondering why I even know about these things. Well, I have a friend who's quite a geek (meant in the most endearing of terms, trust me...after all, I find intelligence to be a turn on) who has gotten engaged. His fiancee lives a few states away. In the neverending search for the perfect gift, one of my friends discovered sex toys that can be activated by text messages or controlled remotely from a computer, and felt the need to share them with us before sending one to the happy couple. I just feel the need to share this with you because, well, I can.

We all know that the driving force behind propagating a technology among the masses isn't its utility for education or business applications, but it's ability to expand the amateur pornography industry. Usenet exploded when people discovered alt.sex.anything...the most frequented sites in the early days of the web were adult websites and chatrooms. Now, that same entrepreneurial spirit is reaching into the bedroom. Or should I say, across the bedroom?

Looking for an example? How about a toy equipped with Bluetooth that can be activated via text message, anytime, anywhere? (I'm trying to keep the text work/family friendly at least - here's the link if you want to know more) Or the one that my friend ended up purchasing: The Internet Enabled Rabbit (Again, this link isn't worksafe - click at your own risk). For those who can't/won't click, here's a sanitized version of the description:

Across town or across the country, plug and play the Rabbit into one computer,
while the other operates the controls with a secure connection! ... And here's
another great feature: hook-up the Rabbit to your PC and gain access to dozens
of additional features...!
System requirements: Windows 98 and later, serial
port or USB adapter (sold separately).

Now, the first thing I thought of when I read this was "The Grey Hounded Hare" - that Looney Tunes cartoon where Bugs is at the dog track and sees the electric bunny decoy and spends 3 and a half minutes trying to save her from the dogs, only to stop her at the end of the track and get quite a shocking kiss! But the second thing I thought of was a book I read in college about technology and escapism. One of the chapters was about using technology and virtual reality to ease people who had social disorders into real human interaction, from crowd settings to sexual contact. What does this say about our society if we are now choosing to interact in ways that less than a decade ago were reserved for people with imbalances and disorders? Are we all heading toward some greater dysfunction? Or were the people we thought were slightly off, actually right all along?

You know, 63 percent of American families fit the definition of dysfunctional. That means they're the norm now. While you chew on that for a while, I'm going to go have some real human interaction before our rabbits and Bluetooth and computers and cell phones turn our very homes into convents and monastic cloisters.