[In this post from Psychology Today’s The Future of Intimacy blog, clinical psychologist and sex therapist Marianne Brandon provides vivid descriptions of spatial and social presence in both non-sexual and sexual contexts (e.g., “your body bypasses your thoughts, taking its marching orders from your senses”), and highlights key questions about the promise and peril of experiences of intimacy via virtual reality. –Matthew] [Image: Source: KDdesignphoto/Shutterstock] When the Voyeur Enters the Scene: The Promise of Virtual Reality Porn VR porn may be more impactful than 2D porn in a variety of ways. By Marianne Brandon Ph.D., The Future of Intimacy Reviewed…

[I capitalized the word ‘could’ in the headline of this story from The Guardian because much of the coverage of a new, short opinion piece in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood co-authored by Ananya Arora and Anmol Arora of the University of Cambridge suggests that the publication is a research study and gives the conclusions great weight. Even the co-authors note positive effects of voice assistants and steps Amazon has taken to minimize negative effects on children. A EurekAlert! press release from the journal mistakenly identifies only one of the authors and omits some key information. At least…

[This report from the University of Toronto’s student newspaper The Varsity summarizes a recent faculty panel discussion about “virtual reality and life”; in addition to raising some interesting issues and questions it demonstrates the relevance of presence-evoking technologies across diverse disciplines. –Matthew] [Image: Professor Karina Vold led the discussion on VR with six professors from various departments. Credit: Courtesy of Prof. Karina Vold] Virtual reality and the future of society September Soiree in Technophilosophy asks questions about VR and life By Jevan Konyar and Sahir Dhalla October 2, 2022 It takes great vision and knowledge to tackle questions as vast…