This weekend in San Francisco, futurists, tech experts, sexologists, and a who's-who list of emergent sex and technology experts are lined up for talks and panels at Arse Elektronika 2007, a conference about "pr0n and innovation" — or the intersections of sex and technology. At our local Porn Palace, this first-of-its-kind international meeting of the (very geeky) minds on the subject of sex and tech looks to be both a humorous (ahem) poke at past sci-fi visions of "future sex" and some realistic explorations of technology's undeniably constant relationship with sex.

Or maybe it's just what happens when you combine the monkeys with the typewriters. You know, you either get Shakespeare or a monkey humping a keyboard. Likely, both — but I think many of us hope it's a pleasant combination of the two. Most often, it's not. For instance, there's some yummy porn on my iPod right now, but still some scientists feel the need to invent electronic singing condoms. Deep down, I can't help but think these powers need to be used for good, not evil.

[...]

It's surprising that Arse — named teasingly after the highly respected international art and technology festival Ars Electronica — is the first conference of its kind. Looking at the schedule of speakers and demonstrations, it's refreshingly far and away from the typical porn (or sex, or tech for that matter) conference.