November 25, 2001

11:42 AM

MIT's Erotic Computation Group. "By developing advanced sexual appliances and techniques, we seek to broaden the range of human amative expression and heighten our potential for sexual gratification." Good to see that at least some people are doing research that will benefit all mankind.
posted by Eloquence (22 comments total)

Sara Cinnamon: Sexual Robotics

I can't decide if thats a good porn star name or a good porn star title. Probably both. Wish there was more meat to this site, probably a joke student organization.
posted by skallas at 12:11 PM on November 25, 2001

Is this the newest of MIT pranks?

...her goal is to build capable robotic sex creatures with a living presence and to gain a better understanding of how humans will engage in coitus with this new kind of technology.

That's a bit much.
posted by tomorama at 12:14 PM on November 25, 2001

I'm trying to uncover evidence that this is a joke.... One of the students, Dan Maynes-Aminzade, has two websites -- one, supposedly "professional", at monzy.org/, with no mention of the project. The site's pretty funny, though. The other, his personal site, is at monzy.com/, and it says he just started a new research group -- which links to Eloquence's link. But the group isn't listed with the other research groups at the MIT Media Lab page listing those groups. Hmm.

Couldn't find anything else about the other MIT students, on MIT's site, at least. They're all there, though, in the Media Arts and Sciences dept., except the sexual robotics woman, who's in the mechanical engineering dept....
posted by mattpfeff at 12:18 PM on November 25, 2001

Joke.
posted by mmarcos at 12:28 PM on November 25, 2001

Pretty "fucking" hilarious.
posted by scarabic at 12:30 PM on November 25, 2001

"No, no, Mom I'm not making porno at school! That's just something some loser on the internet wrote. I promise! Um, hold on."


"Hey Sarah, got that robo-dildo ready yet?"

"No Mom, that's not the director!"
posted by skallas at 12:32 PM on November 25, 2001

If you see a mention of DVDA on a college site, you can be 100% sure it's a joke.
posted by mathowie at 12:32 PM on November 25, 2001

damn and i so wanted the jackhammer jesus....
a perfect christmas gift
posted by quarsan at 1:08 PM on November 25, 2001

and if anyone missed the crucifix dildo, then you should never forgive yourselves. :D

it's definitely a joke... those descriptions are all pretty obviously fake... based around some other pretty funny parody sites. although i feel somewhat dirty after reading it.
posted by onthestereo at 1:08 PM on November 25, 2001

yeah, it's gotta be a joke, but shouldn't there be some definitive evidence somewhere? Some little, knowing wink to those who get it? Some confirmation that, yes, you're onto us, and you are simply the coolest for seeing through us?

A sign, that's all I want, just a sign. Dear god, is that so much to ask?

(Then again, the joke is too far over the top to really require confirmation. What can you do.)
posted by mattpfeff at 1:22 PM on November 25, 2001

Joke or not, it's definitely not a Boring Business Solution.
posted by Grum at 2:21 PM on November 25, 2001

Posting "it's a joke" would spoil it, just like it would spoil Bonsai Kitten. Of course it's a joke.
posted by kindall at 2:49 PM on November 25, 2001

The thing that gave it away to me as a joke was the mention low down on the page of the iBrator, which itself was a spoof. But what about that antique steam-powered vibrator? Those kids at MIT are crazy!
posted by skylar at 2:57 PM on November 25, 2001

Anything look familiar?
If you look carefully, you'll notice the captions are somewhat different and more in line with traditional research.
posted by dness2 at 3:17 PM on November 25, 2001

Oh my god. But with a URL like that, how can it be a joke? This is awesome.

I especially liked the tip of the hat to Orgasmo with the "DVDA" option in the Interactive Adult Cinema screenshot.
posted by SpecialK at 7:48 PM on November 25, 2001

These Media Lab graduate students did get a grant from the MIT Council for the Arts to form a band called LiveSexAct.
posted by liam at 8:03 PM on November 25, 2001

yet another shining example that I went to the wrong school. maybe I can do grad school stuff there?
posted by ShawnString at 8:23 PM on November 25, 2001

the jackhammer jesus has just one safety rule
feet first, feet first, not the head you fool


oh dear...
posted by lotsofno at 9:03 PM on November 25, 2001

damn and i so wanted the jackhammer jesus....
a perfect christmas gift

Not to worry. The products on the Divine Interventions site are quite real. They had a booth set up at the Folsom Street Fair here in San Francisco this last year. Just remember to ask yourself 'Who would Jesus do?'
posted by BenNewman at 9:22 PM on November 25, 2001

Oh, my goodness! Do Lynne Cheney and ACTA know about this? ;}
posted by Carol Anne at 4:03 AM on November 26, 2001

(sorry for self links...its just so topical, I can't help it.)

In an odd case of parody meets reality, I did get Dildonics working on my computer last week during my radio show. It is real and amazing. Combine it with a webcam for serious hijinks. I had someone from 4 states away rubbing my inner thigh while somebody in Canada was controling a different vibrating toy. (4 toys at a time are possible)

I'm supposed to be interviewed for a BBC documentary about future sex technologies (specifically, globalgasm and dildonics) tomorrow.

Should I be worried that the content of a joke site is parallel to the content of my real life?
posted by halcyon at 10:54 AM on November 26, 2001

It was a hoax after all... (NYT link)
posted by talos at 6:56 AM on December 3, 2001