Random Thought Of The Day #447

Day 447

The other day, I made that off-handed comment about a kinky singularity and then realized how not-off-handed it really was. I thought about it a little bit and here's kind of what I came up with on this:



Can I turn a singularity into a beer bong?

 First of all, what is the singularity in the first place? I see it as the point where the whole game changes. And as much of a futurist as you may be, you can't quite predict where things go beyond there. The point where pretty much any potentiality becomes reasonable and cultural norms shift.

Secondly, I think that the term  "kinky singularity" was a little too assuming of a particular outcome and part of a larger picture. The more apt term would be the sexual singularity. Thought Kinky Singularity does still work if you're considering a portion of the sexual singularity.

Now, before I begin to explain this more, here's a quick disclaimer:

Read this under the assumption that I'll be using words like "deviant", "normal", "abnormal", "common" and other terms in the the most literal sense and not as pejoratives. They are objective terms applied to the subjective cultural norms of Americans. So the meanings of adjectives such as these shift as the "cultural norms" of Americans also shift.

For instance, if a group is primarily populated by those that identify as "omnivores" and a particular person skews fully into carnivore or herbivore territory in their dietary choices, then they have effectively chosen an "abnormal" diet.



No veggies? Dietary Deviant!

 Conversely, if a group is primarily populated by those that identify as "carnivores" or "herbivores" and a particular person skews fully into the opposite or "omnivore" territory, then they have effectively chosen an "abnormal" diet as well.

Neither of these imply one is more necessarily correct than another, simply that the majority choose 1 path and an individual chooses a path that is not the same.

All that stupid shit said, we get to the question:

What IS the sexual singularity (and also the kinky singularity subsect of the sexual singularity)?

I see it as the point where presently "abnormal" or culturally-determined "deviant" sexual behavior ceases to become a minority of the population. The point where there are more people that identify as "kinky" or "queer" & "non-hetero" than those that identify in gender-binary, hetero & vanilla.

This is the point of the sexual singularity. It induces a radical social shift. It's a total cultural change. Your definitions begin to change. The previously vocal minority now assumes the role of the majority within society. And how is variable impacts the zeitgeist is what makes it a singularity.

But what happens at this point?

We have to assume that this particular singularity is not so much a paradigm shift as one of the zeitgeist. A paradigm shift implies a point-of-no-return. But with a singularity, we have no clue about potential for return. It's something wholy new.  We have no idea what is on the other side of that point and we have no clue as to if the zeitgeist can swing back the other direction again.

The only thing that we know for certain is that the culturally subjective application of terms such as 'deviant", "common", "normal" and "abnormal" change.

Now, the kinky singularity is a sub-sect of the sexual singularity. It can be reached long before the sexual singularity. It only applies to the "vanilla" vs. "kinky" portion of the equation.

And it appears as though we're trending in that direction. It's hard to determine if this is actually true or just an appearance, however. We are seeing increases in the number of people getting involved in the kink community. We are seeing increasese in kink sub-cultural influences in mainstream culture. We are seeing an increase in non-kinky people dabbling in kink to spice things up in their relationships. We are seeing an increase in a lot of things with regard kink in the mainstream or increases in people identifying publicly as being non-vanilla that is disproportionate with population increases.

But that's the thing. All we're doing is observing increases. We don't have a true base-line. We have a perceived base-line for these things to compare them to. But all we're doing is observing increase. The same number of non-kinky people could have been dabbling in kink to spice things up before, but we didn't observe it. The same % of the population could have been kinky before but are only now getting involved in a community.

The only measureable increase is the kink sub-cultural influence in mainstream culture & entertainment. But that can also easily be explained as just another flavor-of-the-month for shock value or simply a result of leniency in entertainment censorship. But in the meantime, we will have to get a greater sample size to determine if it is a trend or simply a coincidence.

And even in the even that you can prove a trend in any or all of these categories... the same question arises:

What happens when/if you hit the point of singularity? How does the world change? How does the legal system and the entertainment world and religion and everything else change? Is it a point of no return?

We've never seen it. We've seen hints of it, but the pendulum has always swung back the other way before actually reaching the point of the singularity.

Take this thing with a grain of salt. It's simply a first attempt at trying to define something that I KNOW exists but I've never heard anyone really talk about much before. And my sleep-deprived, caffeine-addled brain isn't completely functional yet today.

But for reading all this, you get some wonderful words from Deadpool:


Gotta love finishing up a thought on sexuality by making a gay joke.