Asking whether engaging with a digital simulation of a human via a 2D photograph, a hologram, or a personality app decked in the clothing (or no clothing) of your choice, constitutes a healthy reality can be tricky. The answer bends towards no when it removes you from the biological and perhaps spiritual reality of what it means to be human. It separates you from real human contact. It affects women adversely with objectification and a set up for potential violence when men live in these silos and real human women don’t perform to their expectations, aka demands.
Are simulation tools such as pornography, digital boyfriend/girlfriend apps, escort services that provide company or eye-candy… are these simply benign coping tools for a lonely world? Something that should just be viewed as commodified accessories? Extensions of the layers of human sexuality that should be explored without puritan judgement?
The question becomes even more layered when you question the very nature of reality itself, are we a hologram judging the actions of a hologram.
When do boundaries protect us and when do they hurt us?
Consent is key here when it comes to partnerships. How such tastes drip into real human relationships is something to explore, which To Love Like Venus does, in a near-future world where digital love lust is for sale, or is simply life.
