Future Sex: A New Kind of Free Love Hardcover – October 11, 2016

I rarely write reviews, but I loved this book. It's a tour of modern dating culture that's as witty and entertaining as it is insightful. Rather than tell us abstractly about polyamory, porn and feminism, online dating, etc, Witt informs us about them through her hilarious first-persona experience with the stuff. An accomplished investigative reporter, we feel like we're always at her side, taking in the future of sex first hand.

This book was just fun to read. I felt like I was hanging out with the author as she observed a lot of situations I would never be comfortable seeing in real life. But she makes the story of her experiences as an observer (and sometimes participant) in some of the happenings very interesting to read. I don't feel like she reached any grand conclusions about how the future of meeting or interacting with opposite (or same) sex people would be, but I guess the lack of clarity about that is the point. I did get the feeling all through the book that she continually made the choice to be a single person at just about every turn (why didn't you keep your meet up agreement with Lunar Fox at Burning Man?). And as I can see from her picture that she is an attractive (and obviously intelligent) woman, having that choice to make might be seen as a luxury by people who are not as blessed. She mentioned several times how unwanted attention from men was often a burden, but also mentioned that she learned from at least one "guru" (at the OM workshops) how to diffuse or not fear that attention. Also mentioned was how during internet dating possibilities, many did not meet her "standards", which I think is the problem with internet dating and when you attempt to pick a possible mate the same way you would shop for a new washing machine. In the end I think we all do what humanity has done forever if you want to be part of a couple - put up with flaws in exchange for being forgiven for yours. But overall I would recommend this book as a fun read for anyone who might like to see how some other people in the early 2nd decade of the 21st century chose to live and interact sexually (or not).

Interesting if you don't read a lot of "lifestyle magazines" like Cosmo or Esquire. If you do, or if you pop in the occasional porn film, you probably won't find much that's new. There's plenty of good stuff scattered throughout the book, such as the details of web cam sex experience and how little the girls working the cams can end up with after their "sponsors" have taken their cut. Otherwise, this would have made a terrific series of magazine articles, which is pretty much how it reads. Good work, but Emily Witt can do a lot more with a more substantial subject. I'll be interested to see what she comes up with next.

Future Sex is one of the most engaging, insightful, and meaningful things I've read on our culture and our times -- not just about sex, but about intimacy and human (dis)connection.

A very bizarre book that was informative, interesting, and well-written. It doesn't have much to do with the future of sex, but it captures the anarchy, chaos, and variety of the past 30 years up to the present. In fairness, it's an exploration of the outer edges, and folks (like myself) who live in "flyover country" may have trouble grasping the big picture -- if there is one. One quibble is that amid all the craziness, the word love appears over and over and over. It's never really defined, and, in a book otherwise off the handle, a definition of what Miss Witt means by "love" is needed. Perhaps it's characteristic of the circles in which she travels, but a lot of the sex seems disconnected from the rest of each person's personalities, giving the impression that sexuality isn't grounded in and reflective of anything deeper. I'll let the reader decide.

The book is NOT "funny, fresh, and moving" as advertised, but it is informative and smartly written.For me, it didn't deliver, it was not what I expected, and I struggle with the decision of returning it or not. The style deserves a keep, the content doesn't. After a first chapter where you hope some sort of pursuit of self and personal story will ensue, with a beginning and an end, follow a bunch of unrelated, magazine style 'articles' grouped around themes about some crazy things out there, written in gender study language. The image that emerges is depressing and occasionally made me feel dirty and sad for the human species. The author tries to both immerse herself in porn and in the hook-up culture and claim a higher-ground, which doesn't really work neither for the reader nor for her journey as a woman. This is not an uplifting or inspiring book. There is no story, there's no humor and no emotional connection. It is a detailed repository of depressing facts about today's promiscuous and pornified culture.

No matter it has been announced by both wired and reviewed by FT, the future tense for sex remained after the last page was flipped. No matter there are great studies of human sexuality and reviews of AR and VR in porn industry, as well as good thought provoking pieces on conception and young generation "perversities", this book sounded more like a fictionalized account than that of a true future of this close-quarters social interaction

Very nice reading, I enjoyed the narrative of the author telling her experiences, sometimes it gets a little complicated where she is going but that does not last too much. I do not think I understood where the last chapter was going but loved the Elizabeth story and burning man narrative. If you want to see another way of thinking about actual sex in the San Francisco way of thinking and how technology impacted it

Several excellent points made here, and a wonderful retelling of someone on a path many of us fear to tread.

euhhhh... erreur sur l'achat.Ce livre est un reportage sur le monde du sexe, sans pointe d'humour ou alors la transcription en français ne tient pas compte des subtilité du langage anglais... dommage

Witt is young, attractive, intelligent, articulate and successful, from a conventional American background, yet she has not moved on from youthful experimentation with lovers and friendships to the stable lifetime monogamy that is the natural destination of our life's journey. Or so a voice in her head frames the problem. This book is a courageous and lucid examination of to what extent that voice is right, and what alternatives there may be.It is a record of several years in San Francisco in the early 2010s observing and exploring several different modes of sexuality: online dating, orgasmic meditation, hard core porn, online performance video, open relationships, festivals, communities. Her essays on each of these scenes are honest, sometimes harshly so, about her own involvement (she is not always simply a bystander) and the range of her responses, while being generous in her judgements of other participants.The style moves from cerebral analysis of historical trends and social currents to descriptions of the things she has experienced that tread a fine line between cool detachment and acknowledgement of her own involvement and emotional and sexual response, neither titillating nor sanitizing. If for nothing else the book is eminently worth reading for its portrayal of the esoteric social microcosms blooming in San Francisco at the time - and perhaps already past by now.I was left with the feeling that there may perhaps be a few other places in the world like this but not on the same scale or with the same diversity - a sort of Amazon rainforest of sex.The title is an accurate enough reflection of her curiosity about where she herself and some subset of society with her might be headed, but there is no conclusion - simply an invitation to question assumptions and suspend judgment.

Set in America, this book reaches far beyond geographical boundaries. A searingly honest, totally non-judgmental exploration into the world of sex today, and an intimate, sharp understanding that future sex is not about robots or technology, but about people. Emily Witt's voice is both detached and deeply involved. Don't ask me how this works. It just does.

Man ist hin- und hergerissen. Ist das eine hysterische Überzeichnung der Lebensphilosophie US-amerikanischer Eliten oder das intime Outing einer Sinnsuchenden? Der Klappentext (auch jener der bald verfügbaren deutschen Übersetzung) verspricht nicht zuviel. Es geht um Sex, Lust, Fortschrittsgläubigkeit, Genderismus, Familie, Kinder, das Lebensglück,... - alles postfaktisch, brandneu. So scheint es, aber am Ende der Lektüre konvergiert doch alles auf die altbackene conditio humana mit ihren unauflösbaren Widersprüchen.Der Titel ist irreführend: Es geht nicht um die sexuelle Zukunft; diese wird eher metaphorisch im letzten Kapitel auf wenigen Seiten abgehandelt.Was die praktische Anwendbarkeit oder gar die Zukunft betrifft, kann ich nur einen Stern vergeben. Als sexuelle Autobiografie ist das Buch eine faszinierende Melange aus rationalisiertem Weltschmerz und Fortschrittsglauben. Es berührt und verdiente fünf Sterne.