I posted a review of the ShockSpot fucking machine a few weeks ago. In it I said that the ShockSpot had a four-inch thrust, which is simply not enough. This information was out of date; the ShockSpot’s designers have upgraded to a six-inch thrust.
This is the problem with reviewing devices that are made by tinkerers. The folks who invented the ShockSpot, like the folks who invented the HugHer, are constantly twiddling with their products. If there’s something wrong with the current design, you can wait a few weeks and there will be a new version with an improved design.
Restless minds, never content to say that what they have is “good enough.” Gotta love ‘em.
I need to re-examine the upgraded ShockSpot in closer detail before I can give more detailed feedback. It does look to me like the inventors are still asking the wrong questions. They ought to be asking “what do people need from a fucking machine and its interface?” But instead they’re asking “how can we engineer our machine so it can communicate with more and more high-tech gadgets? How can we design our machine to make it an mp3 player, a video camera, and a microwave oven?”
The ShockSpot crew still seems to be missing two key principles. One of them is the design principle known as “transparency.” The idea here is that the technology should be so unobtrusive that it seems to be invisible. Not every gadget is supposed to be transparent — for instance, part of the value of the iPhone is that it’s a status symbol. You pull an iPhone out of your pocket and everyone knows you’re the kind of person who has an iPhone. Looking at your iPhone, tapping the screen, lets everyone know you’re tech-savvy and trend-aware. You’re hip, au courant, and well-to-do. The iPhone is NOT transparent, and it’s not meant to be.
The interface for your fucking machine should be transparent. You want your energy and attention focused on your partner, not on your interface. It’s absurd to be gazing at a screen in the middle of sex.
And, unless voice-control technology has advanced in ways I’m not familiar with — which CAN happen — then voice-control is clumsy and slow, no more “transparent” than a touchscreen interface you need to stare at.
The other principle is what Heidegger called “vorhandenheit.” Vorhandendheit is the quality of being to-the-hand. A hammer fits into your hand like an extension of your body. Learn to use a sword, and you can swing it in the dark; over time, it becomes a part of you, your second nature. This is how our bodies work, our hands and nervous systems. Touch grows more confident over time, and the objects in one’s hand become extensions of your body.
To understand vorhandenheit, one doesn’t need to search for examples as esoteric as a samurai holding his katana. Watch any kid with a PlayStation or an Xbox. They don’t need to look at the controller and decide which button to push, which trigger to pull. It’s second nature; they see and hear things, and their hands respond, instantly, expertly.
The ShockSpot has many interfaces — high-tech, impressive interfaces, like BlueTooth, smartphone, voice-control, and so on. But with each of these interfaces, even a seasoned user is going to have to take time away from the action, and focus instead on the interface. None of them will ever become vorhanden.
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I also accused the makers of promoting their product through deceptive marketing. I suggested that they made posts on the internet pretending to be consumers raving about their own product. The makers have denied this. I’m not sure I believe them.
The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #168? Submit a link to your best post of the week using 
My friend Kristi loved anal sex, and she loved electrical play. She was terrified of the two together. The image in her mind was having her ass jolted, screaming.
