
One reason why humans are special and unique: We masturbate. A lot - ca98am79
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=one-reason-why-humans-are-special-a-2010-06-22
======
gdl
> Is the next generation going to be so intellectually lazy in their sexual
> fantasies [because of Internet porn] that their creativity in other domains
> is also affected?

Wow. I know each generation ends up spreading FUD about the habits of the
younger ones, but I never expected to be criticized for _not masturbating
creatively enough_. Puritanism sure ain't what it used to be.

~~~
zefhous
I think it's quite an astute point. Easy access to porn desensitizes us
sexually, and we no longer have to depend on our imaginations. It's not
necessarily about FUD or a generational issue, it's something worth thinking
about.

I think these are important questions to consider:

    
    
        How does easy access to pornography affect the development of children?
        What are the effects of pornography and masturbation in my life?
        How does porn affect my marriage?
        How does masturbation affect my marriage?

~~~
sev
The latter 3 are not too interesting IMO, because porn and masturbation have
been around for centuries, and whatever effects they've had have become part
of society.

The first one might be an interesting one to consider. Of course this is
assuming children get hold of the pornography at an earlier age than they
should and continuously have easy access to it. And in my opinion, the only
thing that occurs is that children will get desensitized to the typical types
of sex early on, and when they reach the age where they will be participating,
they will need or want more interesting, atypical, types of sex to fully enjoy
themselves.

~~~
ciupicri
Masturbation is as at least as old as Onan[1], but I doubt porn is a few
centuries old. Maybe erotica.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onan>

~~~
philwelch
The sin of Onan wasn't masturbation, but rather "pulling out".

~~~
ciupicri
You're right. My bad.

------
adbge
Note that the author doesn't claim that humans are the only species who
masturbates, but rather that humans masturbate the most often. The author goes
on to speculate that this is because humans have the ability to fantasize,
though I think the claims that humans masturbate more than any other animal
and that chimps are unable to fantasize dubious.

If you found this article interesting (or amusing, as it very well may be),
you may want to check out the Wikipedia page on the Bonobo ape, one of the few
species that have been observed to participate in oral sex. Primatologist
Frans de Waal described the Bonobo as "the erotic champions of the
world."[<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo>]

Another fun fact: homosexual behavior has been well documented in both the
Bonobo and koalas, an interesting counterpoint to fundamentalists claims that
homosexuality isn't natural. :)
[[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/strewth-
australia-rocked-by-lesbian-koala-revelation-437806.html)]

Further reading: [<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour>]

And a graphic video of a monkey masturbating with a frog (because, after all,
this is the internet): [<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwegzhXAqaQ>]

~~~
btilly
That isn't actually what the author claims. Lots of other animals masturbate,
and the author admits that monkeys are certainly prone to it. What he claims
makes humans unusual is the we masturbate _to orgasm_.

Incidentally you chose fairly poor examples for animal homosexuality. See
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals> for a list of
other examples you could use. For instance I prefer to cite giraffes (9 out of
10 sexual encounters are homosexual) and black swans (1/4 preferentially
homosexual).

~~~
kragen
I wonder what fraction of human sexual encounters are homosexual? There's the
old studies the fundamentalist Christians like to trot out where 28% of the
gay interviewees reported more than a thousand lifetime sexual partners, while
I suspect the median number of lifetime sexual partners across the adult US
population is somewhere around 10. So it wouldn't be terribly surprising if
the majority of human sexual encounters were between members of the same
(male) sex.

~~~
gscott
1000 sounds like a reasonable number here you have George Michael going to a
park and hooking up with random people.
[http://www.celebitchy.com/1243/george_michael_has_sex_with_r...](http://www.celebitchy.com/1243/george_michael_has_sex_with_ra/)
the guys go to the park to have sex with random guys hence how the other
fellow was there too. I believe some some software offered by one of the YC
companies is most used for same-sex hooking up. But I am speaking from a point
of jelousy as it would be nice to have such a hetrosexual culture without a
monetary exchange.

~~~
ebiester
Most of us don't have any particular interest in pushing up the numbers.
Further, the GLBT population and the straight population call different things
sex. Depending on the definition, I've either had sex with hundreds of people
(including mutual masturbation and making out, or strictly oral sex) or fewer
than 10. (penetration)

I know, TMI. However, think about what it would be like if a society found it
socially acceptable for heterosexual couples to make out and mutually
masturbate casually. The barrier would likely be lower.

~~~
gscott
I believe the normal idea that sex is penetration. 1000 of course is probably
not usual but might be possible with some effort.

------
ErrantX
This is interesting; but I can't help feeling that limiting comparison mostly
to primates has potential to mislead his conclusion.

I started from Wikipedia [1] and worked outward with the reference material
and the implication is that masturbation to completion is actually quite
common.

1\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Autoero...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Autoeroticism_.28masturbation.29)

------
Estragon
I took his challenge, and succeeded, so I don't buy the theory that we're
special because of our capacity for fantasy.

(I did it for SCIENCE!)

------
mikecane
>>>male university students were found to masturbate to ejaculation about
every 72 hours

If that stat alone had been widespread a few decades ago, it would have
prevented so much angst for so many.

~~~
jules
This number seems very high to me. Perhaps we could do a poll?

------
crazydiamond
From personal experience, I'd agree that lust requires the ability to string
together thoughts. Having meditated for many years -- remaining in the present
moment free of thought, ignoring any thought that comes, letting thoughts fall
off as they arise -- lust / arousal are impossible (unless perhaps if one is
married and does not need the mind for arousal).

Are animals able to carry on a thought process, not sure? Dogs certainly seem
to be more in the present than humans.

That article links to another interesting one on asexuals.

------
jroes
Funny title, interesting article. Is this really HN material though?

~~~
sramov
Life hacking.

~~~
ciupicri
Speaking of life, hacking together with someone of the opposite sex would be
more productive than by yourself.

~~~
theBobMcCormick
You can't always have filet mignon. Sometime you just gonna make do with a
hamburger. :-)

------
msg
Maybe this is dumb, but I opened this at work and it was a little more graphic
and NSFW than I expected.

~~~
mkramlich
you clicked on a link to a story about _masturbation_ and were surprised to
find it NSFW?!

------
ciupicri
> a veritable online smorgasbord of real people doing things our grandparents
> couldn’t have dreamt up even in their wettest of dreams

Maybe our grandparents didn't even dream about it, but the ancient Greeks and
Romans sure did a lot of those things.

------
sliverstorm
What can we say- we have fingers, and more importantly thumbs, and that makes
it a hellofalot easier. Thus we are head (and shoulders) ahead of most of the
animal kingdom.

------
elptacek
One reason why not to read HN over lunch.

------
erlanger
> Males report having sexual fantasies earlier in development (average age of
> onset 11.5 years)

I find that figure to be surprisingly high. My first dream that was definitely
sexual was when I was 7 going on 8, in the second grade.

> today’s Internet pornography scene, where zero is left to the imagination.

I disagree. The primary psychological goal of porno seems to be for the viewer
to imagine one of the actors as themselves, and/or the other actor(s) as those
the viewer knows or sees. The amount of clothing, the level of visual detail,
and the nature of the sexual acts performed are merely to cater to the
viewer's tastes.

~~~
ErrantX
May I ask; how old are you now? (your past recall seems pretty damn good if
you can remember back so far)

As it stands I'd say 7/8 seems young; well, for men (it might be reasonable
for women).

My work is in computer forensics and we often have children's computers to
examine. In my limited observation sexual interest develops around 10/11 in
boys and 8/9 in girls (this is based on searches for porn or sexy pics so in
_no_ way conclusive).

> The primary psychological goal of porno seems to be for the viewer to
> imagine one of the actors as themselves, and/or the other actor(s) as those
> the viewer knows or sees.

As you can imagine (given the above job) we also see a _lot_ of porn. And I
would say you are right. POV pornography is _extremely_ popular - probably the
most common type of porn people watch.

~~~
mahmud
OT, but how far back in your youth can you remember? I ask this because I
described my earliest memory to my mother and she confirmed that at that time
I must have been no more than 18 months old. It was an apartment we lived in
during a brief period of separation from my father, when she went AWOL with
me, and she swore she never told anyone where we have been for those few
weeks.

I also remember a day when my brother took me on his motorcycle because I was
sitting on the gas tank and it burned my thighs. Turns out my brother left for
the U.S. when I was 2 years old.

My aunt has letters I wrote to her when I was 4, and those I remember like it
was yesterday. The first letter has punctures in it because it was the day I
found out that you couldn't write a letter on the carpet, and needed a hard
surface behind it to keep the pencil from puncturing it.

~~~
petercooper
FWIW, I remember almost nothing from before 6. I can remember a few extended
memories aged 6, then quite a lot from about 8 onwards. The absolute earliest
memory I can dredge up is age 5 but we're talking a mere snatch of an image. I
have bizarre time and memory dilation issues in any case so my brain isn't
quite representative of the norm!

My father, on the other hand, goes to the other extreme and claims to remember
being in his pram in the garden at about 18 months old and not being able to
understand the noises being made by other people around him.

