The Experience Machine

"So, I'll turn it over to Doctor Edelmann now," she said. "And, well, this should be interesting!"

Edelmann took the podium, and dove right in.

"Interesting might prove to be an understatement, Doctor!" Edelmann said. He looked around the room, a curious smile on his face. "Well, a few words on what to expect are in order. First, as soon as we're done here we'll move into the room next to this one, through the doors there," he said, pointing to the double doors to his right. "There are beds in that room, and we'll each take one, in no particular order, I might add. There are playback devices on the bed, similar to the recording headbands you took with you over vacation, but heavier, and equipped with Bluetooth receivers. I'm sorry to say they're a bit heavy for day to day use and represent a first crude effort, but as we'll be laying down the entire time this shouldn't be an issue."

He looked up from his prepared remarks, took a sip of water, and continued.

"Once 'playback' starts, something quite odd is going to occur, and I want you to be aware of the phenomenon before we begin, because you won't even know it's happening once we start the process. The brain, as you might expect, is completely dedicated to processing one stream of input, that being the input from it's associated body. From an evolutionary perspective, the brain has never, to our understanding of evolutionary biology, anyway, had an opportunity to develop the capacity to process two simultaneous data streams. To simplify this somewhat, once playback starts the recorded stream of data is going to completely take over all your own brain's 'encoding' ability so that, in effect, your own ability to interpret data from the external world will simply cease. Your body may be in a climate controlled room, but if our recorded 'experience' takes place on a ski slope your body will react to the cold. If it's in a steel mill, if you find yourself in a sauna, your body will react accordingly. Again, your brain can not and will not accommodate two data streams, and in our experience the data stream coming from the 'playback' device will completely overwhelm your 'normal' sense of reality. In other words, you will no longer be aware of your surroundings in our room. All awareness of that room, what we might call 'concrete experience', will simply disappear, and in an instant you'll be in the 're-experienced' reality, what we'll call the reality of 'co-relative experience'. The process would seem to be disconcerting, but you need to remember that your 'own' ability to process information and discriminate between concrete and co-relative experience simply won't exist. One moment you'll be on a bed in the room next door, and within the span of a heartbeat you'll be in the 'co-relative experience.' Any sense of confusion, if it occurs at all, will come when playback stops and the data stream from 'concrete experience' resumes. If this happens don't fight it, just raise your hand and someone will be with you as soon as possible. Any questions?"

From one of the nurses: "Will we feel pain? Say we're skiing and fall? Will we feel that?"

"Yes, completely, but say if, for instance, the fall resulted in a broken leg, you'd feel the pain of the break, but your own bones would of course remain intact."

From Sam, the paramedic: "Can we interact with the playback?"

"By interact, I assume you mean talk, or in some other way change the sequence of recorded memory? No, of course not. 'You' simply will not exist during playback, 'you' will be a passive receptacle into which an experience is being poured, so 'you' will not be able to interact at all."

"What the fuck...that's gnarly..." came a voice from the back of the room.

"Again, if you feel you want to back out, now's the time," Desjardins replied.

No one moved to leave, but Desjardins could now feel palpable doubt in the room. Her own included, she was forced to conclude.

"Anyone else?" Edelmann added. "Any other concerns or questions?"

There were none, so he walked over to the double doors and opened them.

"Well, let's have a go at it, shall we?"

One by one, and with varying degrees of hesitancy, members of the class moved into the larger room and sorted themselves out. There were gray-green hospital gowns on each freshly made bed, and soon the participants were gowned-up and sitting on the edges of their beds, waiting. Lab assistants moved in small groups from bed to bed, helped get headbands placed and Bluetooth connections active before moving on to the next bed. Soon the class was laying down with a light sheet and blanket cover, and A/V techs readied their recording equipment.

Edelmann sat up on his bed and addressed the class again:

"A recording will now be chosen, and again, this will be a random choice. As soon as the choice is made and each Bluetooth connection confirmed, the lights will be dimmed and playback will commence. The lights dimming will be your only external cue that reality will be about to shift from 'concrete' to 'co-relative', but from an internal perspective it's doubtful you feel anything out of the ordinary."

Mariel Desjardins, M.D./PhD, fifty two years of age, married twice, divorced twice, currently single and with no prospects looming, lay under the covers in a state of abject ambivalence that bordered on fear. She now doubted her own sanity for having put herself in this position, and she suddenly questioned the moral foundations of the entire project, and in that instant she found the realization profoundly unsettling...until she realized the lights were dimming...

...and then there is a hotel room...and I am laying on top of a large bed...

...it is late afternoon outside, and the television set is on...a large flat panel set...and a movie is playing...

...a porn flick...of course...I am watching two girls making it, and my hand is wrapped around my cock...I can feel a burning constriction in my belly as I watch...then a door opens and steam pours out of the bathroom...

...and there she is...dressed in white lingerie and very high heels...and she walks to the foot of the bed, then to each side, checking the ropes she has used to tie my hands and feet to the corners of the bed...then she is moving up between my legs, smiling at me all the time until her head is over my cock...and she spits on it...

...the sensation of warmth is intense, then in a searing moment she takes my cock in her mouth and bites the tip of it, gently at first, then less gently...

...her head moves up and down, her teeth grate and bite while time dilates and I am floating on alternating waves of soaring pleasure and searing pain and the sensation begins in my balls then spreads up into my back and down into my legs and I feel a fingertip poised over my ass then craving penetrations and oh God not so fast not so fast her tongues sweeps luscious circles over and along the head of my cock and the surge is complete and unmistakable and starts to build my legs feel like steel my toes are pointing as liquid fire consumes from within and it's all around me the force shoots up into my gut as her questing finger hits that spot and all is lightning and rain and fire and release and I feel my cum swirling under her whirling tongue while she nibbles the tip nibbles the tip nibbles the tip...

... And the lights are growing brighter...

Mariel Desjardins is aware of herself once again, yet the memory of what has just unfolded in her mind's eye is totally complete in every detail, and overwhelming.

She has never once in her life considered what a male orgasm might possibly feel like, but now in the afterglow of this 're-experiencing', this 'co-relative experience', she not only understands what it feels like on a subjective level, she is shocked to realize she knows exactly what it feels like on an objective, experiential level. She reaches down and feels for a penis, expects to feel a woman's saliva and her own cum all over the tip of it, then as suddenly realizes what she's doing, what has happened, and what the implications of this realization are.

She sits up, looks to Edelmann in the bed next to her own, sees him grasping for his groin, hears him asking for a towel and she realizes that he has reached orgasm, then she feels her own gown again and feels a spreading dampness under the fabric. Reaching under the gown, she feels the unmistakeable results of orgasm, but was it her's? Suddenly the question seems overwhelmingly important! Just who's orgasm was it? Her own physical orgasm, or his, whoever "he' is? Looking around she sees that everyone is doing much the same thing, and that while every participant is covered in rolling sweat, the males are nervously asking for towels and the females are avoiding eye contact while they try to figure out what's just happened... and why their groins are soaking wet.

But how could it have possibly happened? Nothing makes sense, but then, suddenly, everything makes sense, and the only thing Desjardins knows about her own self is that she wants to cry because for the very first time in her life she truly understands what it feels like when a man reaches orgasm.

+++++

The participants are soon gathered in the conference room, assembled to conduct a hastily called "post-mortem" of the event. Edelmann is at the podium, glad to have insisted gowns be worn, grateful he's not standing before this group in cum-stained trousers. Desjardins is standing beside Edelmann, her eyes red and tear streaked.

"Well," Edelmann began somewhat sheepishly, "I guess we might have put some more stringent limits on what kinds of experiences might have been appropriate for this first recording..."

"I don't know that I'd agree with that," Desjardins interjected. "In fact, I can't think of a better event to have as a first experience. I mean, really, I have a completely new understanding of something so fundamental about human nature that, well, it's overwhelming, and I feel absolutely sad that I could have been so careless about my own lack of interest...for so long."

"Well, I..." Edelmann began, but one of the nursing students interrupted him.

"I agree completely, Doctor Desjardins," Becky Sawyer said. "It's like suddenly being able to break through all kinds of barriers, and in the end finally reaching a profound, new understanding of what it means to be a guy. I mean, that was shattering, shattering, but now I think I understand why guys get so freaking bummed out when they don't get off..."

The class broke out in full gales of laughter, and even Edelmann chuckled a bit before regaining his composure.

"We're missing something vital," Desjardins said forcefully, restoring calm to the room. "Vital."

"And that would be?" Edelmann asked.

"The opposite perspective," Sawyer said. "The female orgasm."

"Exactly," Desjardins said. "I tell you what... Let's break up into our groups and discuss what's just happened, and where we'd like to go with this. Let's get back together in a half hour and think this through together. Doctor Edelmann, could I speak to you for a moment?"

+++++

An animated discussion got going as soon as the groups' 'brainstorming' session was over, and Becky Sawyer led the charge:

"When you think about the implications of this technology, it blows the mind. I mean, yeah, sure, we can experience something as esoteric and exotic as an orgasm, and from the perspective of the opposite gender. That IS mind blowing, but we began thinking of other similar applications..."

"Such as?" Desjardins asked.

"Well, after all the trouble in Missouri last summer, think about how a police officer in training might benefit from experiencing the world from the perspective of a young African-American male in the South, or a Muslim in New York City. And flip that coin...what would that young guy learn from experiencing what the officer on patrol goes through...the anxiety and uncertainty."

"Interesting," Edelmann said, rubbing his beard. "Very interesting."

And from the back of the room: "Screw that. This makes killer porn!"

Laughter. "I think recent experience affirms that, young man," said Edelmann. "Anyone else?"

The room erupted in torrents of ideas, of practical applications that reflected the idealism of youth, spoken in the language of hope.

Finally, from Desjardins: "Okay, okay, let's settle down and get these ideas down on paper, and I mean right now, while they're fresh on our minds. Each group, get together now and write down what you thought up during your brainstorming session, and then anything you learned during this exchange, then Doctor Edelmann would like to pass along an interesting possibility. Okay, get to it!"

The groups exploded in frenetic exchanges of ideas and began developing new conceptual frameworks on the fly, with one or two group members listening and writing notes furiously, trying to capture everything said. Desjardins and Edelmann looked on, fascinated; neither had seen such engagement from undergrad students before, and both began to wonder if somehow, in the 're-experiencing' of the event they had each just shared, some fundamental alteration of the brain's ability to focus had occurred. This in itself was a fascinating new development, one that would need careful study to fully understand, but soon it was time to move on to the last phase of the experiment.

"Okay, listen up," Desjardins called out. When she had everyone's attention, she continued. "Doctor Edelmann tells me that we can, in effect, "go live" with a recording session. What this means, to put it simply, is that we could move on to experiencing a female orgasm, tonight, and do so in "real time"."

There was a murmur of confused excitement at that, and then, from the back of the room: "Fuckin'-A. That's fuckin' killer, man!"

"Well put, young man," Edelmann chuckled through his reply.

"This fuckin' rocks, dude!"

"Okay, okay...try to contain yourself, Andrew."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'..."

"Yeah, yeah, I think we get it, Andy," Sawyer said. "But, I'm not quite clear about one thing. If we're going to experience a female orgasm...well...uh...who's going to...uh...well-l-l..."

Desjardins looked out at the group, then down at her hands. "I'd say we've come upon a real ethical dilemma, wouldn't you? So, let's pick a set of rules to examine this dilemma. I propose we look at Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism for this experiment, and make our choice to proceed using either Act or Rule Utilitarianism. Does anyone object?"

"I don't see how we could use Rule Utilitarianism here," Sawyer replied. "I can't imagine there are any rules to cover this set of circumstances..."

"Okay. Well then," Desjardins said, "we'll stick with Act Utilitarianism. Does anyone recall how we proceed?"

"The Utilitarian Calculus," one of the pre-Meds called out. "We assign values to pleasure and pain, or rights and wrongs, and simply add up the totals. That Act which produces the greatest good for the greatest number is the best way to proceed."

"Right. So, let's get back into our groups. Develop a list of possible good and bad consequences to the action of recording a live female orgasm in an experimental setting, for the purpose of developing a greater awareness of other's needs and experience. So, take about ten minutes, then we'll vote on it."

Of course, the groups all voted to go ahead; there were simply too many valid reasons to proceed, and very few reasons not to. Mariel Desjardins returned to the podium.

"Okay, so here we come to the truly difficult part of this experiment...namely, how are we going to proceed, and who is going to be sharing her experience?" She looked around the room, noted a subliminal current of anxiety running through all the women in the room. "Doctor Edelmann tells me we can hook up the recording device directly to the playback mechanism so that, in effect, the experience will be streaming live to each of us wearing a playback device. Further, we thought that we could further differentiate the experience by sending out two streams."

"Two?" Sawyer asked, clearly perplexed.

"Yes, two. One stream, from the female out to the males, and a second stream, from the male out to the females."

"Oh my God!" Sawyer said. "You don't mean..."

"Yes, of course. In order to duplicate the parameters of the first experience, we'll need consensual sexual contact between members of opposing gender groups. And, well, um, oral sex, not intercourse. Any volunteers?"

"I'm fuckin' UP for it, man!" Andy cried.

"I'd have made book on that, somehow," Edelmann shot back. "Now seriously, are any women here willing to proceed?"

No one raised a hand.

"No one?"

No one.

"What about you, Doctor Desjardins?"

"ME? You can't be serious?"

"Yes, I'm most certainly serious."

"Go for it, doc!" Andy bellowed.

"Uh, so, I don't know..."

"Well, I think the decision should include you're being able to choose the male to proceed with..."

"I don't know about this," Mariel Desjardins replied nervously, but she was already looking at the paramedic and growing more excited with each fresh, thundering heartbeat.

"Well," Edelmann said as he looked over the students who were looking expectantly at Professor Mariel Desjardins, "any male volunteers?"

Every male's hands launched skyward, and even a few female hands went up as well, which wasn't really surprising. Mariel Desjardins was short, just over five feet, but she worked out regularly and generally took care of appearances. She dressed fashionably, if not exactly flashily, and while she didn't consider herself unduly attractive, the looks she garnered while walking across campus belied that insecurity. She would have been genuinely surprised to learn just how many of her students over the years would have loved to have taken her out to dinner and a movie, and then back to a hotel room...

"Well, Mariel, it would seem the ball is in your, uh, court, uh, so to speak. Care to play?"

Mariel appeared to take great pains over her choice, but she finally settled on Sam, the paramedic.

"Sam? Would you...mind?" she asked tentatively.

Sam just smiled, all meaning clear.

+++++

Soon the students were back in their beds; lab techs finished hooking up new leads to headsets while a few of the other techs cobbled together a bed large enough for Mariel and Sam, and after the two were hooked up to their recording headsets, Edelmann once again addressed the class:

"Things are a little different with this setup," he began, "because we won't be recording to flash drives this time around. The 'experience' will, again, be a live feed. What this means is simple to understand if you think about it. Male students in the 're-experience' group are hooked up via Bluetooth link to receive Doctor Desjardins' data stream, while female students will receive Sam's data stream. So, consider this. Male students are going to experience this event from Doctor Desjardins' perspective; the perspective of a woman. Males will therefore experience receiving sexual stimulus from another male, but from the perspective of being female. All of your sensory data streams will reflect a woman's sensory data..."

"Oh, this is gonna be fuckin' sick, man!"

"Andrew? Please?"

"Oh, sorry, dude."

"Well, as I was saying, you'll hear, see, taste and feel every sensation that is being experienced by the person you're linked to. It really will be as simple as that."

"So," Andy chimed in yet again, "it's like every fuckin' dude in the class is going to be..."

"Yes, Andrew, precisely so."

Mariel Desjardins cheeks were aflame, but then she felt Sam lean in close to whisper in her ear.

"It's okay, doc. I got it. You just lie back and let this happen. I'll take care of things, okay? And if anyone ever gives you any grief over this? Well, I'll take care of that, too. Okay?"