<nettime> free software = free sex

[Natalie Bookchin <bookchin@muse.calarts.edu>]

**hackers have more fun
---
If code is free, why not me?
By Annalee Newitz

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2000/05/26/free_love/index.html

...Coders suffer an unfortunate reputation for living
disembodied, asexual lives; they are maligned for being
passionate only about their computers and often deemed
incapable of non-virtual lust. But the stereotype
doesn't hold true -- the geeks I know are getting some,
and not infrequently with utter disregard for
conventional social mores. Most intriguingly, that
subset of geeks who are passionate about free software
may well be leading the way: Some of the same free
software programmers who eagerly experiment with new
methods for developing software are also gleefully
dallying with alternative ways of developing sexual
relationships.
...

The ideals that underlie free and open-source software
are applicable to more than simply coding and business
-- they get at the very nature of what constitutes
human community. Free software is a shared resource
that nobody can selfishly hoard; open-source software
is an alternative form of production that involves
groups of people who work together rather than in
competition with each other.

When programmers see that software production is
dramatically improved in a shared, non-competitive,
free environment, wouldn't it be natural for them to
apply what they've learned from coding to what they
practice in their everyday lives -- including their sex
lives? And the logical extension of free and
open-source software in the realm of sex would
certainly include publicly shared sex at a sex party,
for instance, alternative ways of building
relationships (such as queer sexuality) and
non-monogamy (or, to put it another way,
non-proprietary sexual affection)....

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