Forget Viagra; Scientists Developing Sex Chip

The ubiquitous little blue pill, Pfizer's Viagra, may be in for some serious competition in a few years, and I don't mean from Cialis.

I mean that scientists are in the process of developing an implantable computer chip that will enhance libidos.

Now scientists at Oxford University are focusing on how to make that technology work to increase sex drive or the desire to eat in people with anhedonia, a disorder in which people cannot feel pleasure from such activities, according to the Daily Mail.

The 'sex chip' could work by stimulating the orbitofrontal cortex, a part of your brain associated with pleasures like sex and eating. The chip would increase one's desire for sex or food. Researchers at Oxford University are exploring this possibility.

"There is evidence that this chip will work," Professor Tipu Aziz of Oxford University told the Daily Mail.

In fact, it did work. A few years ago, a scientist put the chip into a woman's brain, who had a low sex drive. The chip did increase her sex drive, though she did not like the change, and thus had the chip removed.

But don't get your hopes up yet.

Professor Aziz said that the surgery needed to implant such a chip is currently invasive. He said it will probably take about 10 years to develop a better method of implanting the chip.

Don't look for this procedure anytime soon though as doctors are trying to figure out a less invasive way to implant the chip. After all, we're talking about brain surgery here, and do people truly want to improve their sex lives by undertaking a risky and potentially life-changing (and not for the better) surgery?

More to the point, does it make sense for doctors to pursue this kind of technology? Have we gotten to the point where doctors and researchers can spend more time on quality of life issues like sex drives than diseases such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, malaria, TB, HIV, or emerging diseases?