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February 14, 20261 citationsOpen Access

Post-Sexuality: Between ACE Experience, Contemporary Spirituality, Kink Dissidences of Desire, and Technological Transcendence

SSSangue Shi

Key Points

  • The central aim is to explore post-sexuality as a reconfiguration of desire that transcends traditional notions of intimacy centered on sex.
  • Conducted textual analysis of cyberpunk fiction and philosophy.
  • Employed comparative studies of Western and Japanese philosophy.
  • Reflected on lived experiences through Zen practices like Shikantaza.
  • Identified persistent forms of intimacy and desire outside traditional sexual frameworks.
  • Proposed non-dual Eros as an ethical lens for understanding intimacy.
  • Demonstrated how ACE identities and kink practices contribute to the discourse on post-sexuality.

Abstract

This article develops a rigorous interdisciplinary framework for understanding post-sexuality as a contemporary reconfiguration of desire beyond sex as the central mediator of intimacy. Drawing from cyberpunk fiction—particularly Ghost in the Shell—ACE (asexual spectrum) identities, contemplative spirituality, kink/BDSM ritual practices, and phenomenological philosophy, the study proposes post-sexuality not as repression or absence of Eros, but as its transfiguration. Through textual analysis, comparative philosophy, and lived phenomenological reflection grounded in Shikantaza (Zen just-sitting practice), the article argues that desire can be decentered from teleology, identity, and possessive structures without disappearing. Libido, bodily excitation, and intimacy are shown to persist in redistributed, non-instrumental, and ethically relational forms. The framework integrates Western phenomenology (Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Michel Henry), modern Japanese philosophy (Nishida Kitarō), and Zen non-dual practice to articulate what is termed non-dual Eros: erotic intensity experienced without appropriation, narrative, or goal-orientation. The analysis further situates ACE experience, spiritual sublimation, consensual kink practices, and digital imaginaries within a shared horizon of ethical interdependence, proposing post-sexuality as both a descriptive category and an emergent ethos in the post-organic era. Rather than constituting a new identity or normative program, post-sexuality functions as a phenomenological and ethical lens through which contemporary transformations of intimacy, embodiment, and technological mediation can be understood.

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Cite This Study

Sangue Shi (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/699011712ccff479cfe58133https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18609499
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