FUTURE MARRIAGE MAY BOND HUMANS TO PETS, COMPUTERS, CARS

BETHESDA, MD — The legalization of same-sex marriages may prepare the way for even more radical unions in the future, according to Canadian professor Stephen Bertman. Bertman foresees the possibility of marriage between humans and their household pets or even inanimate objects such as a beloved car or computer.

"Many an individual has formed an intimate relationship with his or her computer, spending long hours in its close company, often to the exclusion of human contact," writes Bertman. "Why should not this bond of tactile intimacy be validated by more than an owner’s manual?"

Bertman’s offers his views on the evolution of matrimony in the March-April 2004 issue of THE FUTURIST magazine.

"The potential for interspecies marriage already exists," says Bertman, noting the strong bonds between pets and their humans. These ties can extend past deaths, and people buy cemetery plots and denote animals as beneficiaries in wills. Valid emotional connections between man and beast are similar to those that have motivated human couples through history.

"The possibility of interspecies marriages," Bertman explains, "is meant to suggest that the concept of marriage as a socially and spiritually sanctioned partnership need not be restricted to humans alone, if the partners to the arrangement are bound by a clear sense of loving and lifelong commitment."

The March-April 2004 issue of THE FUTURIST featuring Bertman’s article "The Transformation of Marriage" is available for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands and from the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814.

EDITORS: For more information contact Clifton Coles at 301/656-8274; fax 301/951-0394; e-mail ccoles@wfs.org.
2/25/2004