Has anyone thought about the effects on society widespread pheromone use would bring about? Instead of it being a ‘subculture’, what if it was the norm? Since this would take say twenty years at least, I suspect the pheromones available will be much advanced to what we are using now. How you feel about that hot date last night might be strongly dependent upon the pheromones they were able to buy (better=richer). Advertisers will almost certainly try and use them to associate consumers with a brand, which mean they’ll be everywhere. I imagine we’ll be like dogs on a walk, sniffing away at each new scent every couple of feet and losing track of where we’re going.
science fiction has often anticipated such developments with other technologies, but I haven’t come across all that much exploration of pheromones in this genre. the only thing that comes to mind is darwin’s children by greg bear.
I guess manipulation of HLA signature opens up immense possibilities for personalisation of scent…