War has probably advanced technology more than any other human endeavor, except when it comes to communications technology. There the driver has always been porn.
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War has probably advanced technology more than any other human endeavor, except when it comes to communications technology. There the driver has always been porn.
Comments are closed.
That’s what sometimes makes me pessimistic about economic development of space in the near future. Even the porn people haven’t found a way yet to make money off people in space.
I’m going to be good today and not crack wise on this one.
the scripts practically write themselves
I mean, Debbie does ISS. See what I did there.
I’m hoping this isn’t really true. I’ve heard people give credit to that for the explosion of the internet, but I’m skeptical–the original work was definitely done by other people for other reasons and while that’s no-doubt a big usage today, I would bet that’s not the main driver for internet development right now. And I think the development of the phone network (and telegraph) was driven more by people simply wanting to communicate and keep in touch, call-the-girl and mail order brides not being the primary usage of either. Were mail order brides that? It appears there is no way to talk about this without saying something stupid.
@Jeff Mauldin: The Internet started with war and morphed to porn.
I think the difference lies in who is controlling use. If it’s public use then you are going to get porn.
Porn is probably going to lead the way out of the Uncanny Valley for robotics:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/040210-who-is-afraid-of-the-uncanny-valley
Even the porn people haven’t found a way yet to make money off people in space.
Although I haven’t seen it myself (ahem) the movie The Uranus Experiment features a twenty second zero-gee sex scene that was filmed on the Russian version of the Vomit Comet.
As long as we are human we will find a way to use the newest technology to get our jollies.
I guess it doesn’t matter whether you make love or make war … technology increases! lol
Actually, I would argue that that isn’t correct. Claude Shannon, the father of modern communications, developed Information Theory during WW II, as part of his work for the military.
Which was used to pinpoint the coordinates of the best brothels. =P
I think that war promotes technology, not so much by increasing demand for innovation, as by decreasing opposition to it. People are more willing to accept a change in the way they live when the alternative is not living.
And I think this is why the entrepreneurial free market rules. It allows a little scope for innovation. Not as much as war, but over a much wider range. And it only has to compete with other economic systems that suppress innovation much more effectively.