Hot mama of invention

[tony286]

Hot mama of invention
Porn often is the first industry to plug in and improve upon new technologies
Sunday, April 10, 2005
John Campanelli
Plain Dealer Reporter

No matter how often you wash your hands these days, filth is at your fingertips.

Pornography is so widely available, from so many different sources, that you now, quite literally, can access naughtiness from the moment you wake up right through bedtime.

Last month, Reuters reported that adult film company New Frontier Media and wireless content provider Brickhouse Mobile soon would offer cell-phone "moan tones."

That means you'll be able to replace your boring ring tone with the actual steamy sounds of a hyperventilating adult-film star (sure to be a hit when your phone goes off at the library).

Porn on cell phones is hardly a surprise. Since the printing press, almost every new invention in human communication has been embraced, improved and/or downright created by pornography. If necessity is the mother of invention, porn is its sleazy uncle.

"If it wasn't for the subject, people would be praising this as an engine of technological growth," says Jonathan Coopersmith, an associate professor of history at Texas A&M and an expert on porn's effect on innovation.

And where would we be without porn? The new gadgets and technologies still would be around, says Coopersmith, but fewer people would have them, fewer people would be willing to try them, and they'd be a lot more expensive. That means you probably wouldn't be enjoying high-speed Internet, a digital camcorder and that $40 DVD player.

Here's how "adult entertainment" has fanned the flames of innovation:

The printing press

Gutenberg probably didn't use his press to print a Middle Ages version of Penthouse, but not long after movable type arrived, folks did begin using it for less-than-holy texts.

And what exactly were they?

"Who could read at the time? You're talking about mostly literate people," says Coopersmith. "It's fairly refined. It would be what we call erotica."

Photography

How long after the invention of picture-taking around 1840 does it take for naked people to get in front of a camera?

"Right away," says Coopersmith.

Dirty pictures widened porn's audience, but just as significant, says the professor, is that pornographers bought lots of equipment and supplies -- glass plates, cameras, chemicals. That sped up the profitability of the photo industry, accelerated innovation and widened the market.

Motion pictures

The first porno movie was made in 1896, just two years after moving pictures were introduced to the world.

Much like still photography, "stag films," while on the fringes of society, fueled the market for photographic materials such as cameras, projectors and film stock. It also helped lead to the development of 8 mm film, which folks could use affordably for home movies.

The Polaroid camera

No longer did your nosy druggist have to see your pictures, and that meant you could take shots of anything (wink, wink).

Although it named its first low-cost model "The Swinger," Polaroid didn't advertise the obvious naughty uses of its product; it didn't have to.

As with many new technologies, early Polaroid cameras and film were pricey, but do-it-yourself pornographers were eager to pay it, paving the way for cheaper versions.

The VCR and camcorder

Starting with home video, pornography began leading the innovation, not following, says Coopersmith.

Early VCRs and video cameras were expensive, but porn users and people who wanted to make their own "art" were willing to pay. (Through the 1980s, half the videocassettes on the market were adult, according to the professor.)

That helped turn the $1,000 VCR in 1978 into the $200 VCR in 1988.

You also can thank pornography for lots of the cool features on your camcorder, including low-level lighting capabilities.

The Internet

Welcome to porn paradise, where hundreds of thousands of porn sites cater to every taste you can imagine -- and plenty you can't.

Porn has driven almost every innovation on the Net, says Coopersmith, from online payment services to Web casting. It's also responsible for much of the rush to high-speed connections.

What's next?

"Goodness knows," says Coopersmith. After years of studying pornography's influence on technology, he is certain about one thing.

"Human behavior is stranger, far, far broader, than I would have imagined before I started this research."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

[email protected], 216-999-4694


? 2005 The Plain Dealer
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[$5 submissions]

Awesome article. Would make a great college thesis as well--Early Technology adoption by "non-mainstream" business sectors.