Porn Is the Invisible Hand of Technology

Technology creates sexology improves. Technology has evolved to its current state largely thanks to the invisible hand of pornography. The adult entertainment industry was pioneering technology long before Silicon Valley existed. While Hollywood executives shrunk from the release of the VCR and later the internet, the erotic entertainment industry seized these new markets as new opportunity. The contributions of erotic markets to technological evolution are largely overlooked, namely due to the fact that these markets are still seen as taboo by the masses. Whether the public realizes it or not, the porn industry has grabbed technology and applied it to consumers needs, wants, and desires since the 19th century.

34% of internet users have had unwanted exposyre to porn. Porn is the peeping tom of the internet. Making its way into the most innocent of entries. That really is annoying. The flipside is 25% of all search terms daily relate in one way or another to porn. In the final analysis we are as divided on pornography as we are on taxes.

History of Porn

In 1896, the same year that the first public film exhibition took place, an erotic French film titled Le Coucher de la Mariée showed a woman performing a striptease. The film’s success forced French filmmakers to realized that audiences would pay gratuitous amounts of money to see women take off their clothes, marking the beginning of an erotic film industry. Erotic entertainment held hands with the development of every subsequent technology, and continues to do so with future technology such as wearable’s. In 1958, British glam photographer Harrison Marks began using 8mm cameras to make short films of women posing topless. The popularity of Marks’ films generated a more widespread interest in erotica than had been present until this point in time – at least openly. The ability to use 8mm cameras to record sexual acts in the home caused sales to skyrocket, leading to the creation of amateur home videos.

Betamax vs VHS

In the battle between Betamax and VHS in the 1970’s, pornography was the deciding vote against Sony’s video format, Betamax. The electronics company flip-flopped on the notion of allowing erotic films to be recorded on the Betamax format. Sony apparently wasn’t aware of rule 34, and ultimately made a decision against porn. This ended up being a very poor business decision. By the end of the 1970s, erotic films accounted for half of all video-tape sales in the United States, driving VCR sales up and leaving Betamax as the inferior product. The vast majority of consumers were not interested in a video format that did not support erotic content. Thus, Betamax died alone because it refused to integrate with pornography, the invisible hand of the technology market.

Blu-Ray vs HD DVD

However, Sony made up for their decision regarding Betamax decades later with the release of Blu-Ray tech. Similar to Betamax compared to VHS, HD DVD’s quality was technically better than even Blu-Ray, though Blu-Ray simply held more information and ultimately became the universal standard for the industry. This meant additional content such as more behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, and actor commentary. For the Adult industry, this meant more space for more porn. The porn industry began using Blu-Ray as the standard for high-definition, earning it a decided victory over HD DVD. Once it had secured its place in home videos, porn went on to revolutionize the way we heard what was on our screen (or rather, didn’t have to hear it). Apparently there are actually people who listen to porn, and care what the actors are saying. Porn companies were some of the first to invest in automated caption placement, a feature now used on cable boxes, Blu-Ray players, and laptops across the nation.

World Wide Web vs DVD Player

When the first cables linking people to the World Wide Web were installed, pornography was there to fill CRT monitors. Pornography is generally acknowledged as the first industry to take advantage of the internet and successfully monetize the web. In 2001, there were about 70,000 adult websites. Today, there are more than 4.2 million in the U.S. alone. Even before the capabilities of streaming video were available, people transmitted porn over the Internet as ASCII. Porn websites offering subscription services proved that people were willing to make online purchases with credit cards, and created some of the first online payment programs. Lust was the foundation of the eCommerce explosion. Amazon ought to pay their respects. In the 1990’s, Richard Gordon founded Electronic Card Systems, which pioneered credit card transactions for a wide range of pornographic sites. He then went on to strike it rich by taking a commission on processing sales for the Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee sex tape in 1998. Again the tech existed, but the porn industry utilized and standardized.

Not only did the business of the web emerge thanks to porn but as websites developed consumers demanded faster speeds to load their erotic imagery. HD videos and images meant consumers needed more bandwidth to download and stream higher quality content. It would not be surprising if half of the people who wrote to the FCC regarding Net Neutrailty did so under the pretense of securing their right to fast, quality pornography. Media mogul Shane Smith of Vice recognized porn’s immense impact on online video streaming. He and his company studied the adult entertainment business as a guiding model for their pursuits. “Everything we learned, we learned from porn. It is the gold standard for online video,” said Smith. Not only did porn breathe life into online video but it pioneered the vertical content model, the same model Vice used for their own websites.

Tablet vs PC

The day the iPad was announced pornography companies began working diligently to discover how they can take advantage of the tablet tech. One company announced a way to stream videos bypassing the Apple store and the trendy companies lock on salacious content. Where there is a will for beautiful nudity and unapologetic erotica, there is a way. Current technological developments continue to feel the pull of the porn industry. Virtual reality is the next up-and-coming technology, and erotic entertainment may be one of the first industries over the wall into this space. VR porn sites will allow users guided by pheromones to create their virtual partners with completely customized features. Many porn companies have already begun developing VR platforms. In August, 2014, the adult movie streaming service provider SugarDVD owned by Oddesse, announced that they are working with Oculus to make their adult movies highly interactive and in 3D.

Virtual Reality vs Tablet

“At first, this will be similar to a ‘choose your own adventure’ type of experience. We already have these options for DVDs and movies with alternate ‘endings’ depending on what the viewer chooses, so we are looking forward to integrating those features into VR,” stated SugarDVD spokesperson Rebecca Bolen. As of early 2015, 13 different studios are active developing adult VR content, and about 160 scenes are available on the marketplace. These films have already evolved from short scenes to 30 minute or longer plot-driven, interactive movies. Some companies hope to have their virtual reality content readily available in high quality as early as 2017.

The Future