kurt

It starts with a bang...

If technology has a cutting edge, a cliché that elicits the image of a sailing vessel slicing through the ocean but a cliché nonetheless, then sex is always on the bow of the yacht with arms thrown open screaming "I'm king of the world!"

In fact there are many who claim that the most base of human desires is not just along for the ride but actually providing the impetus for innovation, especially in media and communication technologies. Think of the scene from Boogie Nights where the introduction of videotape revolutionized the production of pornography overnight. Theaters closed and sales of VCRs boomed. Sex changes everything. It goes further and faster than that: my roommate, Joshua J. Morgan, wrote a paper in 2000 while studying communication as an undergraduate at UCLA (now currently an animation MFA there) about how the pornography industry was the first to use banner ads and streaming video.

So what is sex doing for/to technology today?

In an article on thefeature.com, Justin Hall and Jane Pinckard wrote about how the Japanese, far ahead of the US in phone technology and adaptation, have integrated sex into their mobile lives (or is it mobility into their sex lives?). They interviewed David "DC" Collier, a Japanese mobile expert that spoke at GDC 2003 and to the USC IM group in LA by invitation from Scott Fisher, and he said:

"Europe is no less horny, but in Japan they have pictures. A black-and-white lame little WAP thing is just less appealing than a high-resolution cute little i-mode thing."

So the Americans and the Europeans are a little behind for now, but they'll catch up. The human sex drive is a powerful thing. No one will be left behind. And as a motivational force it will bring us moaning and groaning into the future.

Sorry... I couldn't resist.

KMAC