Michael Moran claims that “in peacetime, sex is technology’s primary driver”:
It’s been suggested that it was the greater availability of porn on VHS formats that helped it to win the video format wars over Betamax. And there’s a reason why Polaroid’s innovative camera that eliminated embarrassing trips to the chemist was called the Swinger.
Nowhere is the pornographers’ symbiotic relationship with technology more evident than online. Back in the 1990s, when the internet explosion was a mere spark, Penthouse was handing out modems to subscribers. By 2010, out of the 1m most visited websites, around 50,000 carried erotic content. Live internet chat, be it Snapchat or grownup video-conferencing, has its genesis in the porn industry. LiveJasmin.com is the world’s most visited porn site and one of the most successful websites of any kind. Of the estimated 1bn regular internet users, around 2.5% visit that one site at least once a month.
The Dish 