Whether we like it or not, porn rules our lives and has changed the way we live. This is how

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Who needs to get their naughty pictures printed if it’s all digital? Source: Supplied

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• news.com.au
• 31 Jul 2014
• Entertainment

PORN has a bigger influence in our world than most people realise. Whatever technology the porn industry decides it wants to embrace flourishes, while the tech it snubs is left to rot in the big tech grave.

As it stands, the embracing of 4K content, or ultra high-definition, is becoming a focus in the porn industry. Many believe that the success of 4K with porn will also be a big contributing factor to the widespread adoption rates of 4K in other areas.

Why? You just have to look at the track record of porn and how it influenced technology.

HOW WE VIEW CONTENT AT HOME

During the 1970s, heavy war was waging between Sony’s Betamax and the rest of the industry’s VHS. Betamax had better quality, but VHS could store three times as much video. Or three times as much porn.

Towards the end of the 1970s, over half of video tapes sold in the USA were porn. Mostly because you no longer had to go into a cinema anymore with a bunch of other creepy dudes in trench coats. Sony decided against allowing porn on Betamax, so people flocked to VHS which ultimately decided the great videotape war.

Porn decided the war. Source: News Limited

Similarly with Blu-Ray, when the porn industry decided they would start using that instead of HD DVD, it put the final nail in the coffin for HD DVD’s death.

Even streaming video on the internet can trace back to porn. Because of course, pornographic images were never going to be enough, the porn industry pioneered video streaming. So next time you’re watching YouTube, how about raising a glass to the porn industry?

ONLINE SHOPPING

When porn first popped up on the internet, it wasn’t just because the studios wanted to be nice. It was a new avenue for them to make money.

Once upon a time, porn websites were the only places that asked you to pay for content through a fee-based subscription. With that, they also implemented internet based billing systems and online credit card verification systems. This then paved the way for the likes of eBay, Amazon, iTunes and online shopping in general.

eBay wasn’t the first to pioneer spending money online, porn was of course. Source: Getty Images

SEXTING AND THE DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s not just since Snapchat that people have been taking pictures of themselves without clothes on. That’s been happening since the dawn of camera times. But the digital camera was where it really took off, because for the first time people were able to take pictures of themselves without the creepy bloke at the Kmart camera counter seeing what you were printing. This became such a popular reason for buying digital cameras that camera companies adjusted their marketing campaigns for it.

They’re talking about the camera, obviously. Source: Supplied

GEOLOCATION SOFTWARE

You know Foursquare, Tinder and games like Ingress that rely on knowing your location? The porn industry helped get the software behind that going. All for those pesky targeted ads for sexy single ladies in the inner city, of course.

If it wasn’t for porn, you wouldn’t be able to come across Warnie on Tinder. Source: Supplied

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

This hasn’t happened quite yet. But the whole adult industry is banking big time on artificial intelligence for pornographic use. Combine that artificial intelligence with IBM’s new technology which it claims will be able to transmit smell, taste and touch over the internet in five years and porn will become a lot more than just what you see on screen.

The "True Companion" sex robot, Roxxxy is just the beginning of AI and the adult industry combining. Source: AFP

If this is like anything else in tech history, it could accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence into other areas of our lives. Even if Elon Musk is spending millions to try and make sure that artificially intelligent robots don’t murder us all.

Yep, porn sure does have a lot to answer for. And surprisingly, not all of it is bad.

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