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Technology's closest companion: porn

Humans are like other animals, particularly mammals, in our preoccupation and enjoyment of sex.
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Humans are like other animals, particularly mammals, in our preoccupation and enjoyment of sex.

What separates Homo sapiens from other creatures, however, is our need - from our earliest prehistorical days to present - to depict sexual acts in a variety of ways and how viewing that material can be as or more exciting than seeing or doing the real thing.

The number of mediums available to broadcast sex has expanded with technology, from those early days of ochre and cave walls lit by fire.

Ancient pottery of men with enormous penises and women with large breasts and broad hips have been found in numerous cultures and different historical periods across the globe.

Much of this material has been delicately described as "fertility symbols" rather than pornography by anthropologists, maybe because it's as awkward to think about people from older civilizations being as preoccupied with sex and pornography as humans are in the 21st century.

Scientists have extensively explored the sex practices of numerous creatures but delving into human sexuality, from a historical, psychological, biological, sociological or even an evolutionary standpoint has often been avoided and seen as a form of academic career suicide. It's also been tough to get funding.

Therefore, much of the work has happened slowly and quietly but recent study has accelerated, thanks to brain scanning technology and that massive data sample provided by Internet searches.

No need anymore to ask people to be honest in a paper survey about what turns them on.

What they type into Google and how their eyes and body react when they view various sex acts tells the real truth of arousal, sometimes even when it conflicts with the conscious mind.

And yes, couples have been scanned in brain imaging machines while having intercourse, confirming that the most important organ during sex is not the one between the legs but the one between the ears.

This work is trying to answer complex evolutionary questions about why women are so spectacularly endowed in the chest and men are so ridiculously large when erect in relation to the size of our bodies and compared to our primate cousins.

These scientists are trying to learn who we are and explain why we are the way we are.

The story of pornography is much easier to tell because it runs parallel to the development of media and technology, of ways to communicate abstractly in different formats. With each new method for humans to express themselves, the pornographer has been right behind.

The Gutenberg Bible is an important milestone in the development of the printed word but it wasn't long before the printing press was being used to publish naughty stories. The invention of the camera, both for snapshots and then for video, allowed pornography to evolve from a more abstract experience of words and drawings to depicting real people.

Pornography remained on the top shelf of the magazine rack and in the back room of the video store until the Internet arrived, bringing pornography to the masses.

The children of the 1990s and 2000s were the first generation to grow up with pornography in almost every home, easily accessible through the home computer.

Today, pornography is also readily available through the smart TV, the video game console and smartphones, as well.

For every development to aid or amplify the ability of artists to tell stories and express themselves, pornographers are doing the same.

Every recent development, from computer animation and digital special effects to 3D and virtual reality (VR), has already been used for pornography and is just an online search away.

The CBC broadcast part of its Rio Olympics coverage last summer in VR and those who attended the missing and murdered indigenous women forum at the Civic Centre could watch a short VR documentary about the Highway of Tears.

VR goggles were one of the most popular Christmas gifts this season, fitted to hold large screen smartphones running apps of roller coaster rides, walking the streets of Paris or touring the White House.

Or showing people having sex.

This is not to condone pornography, particularly when it involves violence or children. Porn's addictive qualities and its insidious effects on behaviour and relationships can't be ignored.

There's no hiding, however, from how pervasive pornography is in today's culture and that it's impossible to separate porn from media technology. The technology is pushing porn forward but the porn (more importantly, its audience) is also driving technological innovation, which is spinning off into far more practical and socially beneficial applications.

This trend will only continue and accelerate, just as it always has since the days of our earliest human ancestors.

-- Managing editor Neil Godbout