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Comment by kafkaesq | Hacker News Reader

Paves the way for... what, precisely?

This whole idea of "virtualizing" and "democratizing" (read; corporatizing and monetizing) what is already probably the most intense physical and interpersonal experience you can already have; an experience that's not only freely available, but literally at your fingertips, at any time (or not even that: you just need to close your eyes, and think of... entertaining thoughts) -- is profoundly, profoundly depressing.

And besides, with all these must, dead-trees 17th- 20th century smut novels to read -- who can possibly find the time?

Forget this online stuff. Get out of your apartment, and find a real, actual person to talk to. I know it can seem hard, sometimes. But really, is isn't.

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My guess is they're referring to the impact the porn industry has had on the direction of technology (e.g. VHS/Betamax). If this kind of tech finds success in porn it won't be long until you're sitting in a special seat to watch regular movies and experiencing the sensations of a character as he gets in a fight (or something like that).

I'll take the VHS/Betamax era porn, with all its schlock and graininess, over the PornHub era any day, thank you very much. At least they seemed to have some semblance of a sense of humor about this stuff, in those days. They also -- this cannot be under-appreciated -- tended to show human bodies the way they actually were, by and large.

I'm not sure if you're missing the point inadvertently, or through conscious effort. This comment thread really seems to be more about your personal sexual outlook, rather than the possibility of some porn technology crossing over into mainstream (non-porn) application.

That is, for someone who counsels us all to go outside, find a girlfriend, whatever... you sure sound like a bit of a porn connoisseur privately yourself.

Despite what others seem to be implying, I don't think there's anything at all wrong with looking at porn, per se (and in some contexts, it can quite healthy) -- or in acknowledging this fact publicly -- if that's what you're getting at. But at some point it reaches a saturation point, and you kind of realize there's not much of a "there, there", in that medium.

So as to "connoisseur" -- sorry, no.

This comment thread really seems to be more about your personal sexual outlook, rather than the possibility of some porn technology crossing over into mainstream (non-porn) application.

The original article, which was really quite straightforward, wasn't making any kind of far-flung statements about potential crossover effects of their technology at all. And it certainly wasn't making any references -- even indirect references -- to the (basically apocryphal and unsubstantiated) "porn killed betamax" story line.

So as much as people are browbeating me for "missing the point" -- those definitely weren't the main points of (or in way mentioned in) the article, either.

You're missing the point (again). VHS defeated Betamax because Sony tried to keep porn off betamax.

You're missing the point (again).

I love when you get haughty and abrasive online, at some stranger you've never met. Over basically nothing.

we get it, you're better and smarter than everyone else

No, I'm definitely not. But for whatever reason, a lot people seem to be misreading both the original article, and my throwaway responses to it.

Pornography (and prostitution) have existed for the entire history of human civilization. You wouldn't claim that Ancient Egypt or Greece were robbing their citizens of their freedom through those things.

I agree that there is a huge ignorance of ethics in today's world of software development, and I wish we stopped putting so much of ourselves online, I don't see why sex is the one thing you think is more important than the thousands of other violations of privacy and humanity that happens online.

Also, the porn industry has brought about a lot of different interesting new technologies that eventually bled into the rest of the tech industry (credit card verification is one trivial example, there's plenty of others).

Pornography (and prostitution) have existed for the entire history of human civilization.

Again -- I wasn't referring to porn, per se. I think that's pretty clear.

I don't see why sex is the one thing you think is more important than the thousands of other violations of privacy and humanity that happens online.

I guess because sex is (orders of magnitude) more important than most other activities we put "online", and more to the point, into corporate (and SIGINT) data warehouses? For who knows how many weird, lonely men to tabulate and analyze?

> I guess because sex is (orders of magnitude) more important than most other activities we put "online"

I find internet-connected-dildos to be less important than the free speech violations due to censorship, the rampant disregard for user freedoms, proprietary software's use as spyware, the massive surveillance engine injesting information about all of us, an so on.

You're comparing against the extremal cases. I was referring to "most" activities. You know, things like your likes and your playlists, your Etsy purchases, etc.

> I guess because sex is (orders of magnitude) more important than most other activities

To you.

To some of us it isn't that big a deal and is best treated lightly.

Substitute "private and personal" for "important" if you like.

To some of us it isn't that big a deal

The "deal" here is with surveillance -- not sex.

Fair enough, I misunderstood your post it seems.

No problem - I appreciate your perspective, actually.

It's fun. Chill out.

> interpersonal experience

> at your fingertips

Can't really have it both ways, there. Otherwise I can only think there'd be far fewer unhappy, discontented people in the world.

Plenty of couples enjoy watching porn together.

I dunno about "plenty." Probably around 0.1% or something.

I'd put it WAY higher.

Maybe I've just been dating the wrong--or right--girls. But none of them have ever shown the slightest interest in anything like this.

Maybe you (subconsciously?) keep going for the same type of girls?

That's plenty.

I wasn't talking about porn, per se.

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