I've said it before, I'll say it again:

You must think. . . IN RUSSIAN!

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

P.S. Glad to have you back. Hope the test results came back negative.

As Dennis Miller once remarked, the day we have a gadget that allows a guy to choose between going to work or staying home and boinking a virtual Claudia Schiffer, we're going to have a social problem that makes crack look like Sanka.

BTW, I remember reading someplace that the earliest surviving pornographic photos date to within three years of an emulsion that could record a clear image, so I suspect you're correct about our strokes of genius being placed at the service of the muse of Porno, ever luring us to new heights... Oh, forget it.

Anyway, we can thank the military for a whole raft of innovations that made their way into civilian life, including oddities like wristwatches and instant coffee, so violence is probably right up there with sex as as an engine of progress.

Don't forget photography itself. I bet the first thing the man said when he concocted the perfect blend of chemicals was something like, "Hey Myrtle, get naked so I can test this thing!"

Ah, utron! You type faster than me.

Utron, you can also thank the military for INTERNET, the union of all things violent and pornographic.

INTERNET: The Caine-Hackman Theory of the Id.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfiedl Ridge

As far as I'm concerned it is all about sex. Everything we do in life.

I have recently come to this conclusion. I also turn 40 next week - hmmmmmmm .........

If anyone ever invented a Holodeck it would be the end of civilization, maybe even the end of humanity. People would simply masturbate themselves to death. Remember the Million Man March? In the future there'll be the Million Man Bukkake. Tired of your team losing every year to the New England Patriots? In the future you trounce them every time and bang their cheerleaders, in the end zone, in front of Robert Kraft's wife.

Does anybody remember Sleeper? SOMEONE HAS INVENTED THE ORGASMATRON!!!

The Reuters report is dated April 6th, but I wonder when the New Scientist article it's based on was dated?

I should have checked first: It's 7th April (9th April print edition). Still, it read like a hoax...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18624944.600

Okay, I'll bite. I'm guessing that by "neutral scent," you mean that souvenir bottle of cheap cologne that Larry Niven brought back from Dream Park. I think he dabs it behind his ears to lure gullible females like bbeck.

That's my best guess, anyway. Dream Park isn't exactly my favorite Niven book.

well... close enough!

The "Netural Scent" is the MacGuffin in Dream Park, the object of the corporate espionage that everyone's trying to get their hands on. It's some sort of chemical that mimics whatever smell the smeller is imagining, and thus would make the illusions in Dream Park all the more real.

My theory on why war and pornography contribute so much to technological advance is, not that they spur advancements, but that they reduce the barriers to advancement.

It's obvious how this works in the case of war. Desperation in the face of imminent destruction will loosen up most people. In the case of pornography, well, it's a furtive, antisocial vice to begin with. The "What will the neighbors say?" factor is already eliminated. And, it oftened involves fantasy, so the limits of current reality are eliminated as well.

Drugs are oftened touted for similar effects, but unfortunately they make you stupid. Maybe they reduce the barriers, but they also reduce your ability. So war and pornography are better.