Sex, bombs, and burgers: how war, pornography, and fast food have shaped modern technology PDF
Preview Sex, bombs, and burgers: how war, pornography, and fast food have shaped modern technology
NOWAK How War, Pornography, and Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology Pursuing our baser S FIGHTER JAY HORMEL instincts has led to great Critical acclaim for Sex, Bombs, and Burgers: EX THPPEER RCOFACENECNSTISSNG TSHPEA( WMTR WFOEIIOE)DPSS CSAORPAATLAENDN ( WEWSWI TIHI) FOWRCA TTLHEORET PHTRRINOOGOOFPS Watre ccahusneso ulnotogldic daeal tah danvda snuffceerinmg; epnortnsog- (WWII) , “Hugely entertaining. Nowak—an experienced journalist—confidently raphy may encourage infidelity and erode our B treads where other historians of technology might avoid.” morals; and fast food can damage our health— —New Scientist O but if it wasn’t for the urge to satisfy our rage, OPERATION Peter Nowak has been writing about technol- M DESERT STORM: MAGNETRON lust, and gluttony, where would we be? ogy for more than a decade. He has been a NIGHT VISION MASS SARAN WRAP A fun and fascinating exploration of modern staff reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting “An enjoyable and informative history of the surprising origins of some B SPECTROMETER technology, Sex, Bombs, and Burgers uncovers Corporation, the Canadian National Post, and of the technological ‘marvels’ that underpin the modern world.” S how these three billion-dollar industries have the New Zealand Herald, and his work has —BBC’s Focus magazine shaped our everyday lives. It’s also a chronicle appeared in top newspapers around the AND of popular culture, chock-full of surprising rev- world, including the Boston Globe, Toronto B , elations. Take a look around your home. Star, and Sydney Morning Herald. He won “Thought-provoking. You can think of it, if you wish, as a modern S E X BOMBS D BURGERS the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance version of Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees, which proposed that U N Your microwave? A British military scientist A Award for excellence in reporting and was society’s vices are actually good for overall economic health.” invented its technology by accident while R named technology journalist of the year by —The Guardian trying to devise a death ray to blow up G the Telecommunications Users Association enemy planes. of New Zealand. He lives in Toronto. E Your handheld video recorder? Developed “Witty and well-researched . . . An engaging read, leaving one R by the military in World War II but adopted with several ‘I did not know that’ moments.” FLASH FREEZING —The Globe and Mail S RADARANGE POTATOES TO FEED and made affordable by post-war THE TROOPS pornographers. (WWII) WWII TECHNOLOGIES That vacuum robot on late-night info- LED TO THE mercials? Born of a mine sniffer patrolling INVENTION OF POLAROID TEFLON 16 MM CINE KODAK the caves of Afghanistan. PICTURES MOVIE CAMERA From the unexpected origins of aerosols, TEFLON the Internet, and Saran Wrap to Silly Putty, Cover design by Georgiana Goodwin US $26.95 FRYING PAN Cover photos licenced by Shutterstock.com TUPPERWARE Tupperware, and video games, here is an Author photo by Michael Watier Printed in the United States of America engaging look at modern life as we know it. BARBIE DOLL GI JOE Lyons Press is an imprint of HOT WHEELS Globe Pequot Press Guilford, Connecticut LYONS PETER NOWAK www.LyonsPress.com PRESS SexBombsBurgers_jacket.indd 1 10/7/11 12:18 PM NOWAK How War, Pornography, and Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology Pursuing our baser S FIGHTER JAY HORMEL instincts has led to great Critical acclaim for Sex, Bombs, and Burgers: EX THPPEER RCOFACENECNSTISSNG TSHPEA( WMTR WFOEIIOE)DPSS CSAORPAATLAENDN ( WEWSWI TIHI) FOWRCA TTLHEORET PHTRRINOOGOOFPS Watre ccahusneso ulnotogldic daeal tah danvda snuffceerinmg; epnortnsog- (WWII) , “Hugely entertaining. Nowak—an experienced journalist—confidently raphy may encourage infidelity and erode our B treads where other historians of technology might avoid.” morals; and fast food can damage our health— —New Scientist O but if it wasn’t for the urge to satisfy our rage, OPERATION Peter Nowak has been writing about technol- M DESERT STORM: MAGNETRON lust, and gluttony, where would we be? ogy for more than a decade. He has been a NIGHT VISION MASS SARAN WRAP A fun and fascinating exploration of modern staff reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting “An enjoyable and informative history of the surprising origins of some B SPECTROMETER technology, Sex, Bombs, and Burgers uncovers Corporation, the Canadian National Post, and of the technological ‘marvels’ that underpin the modern world.” S how these three billion-dollar industries have the New Zealand Herald, and his work has —BBC’s Focus magazine shaped our everyday lives. It’s also a chronicle appeared in top newspapers around the AND of popular culture, chock-full of surprising rev- world, including the Boston Globe, Toronto B , elations. Take a look around your home. Star, and Sydney Morning Herald. He won “Thought-provoking. You can think of it, if you wish, as a modern S E X BOMBS D BURGERS the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance version of Mandeville’s The Fable of the Bees, which proposed that U N Your microwave? A British military scientist A Award for excellence in reporting and was society’s vices are actually good for overall economic health.” invented its technology by accident while R named technology journalist of the year by —The Guardian trying to devise a death ray to blow up G the Telecommunications Users Association enemy planes. of New Zealand. He lives in Toronto. E Your handheld video recorder? Developed “Witty and well-researched . . . An engaging read, leaving one R by the military in World War II but adopted with several ‘I did not know that’ moments.” FLASH FREEZING —The Globe and Mail S RADARANGE POTATOES TO FEED and made affordable by post-war THE TROOPS pornographers. (WWII) WWII TECHNOLOGIES That vacuum robot on late-night info- LED TO THE mercials? Born of a mine sniffer patrolling INVENTION OF POLAROID TEFLON 16 MM CINE KODAK the caves of Afghanistan. PICTURES MOVIE CAMERA From the unexpected origins of aerosols, TEFLON the Internet, and Saran Wrap to Silly Putty, Cover design by Georgiana Goodwin US $26.95 FRYING PAN Cover photos licenced by Shutterstock.com TUPPERWARE Tupperware, and video games, here is an Author photo by Michael Watier Printed in the United States of America engaging look at modern life as we know it. BARBIE DOLL GI JOE Lyons Press is an imprint of HOT WHEELS Globe Pequot Press Guilford, Connecticut LYONS PETER NOWAK www.LyonsPress.com PRESS SexBombsBurgers_jacket.indd 1 10/7/11 12:18 PM SEX, BOMBS, AND BURGERS 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 1 9/22/11 2:22 PM 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 2 9/22/11 2:22 PM SEX, BOMBS, AND BURGERS How War, Pornography, and Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology Peter Nowak 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 3 9/22/11 2:22 PM For Ian, Greg, Richard, and Charlie Copyright © 2011 by Peter Nowak First published in Canada in 2010 by Viking Canada First published in the USA in 2011 by Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford CT 06437. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN 978-0-7627-7274-2 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The author’s views and opinions are not necessarily shared by the interview subjects or their organizations and companies. 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 4 9/23/11 9:48 AM Contents Introduction: A Shameful Trinity 1 1 Weapons of Mass Consumption 27 2 Better Eating Through Chemistry 53 3 Arming the Amateurs 87 4 A Game of War 109 5 Food from the Heavens 143 6 The Naked Eye Goes Electronic 169 7 The Internet: Military Made, Porn Perfected 197 8 Seeds of Conflict 225 9 Fully Functional Robots 255 10 Operation Desert Lab 287 Conclusion: The Benevolence of Vice 317 Notes 337 Acknowledgments 359 Index 363 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 5 9/22/11 2:22 PM 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 6 9/22/11 2:22 PM IntroduCtIon A Shameful Trinity Researchers believe that early human males developed the ability to walk on two feet in order to free up their hands for carrying food. It was the only way for some to get sex without fighting for it. ILLUSTRATION By STEFAN WORONkO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 1 9/22/11 2:22 PM We are living now, not in the delicious intoxication induced by the early successes of science, but in a rather grisly morning-after, when it has become apparent that what triumphant science has done hitherto is to improve the means for achieving unimproved or actually deteriorated ends.1 —ALDOUS HUxLEy The inspiration for this book came from the unlikeliest of sources: Paris Hilton. I wish it was some deeper or more sophisticated source, like the many scientific journals I’ve read, a PBS documentary I’d seen or even Wired magazine, but nope. My muse, I’m ashamed to admit, was a hotel heiress with no discernible talents. It was 2004, at the very beginning of the young blonde’s meteoric rise to celebrity. The Internet was aflutter with a video of Hilton, then twenty-three, having sex with her boyfriend, fellow socialite Rick Salomon. There was, as is usually the case with celebrity sex tapes, a debate over whether the video had been purposely leaked to raise Hilton’s public profile. Regardless, it certainly succeeded in getting attention. The video intrigued me, not because of the sex or the celebrity-to-be, but because a good portion of it was green. The naked flesh on display was not a rosy pink, but rather monochromatic hues of emerald. This was, I realized, because the video had been shot in the dark using the camera’s night-vision mode. While most viewers marveled at Paris’s, er, skills, I was interested in the technology being used behind the scenes. Welcome to the life of a nerd. 00_Sexbombs_CS4.indd 2 9/22/11 2:22 PM
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