HD DVD vs Blu Ray

The most interesting non-iPhone tech news of late has been the ongoing battle between Sony's Blu Ray and HD DVD, two competing technologies that seek to eventually replace the DVD player. Every time a studio backs one or the other, the media treats it as an important indicator of who's "winning." Just today Blockbuster announced that it would only be renting out Blu Ray discs from its new stores. But they should stop wasting their time reporting on these matters, because this race is over. How do I know this? Follow the pornography. Let's look back at a little history...

In the mid 80's, my family bought a Betamax machine. My dad, being the savvy TV guy that he is (he's spent almost his whole life working in TV) did his research and decided that the Betamax was the best machine out there, far superior to the VHS. It was a great experience. But then, a funny thing happened. VHS won the war, and at Christmas 1992, our household finally bit the bullet and bought a VHS VCR (along with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and Home Alone, great choices by the way). I was nine, and I was excited to have "upgraded" our technology. But in fact, it was a much crappier machine. So why did it win? There was more porn available in that format. And so if you're a porno fan (and I have a feeling most of my readers probably are), buy a Blu Ray. They've won.

So what's the take home message in all of this? I think it's a really good thing that humans do not reproduce asexually. Because all of our inventions have been to impress the opposite sex or to simulate sex in the most realistic way possible. Roman aqueducts? Sex. Great Wall of China? Sex. Quesadilla Maker? Obviously, sex. I don't know who invented the VCR, but I bet it was some guy who wanted to pause his favorite sex scenes in movies. And then someone decided it didn't look enough like life, so now we have it in High Definition. My point is, if you derive any satisfaction as a human being because we have developed so many advanced technologies you should get off your pedestal. We might not throw feces at a mate to grab her attention, but is inventing a higher quality pornographic machine really any more sophisticated?