As outlined in the June 11th, Washington Post article, "PornHub crowdfunds for sex tape filmed in space," one of the internet's top adult content websites has launched a
crowdfunding campaign for the first XXX adult film to be produced in space.
Though the effort might seem frivolous and distasteful to some, it is backed by an industry possessing both considerable financial resources and a track record of influencing the adoption of new technologies.
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| Sex in space is certainly not a new concept. The scene above shows actress Jane Fonda being tortured with an excessive machine by the villainous Dr. Durand Durand (played by actor Milo O'Shea) in Barbarella, a 1968 French-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella comics. The machine eventually overloads and is destroyed, while Barbarella survives and feels rather well for the experience. Photograph c/o Rex/Everett Collection. |
Though the effort might seem frivolous and distasteful to some, it is backed by an industry possessing both considerable financial resources and a track record of influencing the adoption of new technologies.
As outlined on the Indiegogo website under the title, "Pornhub Space Program - SEXPLORATION," the campaign's pitch video reveals that two top adult film stars, Eva Lovia and
Johnny Sins, have signed on for the project. As of June 15th, the
campaign has raised $20,021 USD ($24,664.87 CDN) of its $3.4Mn USD ($4.19Mln CDN) goal.
The campaign ends July 27th.
The campaign ends July 27th.
In response to
an email question from The Washington Post, Pornhub vice president Corey Price
explained the rationale behind the project:
Honestly, we’re always looking for new and creative ways to push boundaries and use the theme of adult entertainment to do things no one would normally expect us to. This is an extension of that thought process, and it’ll let us sort of nudge that envelope into a place that we’ve never been before. It’s exciting stuff!
Unsurprisingly, Corey also told The Washington Post that Pornhub is negotiating with several commercial space firms as opposed to NASA. Corey declined to name specific companies, not wishing to give them bad press.
Doubtless, NASA's cleancut, "Goshdarnit, Gee-willickers!" culture wouldn't mate well (so to speak) with that of the freewheeling adult entertainment industry. Historically, both space agencies and astronauts have been reluctant to discuss sex in space. NASA denies that sexual liaisons have ever occurred in space, though at least one married astronaut couple has been in space together and astronaut lore does describe flirting and frequent solo sexual activity.
Mary Roach's book, "Packing for Mars," even quotes Cosmonaut AlexandrLaveikin as stating:
It's up to yourself how you will deal with it. But everybody is doing it, everybody understands. It's nothing. My friends ask me, 'How are you making sex in space?' I say, 'By hand!'
The porn industry
has a history of influencing the development of various technologies, both in
the pre-internet age and beyond.
During the
videotape format wars of the 1970's, the adult film industry backed the VHS
format both due to its ability to hold more video than Sony's Betamax as well
as Sony's moralistic anti-porn stance. By the late 1970's, adult films comprised
over half of all US videotape sales, permanently tipping the scales in VHS'
favour.
During the mid-2000's high-definition optical disc war between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD formats, history repeated itself, though in reverse. This time, heeding the lessons of history, Sony's product triumphed due to its adoption by the porn industry, who favoured the format's higher storage capacity.
This influence continued into the Internet Age. As outlined in the April 4th, 2012 Extreme Tech article, "Just how big are porn sites?" adult video websites like Xvideos, YouPorn and Pornhub boast data storage and bandwidth usage that dwarf all but the biggest internet players such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Hulu.
During the mid-2000's high-definition optical disc war between Sony's Blu-Ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD formats, history repeated itself, though in reverse. This time, heeding the lessons of history, Sony's product triumphed due to its adoption by the porn industry, who favoured the format's higher storage capacity.
This influence continued into the Internet Age. As outlined in the April 4th, 2012 Extreme Tech article, "Just how big are porn sites?" adult video websites like Xvideos, YouPorn and Pornhub boast data storage and bandwidth usage that dwarf all but the biggest internet players such as Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Hulu.
During peak periods, Xvideos' traffic can burst
to 1 terabit per second (1,000 gigabits per second) or more. YouPorn claims it
hosts “over 100 Terabytes of porn,” with bandwidth usage of 35-40 Petabytes (1
Petabyte = 1,000 Gigabytes) a month.
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| Brian Orlotti. |
Sex in space is a murky and complex topic. Though long taboo in space circles, it will gain greater focus as space settlement enters the realm of possibility.
Whether Pornhub's crowdfunding succeeds or not, the topic will not simply go away.
Perhaps the noted social commentators Beavis and Butthead put it best when they said simply "Hehehe, Hehehe, Hehehe. Cool!"
Whether Pornhub's crowdfunding succeeds or not, the topic will not simply go away.
Perhaps the noted social commentators Beavis and Butthead put it best when they said simply "Hehehe, Hehehe, Hehehe. Cool!"
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Brian Orlotti is a network operations centre analyst at Shomi, a Canadian provider of on-demand internet streaming media and a regular contributor to the Commercial Space blog.
Brian Orlotti is a network operations centre analyst at Shomi, a Canadian provider of on-demand internet streaming media and a regular contributor to the Commercial Space blog.
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