Technology drivers, found in Exodus

I spend many of my mornings listening to a radio show that features a newspaper columnist. You have to be multi-media these days, but newspaper people are always interesting, since they have to love the written word.

Take Ron Franscell. I found his blog because of something he wrote about Vincenzo Riccardi, but I have to admire the title of one of his more recent blog posts, "Has Internet porn reached its climax?"

Quoting two of my favorite philosophers, "Heh! Heh! Heh!"

One of the things Franscell said made me take notice:

it's worth noting that porn is always on the cutting edge of technology and seldom falls behind. The porn industry ushered in videotape, pay-per-view TV and DVD ... so if porn stops being the most popular thing on the Internet, it'll likely be because there's a new technology out there just waiting to take pornography to the next level.

Can we generalize this and say that the "sins" (sex, gambling, drugs, theft, etc.) are the major drivers behind technological advances? Sounds like a good idea on the surface - if you want to sell sex, or bet money, or get cheap drugs, or steal songs, then you want to do it in the most efficient way possible. I'll grant that the "saints" also use technology (BibleGateway comes to mind here), but I don't know that the saints are really driving technological advances, just taking advantage of those that are already out there.

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