Impact & Interdependence of Social Factors & Engineering + Porn

Thomas Phillips
Essay 7 – Impact & Interdependence of
Social Factors & Engineering
8 April 2008

Social factors and engineering relate to each other on many levels. Many times there are latent consequences nested in engineering decisions. When this is the case, it may cause the engineering team to reevaluate certain factors; there are more variables involved than initially considered. This may lead to missed deadlines, extended product development time, or recalls, depending on when the new information is acquired.

On occasion, the latent social function of an invention may not be physically dangerous, and even profitable for some. Consider the internet. It was created as a means of communication in times of crisis by the government. Now, less than 50 years after its inception, the world wide web has been branded as an integral part of every day life for a large part of the world. We use it to communicate with each other, shop, and in some cases, we use it to keep track of our life. A negative latent function of the internet is predators who prey on children via social channels such as instant messaging and networking sites.

In an effort to curb some of this activity, the service providers now include disclaimers which aim to nullify any attempts to hold them responsible for the actions of those who abuse their service. There are age restrictions and rules, which cannot truly be enforced in a virtual atmosphere, because anyone can be whomever they choose in cyberspace. However, once a person agrees to the terms of use of the service, it is equivalent to signing a contract, which does effectively protect the provider from legal action.

Another latent function of the internet is pornography. Every second $3,075.64 is spent on internet porn. That is $96,993,383,040 per year (for clarification, that's ninety-six billion, nine hundred ninety three million, three hundred eighty three thousand forty dollars per year...thought seeing it in words might add another dimension to the gravity of this number). Thatsa lotsa porn-a!

This number may be used as a barometer to measure the world's moral disintegration as well. Almost $100,000,000,000 per year is being spent to watch people partake in a private act, of which the natural intention is procreation. Not to mention the sites which highlight acts which are NOT meant for procreation (I won't go into those in this paper...but you can imagine). There are rehabilitation centers for people “addicted to porn.” This was not so much of a problem before the internet became such an integral part of our lives. However, due to the epic-scale ethical decay which plagues our world today, many new jobs were created. Psychiatrists and porn-rehab specialists now have something to do because of the internet porn business.

Don't get the wrong idea; I'm not bashing porn. I enjoy it quite regularly actually. But I neither pay nor get paid for it, so I'm not contributing to these staggering numbers. Now, if lotion sales were included in these figures, that might be another story. But I digress...

There are plenty of other, less sexual examples of the interdependence of social factors and engineering, porn and the internet is one of the most prominent relationships when this topic is brought up. As I mentioned, the internet is a prominent part of most Americans' lives. And anyone who uses the internet regularly is aware of the overwhelming presence of sex. Random thought: Good thing we're not as dependent on porn as we are on foreign oil – then we'd ALL be fucked...with no lubrication.