It's interesting to consider why the myth that porn drives innovation has such legs.
It strikes me as something of a modern-day fairy tell for the information industry, where the moral is that people who restrict (even patently offensive) speech lose economically.
In that context, as an advocate for openness, I can't help but see it as something of a virtuous lie. The truth is that technological openness is good for society (at least, I feel that way) and it is good for business far more often than it is not. But the case for both of those arguments are complex. The porn myth is a glib and memorable little factoid that --- while incorrect itself --- does hold in its moral a deeper if more nuanced truth.
It strikes me as something of a modern-day fairy tell for the information industry, where the moral is that people who restrict (even patently offensive) speech lose economically.
In that context, as an advocate for openness, I can't help but see it as something of a virtuous lie. The truth is that technological openness is good for society (at least, I feel that way) and it is good for business far more often than it is not. But the case for both of those arguments are complex. The porn myth is a glib and memorable little factoid that --- while incorrect itself --- does hold in its moral a deeper if more nuanced truth.