Free Sex, Bombs and Burgers by Peter Nowak

VIKING CANADA
    Published by the Penguin Group
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    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
    First published 2010
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (RRD)
    Copyright © Peter Nowak, 2010
    Author representation: Westwood Creative Artists
94 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1G6
    Author’s Note: The author’s views and opinions are not necessarily shared by the interview subjects or their organizations and companies.
    All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
    Manufactured in the U.S.A.
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    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
    Nowak, Peter
Sex, bombs and burgers : how war, porn and fast food shaped technology as we know it / Peter Nowak.
    ISBN 978-0-670-06966-8
    1. Technological innovations—Social aspects. 2. Technology—
Social aspects. 3. Technology—History. I. Title.
    T15.N69 2010 306.4’6 C2009-906563-0
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For Ian, Greg,
Richard and Charlie

SEX,
BOMBS
AND
BURGERS

INTRODUCTION
    A Shameful Trinity

1
WEAPONS OF MASS
CONSUMPTION

2
BETTER EATING THROUGH CHEMISTRY

4
A GAME OF WAR

5
FOOD FROM THE HEAVENS

6
THE NAKED EYE GOES
ELECTRONIC

7
THE INTERNET: MILITARY MADE, PORN PERFECTED

8
SEEDS OF CONFLICT

9
FULLY FUNCTIONAL ROBOTS

10
OPERATION DESERT LAB

When you’re at war, you think about a better life. When you’re at peace, you
think about a more comfortable one. 1
    —NOVELIST AND PLAYWRIGHT THORNTON WILDER,
FROM THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH
    For much of modern history, the Middle East has been a fertile land of invention where science and technology flourished. From the seventh century onward, while Europe wallowed in the war, hunger and disease of the Dark Ages, the Middle East enjoyed a golden era, an enlightened renaissance from which a steady stream of life-improving inventions flowed. Water turbines, navigational astrolabes, glass mirrors, clocks, the fountain pen and even an analogue computer that calculated the date were just some of the innovations of the time. While Europeans were busying themselves burning libraries and fighting over who God favoured, Islamic scholars were laying the foundations for many of the world’s modern institutions by opening the first hospitals, pharmacies and universities. They also laid the groundwork for a number of modern sciences, including physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
    Things have changed dramatically in recent times. The past few decades of political turmoil, war and, in some places, religious fundamentalism have largely crippled the region’s intellectual institutions. An area that was once the envy of the world for its progressive thinking now lags in just about