Peter Nowak recently published a book called “Sex, Bombs, and Burgers” that took a look at how the basic human desire to reproduce, destroy, and eat has driven the technological revolution. Salon
sat down with Nowak to interview him. Some of the interesting points from the interview include:

• Military research into how to move and sustain troops across vast expanses of land and sea made possible the technology that created powderized food and made restaurants such as McDonalds possible
• Silly Putty was designed to be a replacement for rubber during World War 2 because the Americans and the Japanese were fighting over rubber producing regions
• The reason why porn companies immediately embrace new technologies and helped to drive the internet video revolution forward is because government regulators are afraid to regulate new technologies because they don’t want to scare away investors
• Contemporary products that have roots in the military include: Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Translate and Siri
• For all these reasons and more Nowak calls World War 2 the most technologically important event in human history

Click here to read more excerpts from the interview and see how everything from Skype to Barbie was made possible by the deepest human instincts.

Source: Salon