Yesterday’s “Hedonic Philanthropy” post was about the static advantages to the rest of humanity that accrue to your making your own bespoke erotica.  Today’s post is on the dynamic advantages thereof, which result from a “Virtuous Circle.”

No not this kind, appealing though it might be.

(This particular image found at yet another pop-up laden site which I’m pretty sure doesn’t own it.  I wish I knew the provenance and if anyone does, kindly comment.)

What I have in mind rather is a concept that might be called Erotic Cultural Capital, which is a amalgam of various things relevant to the creation of satisfying erotic representations.  It would include things like:

1. The stock of erotic ideas memes, images, stories, and other representations available to us, and;
2. The human capital involved in the creation of (1):  the artists and writers and programmers and researchers involved in the creation of (1) as well as their special and one hopes well-honed skills, and;
3. The technology that allows us to create and disseminate (1), technologies that first happened when one of our Pleistocene ancestors (or ancestresses!) drew on a cave wall and continue down to the Internet and the sophisticated rendering software of today, and;
4. The the meta-elements relevant to the creation of (1-3), such  the skill of teachers that allows the creation of (2) and the skill of engineers that allow the creation of (3),among other things.

So what’s the Virtuous Circle?

1. For the sake of analysis, start with a supply of Erotic Cultural Capital that’s used to create various erotic representations that people share and consume.
2. People like the consumption that goes on in (1), and they’re willing to spend resources to get more of (1)
3. This investment expands the Erotic Cultural Capital. We get more and better ideas, more and better representations, more and better skills, and more and better technology.
4. Which people will like even more and…
5. Positive feedback drives everything forward.  We get happier and richer over time.  The future is bright.

Your creating bespoke erotica helps drive (3).  Good for you!

The expansion of pleasure alone would be good enough reason to see this circle as virtuous, but just for the sake of completeness I should point out that there are positive spinoffs that have nothing all that directly to do with Eros.  It’s no secret that the Internet was built out as quickly as it was thanks to porn, so if you’re cooing over e-mailed digital video of your new grandchild or researching your term paper on Wikipedia, take a moment and thank the pornographers who made this possible.  And there will be other spinoffs in the future.  Perhaps the medical imaging technology that makes it possible to cure your old-age cancer will be there because of us early twenty-first century weirdos demanding faster and faster machines to render our kinky fantasies.

All for humanity!