Another Fucking Robot

i spend a lot of time thinking about random, obscure questions. questions that most people don't usually have the time to think about. questions that don't even occur to be thought about by most people. why do i do this? i have no idea. i long ago gave up trying to figure out why what pops into my mind pops into my mind.

what i do, do when one of these questions arises is try to find the answer. obviously, that almost always means using the internet...and thanks to the wonders and resources that lie within her vast confines, i pretty much always find the answer.

well...an answer at any rate, because sometimes, instead of answering the question i had, i wind up with an answer to some other unasked inquiry.

which was the case this evening.

see, i started an internet search trying to track down why, how, and in what way condom makers come up with new products.

i'm pretty certain this all stemmed from seeing a commercial a couple months back for the new trojan ecstasy.



anyway, as i was saying, instead of getting the answer to that question, i stumbled upon this contraception study investigating breakage.

as stated --

BACKGROUND: Published condom breakage studies typically report the percentage of failures but rarely provide any evidence on the mechanism of failure.

METHODS: Over a period of 7 years, broken condoms returned to a supplier (SSL, Durex) via consumer complaints were examined to determine the cause of failure. Also, some consumers who reported breakage but did not return condoms were sent a questionnaire on the causes of breakage. Finally, theories proposed for the mechanism of breakage were investigated on a laboratory coital model (emphasis added).

RESULTS: Nearly 1000 (n=972) returned condoms made from natural rubber and polyurethane were examined. Visible features on those that were broken, were classified. Evidence combined from examining returns, questionnaire responses and the coital model strongly suggests a single predominant mechanism of failure we named "blunt puncture," where the tip of the thrusting male penis progressively stretches one part of the intact condom wall until it ultimately breaks.

CONCLUSIONS: Blunt puncture appears to be the mechanism of breakage responsible for more than 90% of condom breakage not attributable to misuse. Knowledge of the main mechanism of breakage should help develop better user instructions, better test methods and, ultimately, better condoms.

that's right, another fucking machine.

and, i must admit, seeing this made me pause. on the one hand, i worried that once again we're giving the robots all the information they will ever need to eventually overthrow and enslave us...but on the other hand i thought maybe, just maybe when the day of reckoning comes, this robot will remember that all we ever asked of it was to have sex with a simulated robot vagina...

that has to work in our favor, at least a little bit, right?