Read what people are saying about our campaign!
Vice:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a-university-professor-wants-you-to-look-at-porn-for-science
The Toronto Sun:
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/12/17/look-at-pornography-for-science-uwo-prof-wants-to-sequence-porn-genome
MEL Magazine:
https://melmagazine.com/this-guy-needs-your-hel...
Small Town Newspapers:
http://www.theobserver.ca/2016/12/17/look-at-po...
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2016/12/...
Content Farms:
http://www.chaostrophic.com/surf-pornography-sc...
https://www.follownews.com/a-university-profess...
http://e-radio.us/a-university-professor-wants-...
Danish People:
http://ekstrabladet.dk/sex_og_samliv/hjaelp-for...
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Help Us Sequence the Porn Genome!
Have you ever gone online searching for porn, clicked on the first content category that struck your interest, and found that the vast the majority of the videos in it didn't really appeal to you? Both commercial websites and porn researchers have been making the same mistakes, using broad categories to try and capture the differences that account for the delicate psychological profile that defines your pornographic inclinations. These techniques, while useful in broad strokes, are still too clumsy and imprecise, much like using a butcher's cleaver to conduct neurosurgery. With your support, we plan to develop the scalpel that is needed, the right tool for the job, by creating a platform for people like you to help science while they masturbate.
Support Us for the Swag!
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We are very excited about the perks we have to offer, including custom branded condoms, vibrators, travel masturbation kits, and even the opportunity to sequence the Porn Genome of the image of your choosing! Don’t miss a chance to support science, improve porn, and get the perfect gift for the pervert in your life today.
Do You Like to Science on the Go and Porn on the Bus?
In order to achieve our goal and advance the pornographic sciences, we plan to build a website to crowd source the genomic mapping of pornography. To this end, we need $50,000 to fund three phases of platform development, and to fund applications of the tool, to answer the most immediate and pressing questions about pornography once the platform is developed.
What Are Your Dirty Dollars Doing?
First, we will build a dynamic database that is capable of storing the thousands of features which constitute the basic genes of pornographic imagery (see the word cloud above for a small sample of these “genes”). Next, we will create a website where we can present pornographic exemplars to the public in an interactive manner. Finally, we will create a mobile version of the website. All of which will allow us to crowd source the genomic mapping of stimuli.
Harnessing the Collective Power of Amateur Porn Scientists
At this point, you are probably wondering how the website will work once completed. Well, when you log into the website, you will be presented with a pornographic image and asked about the presence (or absence) of specific features. With your unoccupied hand, you will indicate whether an image contains a naked woman, a bed, a pair of fishnet stockings, or any of the thousands of other genes and indicate where in the image each of these features are located. Once you’re satisfied with your work, you can move on to a new image, and ultimately sequence as many additional images as you’d like.
To reward the smuttiest sequencers, we will post leaderboards for total ratings and minutes dedicated to sequencing the genome to help you feel proud about how you spend your nights alone. Provided we reach our funding target, we will also create a mobile version of this website for the days when you’re away from your desktop. Here are just a sample of the badges you can boast about should you be a sufficiently savvy scientist:
- Deep Digger: label over 50 features for 10 different images
- The Right Priorities: Spend at least one hour sequencing images on 4 consecutive Saturday evenings
Is This Just a Crass Attempt to Improve Market Research for Big Porn?
Not at all. We are genuine scientists with a real interest in better understanding the nature of pornography. In addition to the major goals outlined above, the remaining funds will be put to use applying our tool to answer important scientific questions including:
- What is and isn't pornography?
- How can pornography be categorized in psychologically meaningful ways?
- How can we use our refined understanding of pornography to build a more nuanced understanding of its effects on consumers, both positive and negative.
The Impact
In the same way that genetic sequencing allowed for exceptional precision in classifying species of animals, sequencing the porn genome will allow us to understand, organize, and taxonomize porn in a way that is more accurate and more useful than ever before.
Consider the image below. Generally, people see the image on the right, with the red masking, as more pornographic than image on the left. This is intuitive because you can’t see her clothes, but is also counter intuitive when you take into account that there is actually significantly less skin exposed. None of the methods that are currently available for classifying pornography properly account for both the presence and the absence of visual cues that people use when making such judgments (presence of exposed skin AND the absence of a swimsuit).
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By accounting for both the presence AND absence of thousands of cues, we will be able to measure the psychological similarity between any number of images and videos, and be able to identify what your brain wants to see with more accuracy. Rather than patronizingly assuming that a preference for blondes means all videos with blonde women are right for you, our techniques will allow us to build detailed individualized profiles of exactly what elements you want and don't want to see in your porn.
Who's Asking
The team of researchers responsible for the Porn Genome Project is being led by Dr. Taylor Kohut, Ph.D., a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, who has been studying pornography for almost a decade. He has published 17 articles in peer-reviewed outlets and given 40 conference presentations. His work has been covered by Time Magazine, Playboy, The New York Post, Men’s Health, The Globe and Mail, and The Huffington Post. Recently, a thread discussing his research in the r/science subreddit received over 4000 upvotes and generated almost 2000 comments (https://redd.it/3n3hv2). Anti-pornography crusaders routinely denounce his work, and have called him and his colleagues, the “Marlboro Men of porn.”
Other Ways You Can Help
If you want to help but can’t give money, then please help spread the word about our campaign. Share our campaign using the share buttons at the top of the page. Or, please share our video, our websites (www.pornforscience.com and www.proctorandlever.com), or Twitter feed (@ProctorLever), or just let people know that you care about the Pornographic Sciences. Because together, we can beat sex lupus.
