The Future of Relationships

Did you know I got a story published on a crap website called "short-fiction.co.uk"? Probably not, because I've never told anyone till now. The story was called, "24th Century Romance." The tagline: Computers that offer unconditional love and mind-numbing orgasms are the crack cocaine of the 24th century.

It can be found here: http://www.short-fiction.co.uk/member_profile.php?username=RawKStar77
(Click on the link: "24th Century Romance")

The story argues that in the 24th century (when virtual reality and simulated sex get good enough), some people might become so inept interacting with other human beings that they will be incapable of sustaining "real relationships" and instead fall in love with computer programs.

This may or may not be a little extreme, but computers are fundamentally changing the way we interact with other human beings. This is largely because we don't interact with human beings. We interact with profiles and search engines.

Somedays, we spend more time on Facebook than we spend with our real friends in real life.

Of course this interaction isn't always a bad thing:

This is of course a happy ending, but it has a certain truth to it. One of the good things about the internet is that it can help us get connected. 

And with dating sites like eHarmony, we just might find that special someone. 

"Matchmaker, Matchmaker,

Make me a match,

Find me a find,

catch me a catch

Matchmaker, Matchmaker

Look through your book,

And make me a perfect match"

But is the internet really just helping people get together?

Will there someday be an eHarmony for best friends? For example, you fill out a profile and the website suggests a group of people who will likely be good "matches" for you.

Will there be an eHarmony for pets?

For adoptions?

For mentors?

For musicians?

Of course, there are sites for all these things and more. It seems to me, the future of human relationships will be filtered by search engines. Which means that a lot of life will be filtered out. 

Yes, Google and eHarmony may be the death of serendipity!

Or let me put it this way: have you ever met a person who was completely oposite to you in every way? And yet somehow you still connected, and perhaps that person challenged your beliefs and changed you for the better? Just think, that person, your friend or lover you have nothing in common with, that person might not have made it into the top 1,000 search results. 

How much of life are we missing? Will people someday talk about Algorithms like they talk about Fate? The internet is like a huge filter; it only lets somethings get through according to a complex mathematical formula. And as we live more of our lives online, algorithms will profoundly influence our lives.

Sometimes, I don't want the filter. 

I want unfiltered, unadulterated, life! (If there ever was such a thing.)

I want to be surprised, with the good, the bad, and the ugly....

Because perhaps even the 'ugly' will shape me.