Love, Optimized: Futurist Matchmaking and the Genealogy of the Dating App

Author: Kailyn Aniano

Field of Study: English

Program Affiliation: Source Project Research Program

Faculty Mentors: Will Glovinsky

Easel: 57

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: For the last several centuries, thinkers and technologists have attempted to optimize intimacy by designing systems to identify maximally compatible romantic partners. But while the early nineteenth-century utopian theorist Charles Fourier promised amorous harmony through rational organization and the honest cataloguing of one’s interests, modern dating platforms built on similar principles of compatibility, preference, and abundance often produce burnout and disillusionment. To address how optimized love went awry, this project analyzes a cross-temporal archive that includes work by Fourier, mid-twentieth century computer matchmaking experiments such as Stanford’s Happy Families Planning Service and Harvard’s Operation Match, and contemporary studies of platforms such as Tinder. By tracing this continuous desire to perfect compatibility across these eras, this project reveals how technological systems promising to empower individual desire have instead reproduced cultural assumptions about gender, sexuality, attraction, and success.