You Can’t Customize Real Love (Patreon)

AI, dating sims, etc., are all about avoiding shame. Avoiding embarrassment, disappointment, heartbreak. Because loving is complicated and hard, being vulnerable doesn’t come with guarantees or promises. No one has the right to be loved, but that doesn’t mean people are not fighting to be seen and cared for.

Sources/World Building:

"Friendship, on Demand" The Atlantic

"Lindy West and the Trap of Perfect Polyamory" Harper's Bazaar

"On-Demand Intimacy: The Sociotechnical Appeal of AI Companion" Skyler Wang and Marco Dehnert

"THE ANTI-SOCIAL CENTURY" The Atlantic

Stevie Nicks Interview - Off The Record

"Romantic tension puts 'The Dance' in perspective" Arizona Republic | Phoenix, Arizona • Tue, Aug 12, 1997, Page 23

"A WHOLE OUT OF PIECES: PYGMALION'S IVORY STATUE IN OVID'S "METAMORPHOSES" by PATRICIA SALZMAN-MITCHELL

"Wanting Bad Things: Andrea Long Chu responds to Amia Srinivasan" by Andrea Long Chu and Anastasia Berg

Men Who Hate Women: From incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all by Laura Bates

The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan

*Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay* by Anne Carson