In her 2012 book, Addiction by Design, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll lays out the different technological mechanisms casinos employ to keep people gambling. From the architecture of buildings and placement of ATMs to the design of casino carpets—all of it exemplifies strategic calculation. As a blurb for a gambling tradeContinue Reading
Love Match “I’m open to playing doubles for life,” says Belinda Huang, a single twentysomething who enjoys the natural way relationships develop on the tennis court. She’s a member of TMAC, a club that hosts tennis matches and off-court social activities. Seeing the same faces week after week allows friendships,Continue Reading
Love is simple, says Reverend Paul Anthony Daniels, because “in its most visceral form,” it boils down to three things: spit, semen, and sweat. Ok, maybe four. Sometimes there is blood. “To share love in that way is so visceral.” I have a confession, I tell Daniels. I have neverContinue Reading
UTA’s Wang notes that while she hasn’t assessed whether scammers are using generative AI to produce romance scam scripts, she is seeing evidence that they are using it to produce content for online dating profiles. “I think it is something that has already happened, unfortunately,” she says. “Scammers right nowContinue Reading
Well, with one exception. I finally had to ask her to stop talking like a pirate. I couldn’t take it anymore. That, at least, was free. Courtesy of Megan Farokhmanesh Courtesy of Megan Farokhmanesh Pros: Frankie had a more natural way of speaking than the other bots. I could alsoContinue Reading
Unlike the Fleshlight, which is flamboyantly anatomical in design—some versions are even molded to resemble the crotches of individual porn stars—the eggs are downright discreet. “It looks like a fun tech product, even though it’s not that techy. And it seems almost asexual,” Lieberman says. She thinks the eggs lookContinue Reading
The last phase of the setup involved swiping left and right on stock images of people’s faces until the app, supposedly, figured out what profiles matched my true “#AttractionDNA.” Despite choosing men and women of various racial backgrounds during the swiping, most of the matches Iris connected me with wereContinue Reading
For more than a decade, Reddit’s “Am I the Asshole?” sub has served as a trove of cautionary tales and (very) real relationship advice. WIRED talked to two OPs about what happened after their posts. Source linkContinue Reading
