[future shock] The Future of Relationships

Tonight, from 2100 GMT, Guy Yeomans and I will be co-chairing an hour-long Twitter discussion on the future of relationships.

Hosted by the Association of Professional Futurists on Twitter, the ‘Futrchat’ format is a monthly, open, multi-party conversation on a specific topic: usually, ‘the future of X’. Guy has already posted our list of questions for this month, but I wanted to supplement this with a couple of clips and links to get you thinking.

First, a clip from the opening titles of Brit-director Michael Winterbottom’s ambient sci-fi romance Code 46 (2003):

On the ‘sufficiently advanced technology’ front, from that same film, Winterbottom introduces the notion of an ‘empathy virus’. Of dubious plausibility, sure, but one hell of a wild card:

For a bitingly satirical, compelling, and ultimately heartbreaking vision of romance across the generation gap, I can enthusiastically recommend Gary Shtenyngart’s 2010 novel, Super Sad True Love Story. Check out this extract, hosted over at Nerve:

“I volunteer at a refugee shelter near the train station,” Eunice said, apropos of something.

“You do? That’s so fantastic!”

“You’re such a nerd.” She laughed cruelly at me.

“What?” I said. “I’m sorry.” I laughed too, just in case it was a joke, but right away I felt hurt.

“LPT,” she said. “TIMATOV. ROFLAARP. PRGV. Totally PRGV.”

The youth and their abbreviations. I pretended like I knew what she was talking about. “Right,” I said. “IMF. PLO. ESL.”

She looked at me like I was insane. “JBF,” she said.

“Who’s that?” I pictured a tall Protestant man.

“It means I’m ‘just butt-fucking’ with you. Just kidding, you know.”

On the subject of surveillance, privacy, and group psychology, I tend to roll this one out with alarming frequency. We Live in Public (2009):

And, finally, from the fine folks at Intel, a pdf of Scarlett Thomas’ excellent short story, ‘The Drop‘. Great attention to detail, with a real eye for the social and personal impacts of ubiquitous computing and the internet-of-things.

So, that should be enough to keep you guys ticking over until tonight. Hope to see you there!