> "He mainly needed a fake girlfriend to get his parents off his back after he was divorced." Good grief. Have some mercy, parents.
I know lots of my Indian friends got married ( sometimes sight unseen) to get their parents off their backs.
Fake girlfriend, revisited
81–90 of 109 posts
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#82OA quote: ""lower league English football" wasn't available" Possibly explains the recurring need for a fake one. Serious contribution: bots faking it with other bots generating large numbers of apparently real social profiles. Not just gf/bf whatever but other forms of relationship (fake boss asking for more work this weekend as a cover for...). Ideal chaff for the surveillance society.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#83Made an account just to post this. I used to follow a columnist called Jann Burner. That's what he wrote on the subject: ``` And now, a closer look at what is to be in store for us. Computers will become totally voice activated mimetic devices cued to their owner so no one else will be able to activate them. The good ones will not even be deceived by a recording of their owner’s voice. They will “seem” to become atta…
You would likely enjoy Neal Stephenson's novels if you haven't already discovered him.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#84Sounds like it can be done by AI bot if it will pass the Turing test ;)
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#85I have a somewhat analogous experience that proves to me this could plausibly work.
A few years ago I was single and met a guy at 'da club' who was visiting just for the weekend from .au. We hit it off and hung out while he was in SF until he flew home (to his husband, they were in an open relationship.. I know complicated). Note: This initial physical chemistry is the part that a "service" may never be able to replicate, and might be a necessary pre-condition for many.
But... for the next 6 months or so while I was stressed out, single, and building a startup, I got relief by texting him all the time. I called him my fake boyfriend at the time, even to my friends! I got a lot of the same support/companionship I needed purely virtually that I'd normally get from a real relationship. And because he was married it could never get too 'real,' but the role he played for me was real.
Many people go through hard times alone, and all the business/friend/family/therapist networks in the world can't replicate the role of a romantic partner. If the personality is real and is compatible, and the conversations have memory, then I think a synthetic partner is a beautiful thing for people who need it most.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a Swedish summer hit song with basically this premisse a few years ago. "Anna, the bot".
Isn't that song about their IRC bot and how they love her because she kicks all the lamers from their channel and protects it from takeovers? Here's a video with english subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7iU0GGVco8 EDIT: oh yeah at the end it does turn out that she's really a human girl.
Basshunter (the artist) is famously geeky, another of his song's is "Vi sitter i Ventrilo och spelar DotA" ("We're sitting in Ventrilo, playing DotA". If I remember correctly he performed at some gaming/esports event like DreamHack a few years ago, too.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#87Made an account just to post this. I used to follow a columnist called Jann Burner. That's what he wrote on the subject: ``` And now, a closer look at what is to be in store for us. Computers will become totally voice activated mimetic devices cued to their owner so no one else will be able to activate them. The good ones will not even be deceived by a recording of their owner’s voice. They will “seem” to become atta…
You would likely enjoy Neal Stephenson's novels if you haven't already discovered him.
Specifically, The Diamond Age:
http://smile.amazon.com/The-Diamond-Age-Illustrated-Spectra/...
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#88I have a somewhat analogous experience that proves to me this could plausibly work. A few years ago I was single and met a guy at 'da club' who was visiting just for the weekend from .au. We hit it off and hung out while he was in SF until he flew home (to his husband, they were in an open relationship.. I know complicated). Note: This initial physical chemistry is the part that a "service" may never be able to repli…
Huh, that's funny. I've had the same kind of relationship with a woman for the last 2 years, though we dated for a relatively (for me) long time after my divorce. She has kept in touch after I moved. Only recently, I think she is finally ready to "move on" so I've backed off 100%.
It's true. Having someone who cares about you with whom you can relieve personal stress is meaningful. She definitely did that for me, and I hope I did that for her.
On the other hand, I wonder if it has always been like this or there is something unique to our current societal configuration causing the need for these synthetic partnerships.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
A single person can obviously maintain multiple profiles. Sending some text messages to a fake partner isn't exactly a full time job.
Those are usually a "full time job" for those people, they probably handle 1000's of profiles a month.
Yes, I meant a single $15/ mo profile doesn't need a full time job.
Re: Fake girlfriend, revisited
#90This has been a thing in Japan for over a decade.[1]