"Tomorrow's Eve", the future of love?

It seems we have entered an age where what once was science fiction is becoming reality. One of the more interesting (and disturbing) stories I read during my PhD-research into thinking and speaking machines in fiction is “Tomorrow’s Eve” (original French: “l’Ève future”) by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam from 1886.

In a nutshell, in the novel a desperate man asks an inventor, a fictional Thomas Edison, to build an improved mechanical version of his fiancée whose body he has fallen in love with, but whose personality grates on him. The character’s obvious misogyny aside, what the story explores is the replacement of a human emotional connection with a machine that is attributed with thought, speech and emotions. However, the female android, or “andréide” as Villiers calls her, is not designed to possess true agency. She was created as an illusion of reciprocity and ultimately a projection of her “partner’s” own desires.

Reading the third of fourth news report in a week’s time of people, both men and women, claiming to have married an A.I., I was reminded once again of this story and it made me think of the possible motivations behind, and implications of imagining a heart in a machine.

There seems to be a certain entitlement to this specific kind of customisation of relationships: the preference of a specific palatable and comprehensible version of the other, rather than the acceptance of a real person with their own complexities and idiosyncrasies. Perhaps also a reflex to hide and circumvent emotional vulnerability and the fear of rejection by choosing a safe illusion over a potentially painful reality.

It definitely raises interesting questions about the future of human relationships.

I won’t spoil the end of the story should you wish to read it, but the author doesn’t seem to portray the android replacement as desirable or progress. (Link to PhD here if you would like to read more.)

Below image: generated by ChatGPT based on my prompts.