Chimps v. Computers. Who is better at finding true love?

“I saw him across the room and I knew that he was the man I wanted to marry and have children with” reported my former colleague and happily married mother of one when I saw her again the other day.

Would that it were like this for all of us! And how powerful it is to know what you want.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t achieve this level of self-determinism, but instead are lost in a world of uncertainty and romantic doubts. Is he/she the right one for me? Today I think so, tomorrow I’m not so sure…. anything but a love machine.

Could a computer help?

Read pop-psychology bestseller ‘The Chimp Paradox’ and it will tell you to characterise your feelings in terms of two sides of the brain: a) the computer side of your brain: logical, unemotional, out for clear headed self-improvement; and b) the chimp side: short-termist, primeval, likes chocolate biscuits. Broadly speaking, Prof Steve Peters’s (the author’s) advice is to listen to the computer and rationalise the chimp.

Sounds like a great idea! But especially hard to do in relation to matters romantic, where the primate inside of us is inclined to dominate. Here, our rational ‘computer’ needs some back up! Could computer algorithms help?

A recent article in Newsweek suggests that the next generation of computing will be able to track our behaviours to the point of understanding what it is we are attracted to. Using ‘big data’ crunching to rationalise our day to day chimp like behaviours in ways that perhaps will be more reliable than we can manage alone.

Algorithms Today: I like a Gershwin tune, how about you?

Today, many dating services claim their matching uses complex phsycological profiling. Asking registrants long lists of questions and creating scores on issues like agreeableness, extroversion etc. But, in reality these algorithms do little more than introduce us to people who have similar interests or personality traits. Those who share similar tastes in music or, at its most complex, those who are suited to us based on very simple self-definitions (am I more of a talker or a listener?).

In other words, these systems match us on our rational preferences. They offer us little help when it comes to defining or rationalising our deeper impulses and desires - little help in rationalising our inner chimp…

Algorithms tomorrow: I’m just a love machine and I don’t want nobody but you.

The promise of tomorrow’s world is that computers will learn about us in much more organic ways, not pigeonholing us into extroverts or introverts, but just watching what we actually do, recording it and analysing it to track patterns. Suddenly our chimp brain is being watched by a totally impartial observer (you could say ‘cold eye’). Being external of any chimp like doubts, this super computer could be uniquely placed to really understand what we are and what we want. Then, when we walk into a room and a suitable match is nearby, a little pulse through our smartwatch will alert us to the message “The man who you should marry and have children is within 1 meter of you. Red jumper, 3 o’clock, next to the snack bar” Who will we – mere chimps at heart – be to object….

Image courtesy of africa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net