Do You Long for Having Your Heart Interlinked?

Could you have a romantic relationship with a computer? What if you knew (or even merely suspected) that it was programmed to show a romantic interest in you? Would that suspicion undermine any feeling you might have of being desired as you? What if your soulmate died and you were offered an indistinguishable copy to replace them—would you be delighted, or would that just creep you out? Suppose that you’re having sex with someone while fantasizing about having sex with someone else, while at the same time that someone else is fantasizing about having sex with you. (Never mind explaining that to the someone you’ll soon be spooning with). With whom are you, in fact, having sex? What are we really, deep down, searching for when we seek and enter into intimate relationships? And why am I asking you such strange questions?