In 2009, a Japanese man married a woman named Nene Anegasaki on the island of Guam. The curious thing was that Nene was a virtual character in the Nintendo videogame LovePlus. In 2013, Spike Jonze directed the highly acclaimed (and Academy Award nominated) film “Her”, in which the protagonist falls in love with an OS (operating system) AI (artificial intelligence). Outrageous you say? Consider that for centuries people have been falling in love sight unseen via snail mail. Today, with online dating, this is even more prevalent. Philosophy professor Aaron Ben-Ze’ev notes that online technology “enables having a connection that is faster and more direct.” So it got me thinking that these types of relationships aren’t that different from the virtual ones that are […] Read More