15. Advances in technology resulted in claims of futuristic “scientific matchmaking” to identify the perfect human mates
Matchmaking is a longstanding practice of humanity, dating back to the ancient world wherein the Jewish “shadchan” or Hindu astrologer with an understanding of the system of “Jyotisha” performed important societal roles in the historical matching of couples. Similarly, the concept of arranged marriages dates from the earliest civilizations, surviving today within Orthodox Judaism via the “shidduch” and in many Asian cultures. More recently in history, the notion of romantic attachment has entered into the concept of formal family unions, with individuals engaging in the rigmarole of social functions and conventions to find that special someone.
Throughout all of these systems of mating, the underlying core principle has always been that there is an ideal result: the perfect mate. With the advent of modern science, this historic desire was unsurprisingly attached to new and exciting technologies. Beginning in the 1920s, publications began to predict a wonderful future in which a desirable and uniquely personalized mate could be found through science, claiming that whilst at present “marriage is a lottery” it could be improved to “give one a reasonable assurance of married happiness.” Among the many tests suggested as offering future generations the opportunity for a perfect marriage partner was the use of an “electrical sphygmograph” to measure pulse and breathing as a determinant of physical attraction, the use of same whilst observing an individual enduring suffering to calculate sympathy, the inhalation of potent body odors via a hose as a test of affectionate endurance, and the random firing of a gun to test nervousness in each other’s company.