io9's list of three scenarios for the future of romantic love has added some books to my reading list, especially Cyberabad Days. But it's interesting to me that all three of the scenarios are based fairly firmly in social conditions that exist (socially networked societies), existed in the past (courtly love), or are coming into being in the future (shrinking female populations in certain areas). It seems to me that the writers could have taken this list further. Couldn't the vast expansion of increasingly sophisticated and niche-oriented social networks actually intensify the search for soulmates, as people become convinced that they actually could find the one perfect person for them somewhere on the planet? Could we see a return to entirely epistolary model of romantic relationships, where actual physical contact is fairly irrelevant, but people forge intense emotional connections through email, chats, webcams, etc.? John Varley's Steel Beach looks at the future of plastic surgery, when people can switch bodies and genders in an afternoon: what will love be like when people can transform themselves on a whim? We've seen couples whose relationships survive when one member switches genders, but that transformations are more gradual. Maybe it's pessimism, but it's hard to me imagine a future where human relationships aren't more transitory. Maybe we'll get a new model of romantic comedies in the bargain.