Cybersentics Book Club: Love Testers + Musée Mécanique Tour
Can love be measured? For over a hundred years, we have been on a quest to measure love and uncover the principles of romantic affection. . .
Photo: Museum of the Game
In the early 1900s, around the time the first lie detectors were invented, scientists began gauging attraction through subjects’ sweat and heartbeat. Around the same time, entrepreneurs brought love meters to fairs and carnivals. Long dismissed as gimmicks, these devices are direct predecessors of compatibility tests and, you guessed it, dating apps. Their algorithm promises to match you with the best possible partner, yet it is often little better than random. The main difference between dating matches and love meters may be the biases baked into the algorithm, such as race and sexual appeal drawn from photos and self-imposed categories.
This month, we’re reading “Love Tester Machines,” a history of devices that promised to predict whether two people were a match. To see how they worked firsthand, we’re taking the book club offsite for the first time, to the Musée Mécanique, the largest museum of arcades in the US.
Our Plan
→ Discussion of the reading
→ Hands-on trial of the machines
→ Quick follow-up and reflections
💖 Bring your friend, partner, or check your compatibility with another book club regular! At the end of the day, it's just a gamble . . .or not?
🗓 December 20, 2026
🕛 Time: 12–2 PM
📍Musée Mécanique, Pier 45, San Francisco, CA 94133 (see the map)
Logistics:
Bring quarters for the machines. Admission to the museum is free.
📖 Reading:
Malinowska, A. (2025). Love Tester Machines. In: Mayer, CH., Vanderheiden, E. (eds.), International Handbook of Love. Springer.