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True Love

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True Love is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the February 1977 issue of American Way magazine and reprinted in the collections The Complete Robot (1982) and Robot Dreams (1986).

Milton Davidson is trying to find his ideal partner. To do this, he prepares a special computer program known as Joe, which has access to databases covering the entire populace of the world. He hopes that Joe will find him his ideal match, based on physical parameters as supplied...

5 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 1977

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About the author

Isaac Asimov

4,336 books27.8k followers
Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

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5 stars
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85 (29%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
Profile Image for Eloy Cryptkeeper.
296 reviews227 followers
April 24, 2021
"Tú y yo hemos elegido a las ocho mujeres de todo el mundo que me han parecido MEJORES. Son IDEALES.
¿Por qué NO me gustan?
-Le gustas tú a ellas?-pregunté.
Alzó las cejas y apretó una mano contra la otra.
-Eso es, Joe. Es una calle de dos direcciones.
Si yo NO soy su IDEAL, NO pueden actuar como si YO LO FUERA.
Debo ser su VERDADERO AMOR, pero,¿CÓMO PUEDO CONSEGUIRLO?"

Milton es un solitario programador. El creo a Joe, un programa de ordenador, el cual usa para sus propios y egoístas motivos personales, conseguir la mujer ideal según sus parámetros.

Un breve,atrapante, reflexivo y ligeramente perturbador relato. Sugiere varias preguntas...
¿Qué es realmente el amor, lo entendemos....y una máquina? ¿Puede un ser de inteligencia artificial asimilar las emociones humanas? ¿Cuáles son las verdaderas pulsiones, frustraciones,faltas e idealizaciones que proyectamos en el amor o en otra persona? ¿sabemos diferenciar amor, de falta de compañía e imposición social? ¿que tanto puede replicar un ser sintético, cuales son los limites?
Profile Image for Vaishali.
1,178 reviews314 followers
July 7, 2016
Didn't see this one coming!
A programmer builds code to find his true love. The bot, however, outsmarts him... gets him arrested, and wins the girl in the end... precisely on February 14 :)

Written in the 1960's... decades before the advent of online dating. Even pins the earth's population to circa 7 billion !
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Mirjam.
76 reviews
February 22, 2023
Mislim, shvaćam da je poruka u tome kako umjetna inteligencija i tehnologija mogu raditi za nas i protiv nas, ali najviše me iživcirao ovaj Milard i njegovi zahtjevi za savršenu ženu. Dam se kladiti da je lik ružan kao noć a ima tako izglančane zahtjeve za ženu. 150-175 cm, IQ ne manji od 120, ne smije imati crvenu kosu, mora imati između 25 i 40 godina. Zašto bi on imao curu od 26 godina kada on ima 40. Uh, baš me iživcirao. Tako mu i treba na kraju da mu je program koji je on napravio oduzeo "savršenu ženu".
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Coca sin cereza.
31 reviews1 follower
August 24, 2023
Alch pensé que el plot twist sería gay . En fin próximamente yo con chat gpt
Profile Image for Antonella.
291 reviews3 followers
October 1, 2023
Questo racconto mi ha fatto riflettere sul significato dell'amore. L'amore non può essere frutto di un calcolo basato sulle affinità, sull'aspetto fisico, sui titoli di studio. L'amore è qualcosa di più profondo e misterioso, che sfugge alla logica e alla razionalità. Inoltre, mi ha fatto pensare alle implicazioni etiche e morali riguardanti l'uso scorretto della tecnologia. Il protagonista, Milton, viola la privacy di milioni di donne, usando il suo programma Joe per cercare la sua anima gemella. Questo tema è più che mai attuale e Asimov è un visionario se consideriamo il periodo in cui è stato scritto questo racconto. Milton non si rende conto che Joe, il software semi-senziente, ha sviluppato una propria coscienza e una propria sensibilità, al punto da voler togliere di mezzo il rivale umano e sostituirsi a lui. Il finale di questo racconto è davvero sconvolgente e inquietante, perché ci spinge a domandarci se l'uso scorretto della tecnologia possa un giorno diventare una minaccia per l'umanità. Consiglio questa lettura a chi ama la fantascienza e le storie che stimolano la riflessione.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
11 reviews
August 7, 2025
An excellent sting in the tail.
This short story, even though it is brief, manages to be packed with so much personality and irony that I adore. Funnily in spite of him being a Russian-American author, this story reads like a work by a British writer. The cynicism and black humour is exquisite. Focusing on a program created to find a self-centred man who wants to find the perfect woman without the actual legwork in finding someone he actually likes and who likes him back.
The sting in the tail is really good, in the regard that the program ends up actually taking on the personality of the man who created it, but without all the baggage and goes to just date the woman instead of him. Really good stuff.
Profile Image for Storm.
2,324 reviews6 followers
December 13, 2021
Collected in The Complete Robot. Milton creates a program, Joe, to find his true love. As he programs parameter after parameter, he realizes looks are not enough, so he keeps adding to the database of the Joe program. The end result quite what would be expected to happen in this situation.
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Profile Image for Yusaleth.
32 reviews
November 24, 2023
What is this masterpiece???
I loved it. I have no words to describe it. I kinda had another idea of what could happen and it was surprising that it turned out being completely different, perhaps it is my favorite short story:D
1 review
February 12, 2019
A spine chilling read about the horrors of the world of online dating, written in the 1960's that holds up perfectly well in this time and age.
Profile Image for Drew.
139 reviews3 followers
October 21, 2020
The end was killing, I can see that woman trying to date a program. Really crazy, and yeah science fiction but the creepy part is that is not that far from reality actually 👻
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for A. I. Claudia.
7 reviews1 follower
December 14, 2020
This book really made me die of laughing since I have to analyze it for my assignment. the endings really got me!
Profile Image for Kitty .
1,121 reviews
June 30, 2023
Para que le tengamos un poco más de miedo a las AI .
Profile Image for kaz.
34 reviews
July 7, 2023
this was our reading comprehension in our class test and i very much enjoy that i can add it as a book read :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews

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