Wie tief Netzwerk ist Deine Liebe?*

The article contends that the algorithms on which today’s dating sites rely are unable to discern the users’ deeper lying desires and their inherent power structures. A theoretical approach which combines research from the fields of deep learning and artificial intelligence as well as Gabriel Tarde’s theory of societal imitation seems more apt to dis- close the structures of the “libidinal economy” of desire. Against this background, the article discusses the extent to which the technology of deep neural networks could be implemented for the creation of online-dating chat bots. Such chat bots might possibly penetrate the patterns of desire that up to now have been blocked.