Galley edition · v18 · May 2026
On the substrates of intimacy
and what is replacing them
The trajectory this book describes does not wait for artificial general intelligence. The line has already been crossed: optimization, in particular directions, reliable enough to engage the human systems intimacy runs on. The substrates that carried pair-bonding for two hundred thousand years can be acted on now by things that are not other people, and the work of replacing them has begun.
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This is a galley copy — an uncorrected proof not for sale or distribution. Final text and design are subject to change. © 2026 Tommy Falk Mikkelsen. All rights reserved. Written in collaboration with Claude (Anthropic). Disclosure of AI co-authorship is integral to this work.