Great article. It reminded me of a note my head of strategy sent out to the rest of the team. It was a quote from the Godfather (more specifically Hyman Roth) when he said: this is the business we have chosen. A pact with the devil or pragmatic realist?

Would love to come Hugh. Big fan of Stephen Johnson's last book exploring this theme.

Interesting discussion you've put forward. One of the challenges going forward is gauging that intimacy from the get go and over time. For example I have some childhood friends that despite living a world away, and maybe communicating a few times a year we can just pick up where we left off. Compare that with maybe a shallow relationship whereby you communicate often with someone but may not actually have a strong bond with e.g. a colleague a work. Whilst no behavioural psychologist, the very nature of our social interactions are both varied, complex, and forever changing. Any social system would have to deal with those dynamics whilst also engaging the user.