Whose company would you enjoy?

你喜歡哪種伴侶？

Well, one thing you can consider is looks.

你可以參考的標準之一就是外貌。

Like everything else these days courtship has gone online.

和其他東西都一樣，找對象的過程也電腦化了。

Can that so-called science really find your soul mate?

這聲稱是「科學」的玩意兒可以幫你找到靈魂伴侶嗎？

But I've never been out on a dinner date before. I'm just scared to death.

我從沒出去吃過燭光晚餐，我怕得要死。

Online dating is now a multibillion-dollar industry.

現今，線上交友產業價值數十億商機。

One in five dating relationships started online.

有五分之一的戀愛關係從線上發展。

But is there really a formula for love?

但真的有戀愛配方嗎？

It's 1959 and two electrical engineering students at Stanford are working on their final class project.

1959 年，兩名史丹福大學電機工程系的學生在做期末班級專題。

It uses a questionnaire and an IBM 650 to matchmake 49 men and 49 women.

利用問卷與 IBM 650 型電腦來幫各 49 位的男女做配對。

They call it the Happy Families Planning Service.

他們稱之為「幸福家庭企劃服務」。

There are no long-term matches but they do get an A for their work.

雖然配對維持的時間並不長，但他們期末拿了個 A。

It was 1960s when computer scientists started to get interested in personal relationships and in particular they were interested in whether they could improve the efficiency by which people matched.

1960 年代，電腦科學家開始對 (研究) 親密關係產生興趣，尤其是配對效率的提升。

Similar small data-driven systems appear but in 1965, it's Operation Match that really starts to 'take the blindness out of a blind date'.

類似的小型數據驅動化系統出現了，但卻是 Operation Match (全美第一個線上配對服務) 在 1965 年時，真正開始「讓盲目約會不再盲目」。

For $3 you can answer over 100 questions about yourself and your ideal date.

只要 3 美元，你可以填答一百個自身基本資料的問題，以及所求對象的條件。

The answers are recorded on punch cards, run through a five-ton IBM computer and a few weeks later, you get the names and numbers of your top six matches.

答案會記錄在打孔卡上，再用高達五噸重的 IBM 電腦計算。幾個禮拜後，就會得到前六名配對的名字與電話。

Computer technology has moved so fast.

電腦科技進步之快。

It matched on the basis of things that people had in common.

配對的準則是看雙方最基本的共同點。

So religion, hobbies, attitudes to life in general.

大概就是信仰、喜好，以及生活態度等。

And we actually know now that that's not the most effective way of matching people.

我們都知道這其實不是最有效的配對方式。

Six months after the launch, 90,000 Operation Match questionnaires are received, making the company $270,000.

推出六個月後，九萬份的 Operation Match 問卷如雪片般飛來，帶給公司 27 萬美元的收益。

In 1995 Match.com is launched by American engineer Gary Kremen.

1995 年，由美國工程師 Gary Kremen 推出的 Match.com 上線了。

And then in 2005 a group of employees at PayPal create a website where people can upload videos of themselves to try and get a date.

2005 年，一群 Paypal 的員工架設一個可以隨意上傳自拍影片的網站，以便找約會對象。

The tagline is Tune In, Hook Up.

標語是「看了，就上了」(Tune In, Hook Up)。

It doesn't take off so instead it rebrands itself as YouTube.

這網站並不受歡迎，所以它改名為 YouTube。

Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

今日，蘋果將重塑手機。

It's 2007 and the iPhone has just been released.

2007 年，iPhone 才剛發表。

Soon new dating apps start to appear.

不久後交友軟體就出現。

Most dating apps are notoriously private about the algorithms they use and that's because they use quite simple ones.

大部分的交友軟體都對使用的演算法非常保密，那是因為答案非常簡單。

And they don't have very much proof that any of them lead to better matching.

他們沒有很多證據證明演算法能優化配對結果。

They don't really want everyone to find love on the first hit because then they'd all be out of business.

他們不希望大家一拍即合，因為這樣公司無法生存。

In 2017 around 40% of American heterosexual couples first meet online.

2017 年，約 40% 的美國異性戀夫婦是網上認識的。

And by 2018 dating services in the US are estimated to be a $3 billion a year business.

截至 2018 年，美國的交友服務估計達到三十億的商機。

Lots of people anecdotally are saying they're fed up of using dating apps but at the same time business is absolutely booming.

許多人聲稱已經受夠交友軟體了，但與此同時，產值卻蒸蒸日上。

The number of users between 2016 and 2017 in the world doubled.

2016 到 2017 年間，全球用戶數量成長兩倍。

Even though there's on the horizon, the possibility of video dating and augmented reality for dating, none of those things can give you an indication of chemistry.

即使影片交友、實境交友實現的可能性增加，沒有一項可以確保戀愛該有的化學反應。

And you could only find that out when you meet somebody face to face.

只有面對面時才能知道。

That's still going to be overridingly the way in which people meet and fall in love.

這仍然是大家通往相識相戀的主要途徑。