CITIZENS

Dating in the Terran Accord

Despite enormous technological and social changes following humanity's expansion beyond Earth, dating remains remarkably recognizable.

People continue to meet through friends, workplaces, educational institutions, religious communities, recreational organizations, public events, bars, nightlife venues, street markets, restaurants, festivals, hobbies, and chance encounters.

Technology expanded the available methods of meeting people without replacing traditional courtship. Dating remains fundamentally interpersonal.

People meet. People flirt. People go on terrible dates. People fall in love. People ghost each other. People misrepresent themselves. People marry. People separate. People complain that dating has become impossible.

Interstellar civilization did not solve romance.

StarNet Dating

StarNet hosts a vast range of dating services.

These include conventional profile-based dating platforms, matchmaking systems, blind-date services, group-dating networks, recreational meetups, interest-based matching, professional matchmaking, religious dating communities, and location-specific services.

Most platforms allow users to restrict searches geographically. A person may choose matches within their neighborhood, city, continent, planet, system, or—if sufficiently ambitious—across interstellar distances.

Interplanetary relationships consequently exist, although transportation time and expense remain practical considerations.

Blind Dates and Group Activities

Blind dating remains common.

Some StarNet services deliberately conceal photographs or substantial portions of a participant's profile until an initial meeting has occurred. Others organize groups around activities rather than explicitly pairing individuals.

Common group-date and social activities include dining, street-food tours, dancing, sporting activities, concerts, recreational clubs, gaming, sightseeing, festivals, religious gatherings, outdoor activities, and nightlife excursions.

Bars and Nightlife

Bars remain a major component of dating culture.

Synthetic alcohol, however, substantially altered the relationship between nightlife, intoxication, and sexual consent.

A person can become heavily intoxicated on synthetic alcohol while socializing at a bar or club and subsequently become sober through sustained physical movement.

This has produced one of the strongest social expectations surrounding dating in the Accord:

Consent is a sober event.

Intoxication and Consent

Synthetic intoxication does not prevent people from flirting, dancing, expressing attraction, exchanging contact information, kissing, or deciding that they are interested in continuing an encounter.

It does, however, create a readily correctable state of impairment.

Consequently, when an encounter is expected to progress into sexual activity, the culturally normal practice is for intoxicated participants to clear the synthetic intoxicant first. Frequently, this requires nothing more complicated than walking together.

A conversation familiar throughout Accord nightlife is therefore:

“Do you want to come back to my place?”

“Yes.”

“Take a walk with me.”

By the time the individuals reach their destination, sustained movement has ordinarily cleared the synthetic intoxicant and the decision can be affirmed while sober.

Sober Affirmation

The availability of rapid sobriety substantially reduces the cultural acceptance of relying upon severe intoxication as the basis for sexual decision-making.

A person's behavior while intoxicated may communicate attraction or interest. It does not eliminate the expectation that meaningful sexual consent be established while capable of making a sober decision.

This principle is sometimes summarized informally as:

Drunk flirting is flirting. Sober consent is consent.

The phrase is cultural shorthand rather than a complete statement of Accord criminal law, but accurately reflects the prevailing social expectation.

Real Alcohol

Traditional ethanol creates a different situation.

Unlike synthetic alcohol, ethanol intoxication cannot be rapidly eliminated through walking or other ordinary physical activity. Someone who deliberately consumes traditional alcohol may remain impaired for hours.

Consequently, the simple practice of taking a walk cannot establish sobriety following significant ethanol consumption. Traditional alcohol is treated accordingly when assessing impairment and capacity to consent.

Dating Preferences and Alcohol

Some StarNet dating profiles explicitly identify preferences regarding intoxicants.

A person may specify that they drink only synthetic alcohol, consume traditional ethanol, abstain entirely, use cannabis privately, or prefer partners who avoid particular substances.

“Synthetic only” is a common preference among people who enjoy drinking socially but do not want persistent intoxication interfering with transportation, work, dating, or later decisions.

Technology Did Not Fix Dating

StarNet can compare interests. It can identify shared activities. It can calculate distance. It can arrange introductions. It can facilitate blind dates. It can connect people living on different planets. It can place two highly compatible people in the same room.

It cannot make them like each other.

For all the sophistication of Accord technology, dating continues to contain the same uncertainty that characterized it on Earth.

Compatibility algorithms cannot manufacture chemistry, prevent heartbreak, eliminate awkward conversations, or guarantee that another person will respond to a message.

The Terran Accord learned how to cross interstellar space long before humanity learned how to make romance predictable.