Appy ever after

IN this age of artificial intelligence where robots can be programmed to have human emotions, will the time come when all the single man or woman needs to do to find a mate is go online and order a customised android to spend the rest of his or her life with?

Even if that is still the stuff of sci-fi movies, it may not be long before reality catches up. In the meantime, the quest for one's human soul mate continues, but the search has moved from brick-and-mortar pick-up bars and physical dating agencies into the online stratosphere. In the same way that smartphones have taken over our lives, your perfect match is now determined by the app you use.

Once a novelty, dating applications have been proliferating faster than the national fertility rate as evolving social values favour the anonymity of technology and sheer convenience over the human touch.