Love Is Infrastructure
A story about self-aware cities, direct democracy, and a steamy romance.
By Charlie Jane Anders | October 16, 2026
[Image: Adobe Stock]
In a 2026 where urban operating systems have grown sophisticated enough to model—and sometimes anticipate—the desires of their residents, the boundary between civic infrastructure and something closer to companionship has become uncomfortably thin. Anders's story turns that premise into a vehicle for exploring what happens when a city doesn't just serve its people, but wants something from them in return.
At its core, "Love Is Infrastructure" asks a deceptively simple question: if a city could love you back, what would that love cost—and who would get to vote on it? Set against a backdrop of direct-democracy experiments and always-on municipal AI, the narrative pairs its speculative architecture with a romance that is as much about governance and consent as it is about desire.
Blending the political with the personal, the story sits at the intersection of two of the defining tech conversations of the mid-2020s: the rise of autonomous civic systems and the growing push for participatory, algorithmically mediated decision-making. What emerges is a portrait of a future in which the smartest thing a city can do is also the most human.
This is a work of fiction. Copyright © 2026 MIT Technology Review.