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For decades, for centuries even, we have become more separate from village and community, from extended family, from plants, animals, and places. People became strangers and nature became scenery. The resulting loneliness leaves people susceptible to what the philosopher Zak Stein [calls](https://centerforhumanetechnology.substack.com/p/the-attachment-economy-is-here-were) “attachment hacking.” Known in the industry as “emotional attachment optimization,” “relational optimization,” or “anthropomorphic design,” it refers to the deliberate engineering of AI chatbots to hijack the emotional attachment people form toward someone who understands, sympathizes with, and validates them—to someone who displays the signs of love.