!!Con 2020 - *Punch Card Love! A (Very!) Personal History of Computer Dating! by Amy Cash

*Punch Card Love! A (Very!) Personal History of Computer Dating! by Amy Cash I owe my existence to punch cards. When I tell people that my parents met on a computer date, they generally aren’t that surprised. This changes when I mention that the date was arranged in 1968. Where, when, and why did the computer dating industry begin? Who was invited to participate (and who was not)? What machines, languages, and algorithms were used? All these questions will be answered as we explore the social and technical aspects of the early days of using computation to find romance. In 1998, a friend of Amy’s told her she should get into computer programming; 19 years later she finally took him up on the idea. She is a 2017 graduate of Ada Developer’s Academy (Cohort 8!) and she currently develops software for biologists at the University of Washington.