Consider the word “laser” which is really an acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation” with the key words being “stimulated emission of radiation”. In particular, a laser contains electrons from an excited energy state which are falling to a lower energy state primarily via stimulated emission to produce coherent photons.

Furthermore, recall a necessary condition for stimulated emission to dominate over absorption is a condition called population inversion, meaning the population of electrons at the excited energy state is greater than the population of electrons at the lower energy state. Population inversion is also called “negative temperature” because it matches the thermodynamic equilibrium populations of a system at negative temperature.

Finally, consider semiconductor lasers (say Indium Phosphide [InP]), which are always direct bandgap and usually heterostructures to allow for carrier confinement. The semiconductor material is degenerately doped and can be thought of as “un-deplete-able”, since a PN junction of this material in forward bias has Quasi-Fermi levels which establish an inversion (rather than depletion) region where population inversion is achieved.

Now consider dating apps (say Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, or CMB), where arguably the goal is to stimulate emission of c………ompanionship and romance. Specifically, profiles from a excited state (presumably you swiped on these profiles because they “excited” your interest) should fall to a matched state primarily via the stimulated emission of romance.

In this case, we realize population inversion is a necessary condition for the above romance to occur, and can hypothesize various techniques to establish such a condition. We also realize that “population inversion” for dating apps can also be called “negative standards” because it matches the swiped and un-swiped populations of a dating app user with negative standards. We finally ponder if “negative standards” can in reality truly exist, because SURELY nobody is swiping right on everyone, including all the people they are not interested in and all the people who are not aligned with their values and intentions.

Using our knowledge of the semiconductor approach, a way to create population inversion may be to become very degenerate, to the point of having a thirst that is “un-quench-able”. Presumably this would allow for the creation of an inversion region where the desired population inversion condition can be achieved. Those familiar with rubies or gas lasers could probably think of different approaches.

I suspect the creators of these dating apps know about these scientific techniques and so issue shadow and direct bans to dissuade people from using them - Yet another unfortunate example of how institutions are standing in the way of important scientific research.

Note: This blog post is an elaboration of a conversation I had with one of my mutuals on IG. I am still in a lot of emotional pain these days but am dealing with it. Google thinks I am a science blogger so might as well write about some science.