Government
A Valentine’s Day Tradition, Born in the Heart of Boston
In the 1800s, candy helped make Boston an industrial powerhouse. Candy hearts have been a lasting legacy of that era, though their future is less certain.
In anticipation of Valentine’s Day this year, research scientist Janelle Shane fed hundreds of messages printed on classic Conversation Hearts to a neural network learning algorithm. After reading a series of “Be Mine”s and “Call Me”s, the bot spit out its own imitations. Some were romantic-adjacent: “Love Bun,” “My My,” and the more meta, “Love Bot.” Others veered into the absurd: “Sweet Meat,” “Time Hug,” “Stank Love.” The messages weren’t very flirty, even if they were extremely 2019.
But they followed a tradition that dates back to the 1860s—one that lapsed for the first time this year, when the manufacturer of the more tangible, classic Sweetheart candies, the New England Confectionary Company, shut down in July.