This project is about what I call intimate modernities; or rather, the construction of intimate modernities in contemporary settings. Dominant theories of modernity, including recent theorizations of multiple modernities, tend to focus on changes in broader political, social, and economic structures and processes, relegating the sphere of intimate relations and community ties to a subordinate position (McKinnon and Cannell, Godelier, Carsten). In this project, I argue that these visions of modernity are based on a series of dualistic private/public, passion/reason, community/society, human/machine oppositions that were largely inherited from earlier 19^th century evolutionist narratives and mid-20^th century theories of modernization.