The Love Competition from Brent Hoff on Vimeo.

There are some who claim that science ruins the mystical excitement of this world. They claim that once you reduce everything down to atoms, and physics, and math that you have lost some essential wonder or glory or excitement. I fully reject this notion, I feel like an piece of art is even more enjoyable if you understand the chemical process of the paint, of the molecular structure of the stone. I feel that knowing more about emotions, like love, allows you to more fully appreciate the awesome grandeur of the human experience.

This video is a perfect example of that. These people are taking the ultimate in human emotion, love, and having it “reduced” to a number. Having it “diminished” to a series of electrical impulses in the brain. And far from being reduced by the process they are uplifted and enriched. Knowing that love is a series of chemical reactions in their brain, that can be reduced to a “score” did nothing to limit the joy these people felt.

In fact I would make the argument that now these people know that love is not something ephemeral, never to be understood. They know that love is real, that they can have it, and that it can exist, that is can even be measured. I think each person left that office with a sense of hope and wonder and awe. They are marveling at their own minds, and I am sure upon reflection marveling at the process that created their minds.

I love this video.