There is giving LUV. And, there is giving love.
Is it the same?
My initial answer to that question is, no, it is not. LUV is just a sidechain token, love is real and authentic. The two are a world apart.
However, while observing the @LUVshares endeavor, I'm beginning to wonder.
LUV is what I've seen referred to as an "appreciation token." There are a handful on Hive. For instance, suppose there was a CANDY token. The concept is, when you like what someone wrote, you give them a CANDY. It's something you might do in real life if you were physically with that person. These appreciation tokens are all terrific. I'm a fan.
LUV is unique
The LUV token shares essentially the same goal of appreciation tokens: when you like a post, upvote it, but also send some LUV. However, I'd like to suggest that the LUV token has a distinction.
When giving something like, say, that CANDY token, you are not really giving candy. You are giving the CANDY token. And, that is both wonderful and fun!
Similarly, when you give LUV, you are giving a digital token. However, I can't help but to wonder...
When giving the LUV token, are you also actually giving love?
Again, I really don't know, but it makes me think.
How things are transmitted, point A-to-B
Consider how some things are transmitted, how they're given. In the world, a candy given from parent-to-child is manually transferred. It is physically handed over, "with a warm hand" as they say, quite literally from one person to another. Both people are physically together. Of course, it could be mailed. But, again, it is physically, literally transferred.
What about ideas? Ideas can be transferred, person-to-person, face-to-face. They can also be sent around the world. What if I told you I could send a thought from my mind to yours via some sort of Hollywoodish mental telepathy. You might judge me lunatic. Or, you might think that I'm suggesting some sort of vampire or jedi knight mind-control nonsense. Neither is the case.
And yet, I can send a thought from my mind to yours. Wherever your are, and at whatever time and space you're in, I can implant my current thought into your head. Let's do a case study.
I'll imagine something right now...
...I'm thinking of a bear. That bear is standing in a river, in the rapids. The salmon are jumping upstream trying to traverse up the breaks and current. The bear is standing there trying to grab a fish in mid-air.
We've all seen scenes like this on TV (maybe some have seen this live). Unless you had already been thinking this same thing, then my thought, the fishing bear thought, has just been transferred from my mind and implanted into yours.
Data transmission
How my thought gets from me-to-you is amazing.
Right now, this information is being transmitted around the globe. The fishing bear idea was conjured in my mind. My brain sent messages to the muscles in my fingers where I applied physical finger-tapping on my keyboard. There is electricity and circuitry, and likely radio frequencies that we like to call wifi, and maybe satellites in space bouncing radio waves back down to Earth. Then, it goes through wires and routers and your internet or wifi or cell tower and phone, more circuitry, pixel blips light up, or don't. Your eyes scan the pixel blips, rods and cones perceive light, or not, neural impulses are sent to your brain, and your amazing brain aggregates those neuron blips into meaning.
"Oh, a bear fishing for salmon. Got it. Does he ever catch a fish?" You say.
LUV transmission
In a way, sending LUV tokens mirrors sending the fishing bear idea. It involves circuitry and electricity, as well as the Hive-Engine scripts doing the figuring-out and the Hive blockchain doing all the database recording, like a secretary stacking things in a file cabinet, ready to be pulled out and used when the Hive-Engine smart contract calls upon it.
But love transmission?
Can you send an emotion in this way? Electronically, with circuits and satellites and wifi?
I say that you can. People are angered online continually (and Tweet-wars will rage). People "fall in love" remotely via the internet all the time (how big is the dating-site business?). Doesn't a wonderful novel stir your emotions? The words on a page can be rousing and inspiring or infuriating or saddening. The digital realm and words transferred electronically can do the same. And certainly, a heartfelt email to a loved one far away sends and brings love. Emotions can definitely be conjured and conveyed via technology.
What is love?
Oh baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more...
(Had to include this.)
I'm sure many of you know this, but it's worth revisiting here. The ancient Greeks had multiple words for love. I've always heard they had three, but an internet search suggests they had six or eight, or three. I'll stick with three:
- eros
- philia
- agape
Eros love was viewed by the ancient Greeks as romantic or intimate love, that's the nice way to phrase it. More bluntly, it was sexual love or lust.
Philia is brotherly love, like Philadelphia (the "city of brotherly love") or the love between, say, the players on a football team competing for a championship. Or love between war buddies in the trenches together watching one another's back. The bond is strong and the love is real. Philia is terrific, however it's criticized at times because it can be a you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours situation. It's like a teammate who helps the team, but only because doing so helps him win the trophy. When the team begins to lose and the championship is out of hand, that person's loves dies. The word "affiliate" derives from Latin, not Greek, but the word works well here to describe philia. Affiliates might be business partners...they help one another. When both mutually benefit, both affiliates are happy and the relationship is good. But, if one of the partners breaks the promise that connects them, the affiliation likely breaks as well.
Agape love is self-sacrificial love. It's giving love without expecting anything in return...it's putting others before one's self. It's loving the person you disagree with. It's loving the person you simply don't like, yet loving them anyway. Unlike the affiliates that part ways after a broken promise, agape love endures. Despite being hurt, the person who was wronged carries on the agape love toward the wrongdoer anyway. It is unconditional love.
I think of a model husband-and-wife couple. Likely, all three types of love exist in their own way, at their own appropriate time.
The LUV token has the goal of spreading love around the Hive blockchain. So, LUV is not about eros, but philia? Agape? Maybe.
So, can LUV send love?
Technology cannot send real and authentic candy. How awesome would that be?! But sending real and authentic love?
Consider a case of...
- A LUV token sent to someone posting a terrifically cute picture of your favorite dog or cat breed.
- LUV sent to someone for a great joke or meme.
- LUV sent to someone who posted a fantastic travel log and photo album so that you felt like you'd been right along with them.
- LUV sent to someone who has done great work for the community that's benefiting others.
- LUV sent to someone who is hurting emotionally.
- LUV sent to someone who is celebrating a wedding? Or a birth?
- LUV sent to someone who feels alone.
We can send thoughts digitally. We can send money digitally. We can send files and images and many other things I'm sure. Can sharing a digital LUV token actually send love as well?
That's a question really for you to answer yourself. By no means do I think LUV is any substitute for authentic love between people, but still, I believe that it can.
Postscript: Yes, the bear finally caught a fish, a big one. He took it home and had a wonderful smoked salmon dinner with his family. And, they said it was the best fish they'd ever eaten.
LUV should be shared. Share the LUV.