Topic Battle

Love predates multicellular life. The evolutionary advantages of pair bonding and parental investment have shaped species development for hundreds of millions of years. Archaeological evidence suggests Neanderthals buried their dead with apparent care, implying emotional attachments that predate Homo sapiens. Love, or its biological precursors, has been operational since before fish developed the ability to walk on land.

Moreover, love appears resistant to obsolescence. Despite technological advances that have rendered countless human institutions unnecessary, love persists. Social media has not replaced it. Dating algorithms have merely attempted to systematise its distribution. Predictions that technology would eliminate the need for emotional connection have proven spectacularly incorrect. Love's longevity is measured in geological time; Bond's is measured in film studio accounting periods.

Love's adaptability operates on a fundamentally different scale. The same neurochemical processes that bonded prehistoric humans operate identically in modern individuals swiping through dating applications. Love adapts to every culture, every era, every technological context. It functions equally well in arranged marriages and chance encounters, in letters and text messages, in villages and megacities.

The plasticity of love's expression is remarkable. It manifests as romantic passion, parental devotion, platonic affection, and abstract love for concepts, places, or activities. Bond adapts by changing actors and updating his technology. Love adapts by colonising every possible form of human connection, including some that did not exist until recently (one can now, apparently, love a brand). This omnidirectional adaptability represents a fundamentally superior survival strategy.

Love's economic impact is essentially incalculable. The global wedding industry alone exceeds $300 billion annually. The diamond industry's entire existence is predicated on love's association with commitment—De Beers' marketing genius was recognising that love could be commodified through crystallised carbon. The greeting card, flower, and chocolate industries exist primarily because of love-related occasions.

Beyond direct expenditure, love's economic influence extends to housing markets (couples purchasing homes), fertility industries, divorce proceedings, and the entirety of romantic media consumption. One might argue that love is the hidden variable behind a substantial percentage of all economic activity. Humans work, earn, and spend in pursuit of love or its maintenance. Bond generates box office receipts; love generates the fundamental motivation for economic participation.

Love's global influence predates human civilisation itself and operates as perhaps the most powerful motivating force in biological history. Every major religion addresses it. Every culture celebrates it. Approximately 150 million greeting cards are exchanged on Valentine's Day alone in the United States, suggesting that love's influence on the stationery industry alone dwarfs Bond's contribution to vodka sales.

The neurochemical basis of love—involving oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin—has been implicated in everything from pair bonding to warfare. Helen of Troy's face allegedly launched a thousand ships, a feat requiring significant naval logistics and presumably motivated by something stronger than rational cost-benefit analysis. Love has inspired the Taj Mahal, the Sistine Chapel ceiling (in a theological sense), and an estimated 100 million songs. Bond has inspired approximately 25 theme songs, which is respectable but mathematically insufficient.

Love's combat record is, upon examination, devastatingly effective. The Trojan War, lasting a decade and resulting in the destruction of an entire civilisation, was fought ostensibly over romantic attachment. Antony abandoned his military responsibilities for Cleopatra. Edward VIII abdicated the British throne—arguably one of the most powerful positions on Earth in 1936—because love demanded it.

From a neurochemical perspective, love operates as a form of temporary insanity. The prefrontal cortex—responsible for rational decision-making—shows reduced activity in subjects experiencing romantic love. This effectively disarms the brain's natural defences against poor choices. Love does not need a Walther PPK; it simply rewires the neural circuitry of its targets until they voluntarily surrender. Bond shoots people. Love makes people shoot themselves, metaphorically speaking, with remarkable efficiency.