Outline Update Thesis One v05

THESIS ONE

Humor & Humanity Abstraction, Delusion, and Escapism

Michael Silber | Professor Tom Klinkowstein

Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein

“This is my um perspective and has always been my perspective on life... I have a very grim pessimistic view of it of it and always have, since I was a little boy. It hasn’t gotten worse with

age or anything, I do feel that it’s a grim painful, nightmarish, meaningless

experience. And that the only way that you can be happy, is if you tell yourself

some lies and deceive yourself...one must have one’s delusions to live.”

–Woody Allen–

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yVPS8XBoBE&feature=related


This thesis presents the hypothesis that humans use escapist abstraction as a means to forget our mortality, and that humor serves as one such neurological defense mechanism, distorting reality to insulate us from the fragility of existence.

The rapid advance of technology has both created avenues for escape, in the form of television, the internet, and augmented reality; and also propelled our desire for escape.

Such a hypothesis suggests that as technology further integrates with our lives and our bodies, we will not become more machine-like in personality, but instead rely more heavily on the relief of humor.


The Philosophy of Humor

1. Incongruity Ambiguity, logical impossibility, irrelevance, and inappropriateness.leading approach- Kant, Kierkegaard, [Aristotle]

2. Superiority Aggressive supremacy.Thomas Hobbes, Plato, Aristotle

3. Relief Release or save energy generated by repression.Freud, Herbert Spencer


Human Cognitive Activity Areas of the Brain and Their Cognitive Function

• Block,N.(1983).Mental Pictures and Cognitive Science.PhilosophicalReview,92,499–541.

• Hirschfeld,L.A.,andS.A.Gelman,1994,(eds.),Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture,NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress.

• Noonan,H.,2010,‘TheThinkingAnimalProblemandPersonalPronounRevisionism’,Analysis70:93–98

Contemporary Discussion of The Brain• Eagleman,David.2011.Incognito: The Hidden Life of the Brain.New

York:PantheonBooks/RandomHouse.

• Hurley,MatthewM.,Dennett,DanielC.,Adams,Jr.,ReginaldB.2011.Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind,Boston.MITPress.

• Malone,MichaelS.2012.The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory.Macmillan.


LEFT BRAIN Speech, Analysis of Detail, Calculation, Writing, Vigilance, Sequential Processing.

RIGHT BRAIN Spatial Orientation, Visual Pattern Recognition, Performance-like Functions, Creative Associative Thinking, Humorous Thoughts.


Cognitive ScienceThe Mind is Similar to a Computer with Representational Structures and Our Thoughts are Governed by Computational Procedures. These Relate to Problem Solving, Learning, and Language.

• Anderson,J.,2010.Cognitive Psychology and its Implications, 7th edn.,NewYork:Worth.

• Boden,M.A.,2006.Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science,Oxford:Clarendon.

• Lakoff,G.,andM.Johnson,1980, Metaphors We Live By,Chicago:UniversityofChicagoPress.

• Thagard,P.,2009.“WhyCognitiveScienceNeedsPhilosophyandViceVersa,”TopicsinCognitiveScience,1:237-254.


Neuroscience• Bickle,J.,2003,Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive

Account,Norwell,MA:KluwerAcademicPress.

• Clark,A.,2008.Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and Cognitive Extension,NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress.

• ErnelingandD.Johnson(eds.),The Mind as a Scientific Object: Between Brain and Culture,NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress

• ThompsonE.,2007,Mind and Life,Cambridge,MA:HarvardUniversityPress.

• Smith,L.B.,andE.Thelen,2003,“Developmentasdynamicsystem,”TrendsinCognitiveScience,7(8):343–348.


Augmented Reality/ Transhumanism/ Posthumanism and Genetic Modification MachinesAreBecomingPartofUs.

• Kurzweil,R.,2006.TheSingularityisNear,NewYork:PenguinPress.

• Bedau,M.andE.Parke(eds.),2009,TheEthicsofProtocells:MoralandSo-cialImplicationsofCreatingLifeintheLaboratory,Cambridge:MITPress.

A Place for Humans in the Digital AgeHowDoWeDifferentiateOurselvesFromMachines? The Turing Test

• Christian,Brian.2011.Themosthumanhuman:whattalkingwithcomput-ersteachesusaboutwhatitmeanstobealive.NewYork:Doubleday.

Logic and Rationality.• Ariely,Dan.2010.TheUpsideofIrrationality:TheUnexpectedBenefitsof

DefyingLogicatworkandatHome.NewYork:Harper.


“Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor;

it is the sign that he wants all the truth.”

-Mark van Doren


The Philosophy/ Psychology of Humor • Descartes,René.(1649/1987).Les Passions de L’ame.Paris.ExcerptsinMorreall

• Freud,Sigmund(1928).“Humor.”InternationalJournalofPsychoanalysis,9,pp.1-6.

• Kant,Immanuel.(1951).Critique of Judgment.J.H.Bernard,Trans.NewYork:Hafner.

• Geulen,Eva,2006,The End of Art. Readings in a Rumor after Hegel, trans.J.McFarland.Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress.

• Martin,RodA.(2007).The Psychology Of Humour: An Integrative Approach.London,UK:ElsevierAcademicPress.

• Schopenhauer,Arthur(1818).The World as Will and Representation.


“Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are

discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.”

– E.B. White “Some Remarks on Humor,” preface to A Subtreasury of American Humor (1941)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yVPS8XBoBE&feature=related


HUMORRight-Brained.

Uniquely Human. Emotive.

Subjective. Improvisational.


HUMOR AND DESIGNSynthesis of Ideas

Pattern Recognition - Associations, Comparisons, Juxtapositions

Commonality, Context, Shared Experience, Familiar vs. Unfamiliar

Subjectivity - Empathy, The Human Condition

Communication - Language, Social Engagement

Rhythm, Timing

Story-Telling - Narrative, Plot

Surprise - Expectation, Tension and Relief

Absurdity

Wordplay and Symbolism

Process of Trial and Error - Idea, Craft, Execution


Project Proposal

Questions CanHumorDefineOurHumanity?

WillWeGravitateTowardsRight-BrainedThinkingand HumorAsTechonologyResolvesOurRationalNeeds.

IsHumorInherentlyMemorable?

Goals ExploreRight-BrainActivityandtheRoleofHumor.

Implementation/Applications AbsurdityandHumorinDesignImagery.

ParticipatoryInteractionProjectsthatAmuse andEngagetheRight-HemisphereoftheBrain.


“Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him

for what he is.”

-Francis Bacon, Sr.

Technology

Outline Update Thesis One v05