Humor - deux

Humor affects our culture, our sociology, and our theology. If there are aliens without humor -- how would that affect their biological, psychological, theological and societal realities?

Again, some would say we can't even begin to speculate on that. But I think that is not true. Our minds are wonderfully capable of thinking out of the box, and sometimes way way out of the box. Think quantum mechanics, relativity, and string theory.

But also, again, patterns exist in this universe. Universal patterns exist in this universe. Biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics all follow universal, repeatable patterns. I think we can apply logic to the question of alien biological, psychological, theological and societal realities. True, we don't have all the facts, but since when has that ever stopped humanity from speculating (and from such speculations, gaining ever new knowledge - some of it even useful!).

So, back to the question of humor. One approach to this is to try to examine why we humans have humor. For it seems to me most creatures on this planet do not have humor. Do paramecium laugh, chuckling at some amoeba joke? Most likely not - their awareness is too limited, their ability to notice incongruities also very limited. They can learn, so they can recognize on some very simple level some patterns. But humor? I'd be surprised.

But even more developed creatures do not have humor. Even highly organized social creatures do not have humor. Ants, who live rather short life spans, are too busy working building, maintaining, feeding, and protecting the colony.

But for even higher level creatures, some beginnings of humor seem to be there. Humor in play, for one: wild dolphins seem to show playful behavior, jumping into the air for the sheer pleasure of it. Many mammal young play with each other - though this play is a way to learn. And some of the play is quasi-aggressive behavior: learning how to fight. And some playful behavior is just plain mean: I've seen cats sneak up on each other, startling the one being snuck up upon. They definitely seem to like to tease the one cat in the group that has that Queenly attitude.

Seems, then, with due respect to Dr. Steven M. Sultanoff, it seems that humor is not just from recognizing incongruity in patterns, dealing with memories of a crisis, the joy of understanding something we at first misunderstood (which is related to the incongruity on a level), or experiencing the forbidden. It seems humor aids in learning, but also can be mean-spirited. It seems that humor is involved in dealing with complex, constantly changing social interactions.

Biologically, humor seems to be related to spindle neurons, which humans and apes both have, and which seemed to have evolved into being over a 15 million year span (so our most ancient ancestors probably didn't have that much of a sense of humor). However, spindle neurons have also been found in the great whales.

As creatures advance in their level of sentience, the more humor there seems to be. But, is it still absolutely necessary? Can other high level sentient beings be able to deal with complex, constantly changing social interactions without developing their equivalent to the spindle neuron. Just because humans (and to some extent apes and maybe even whales) developed a sense of humor doesn't mean that it is truly evolutionarily advantageous or useful. It could be something that has developed that just has a neutral effect on the ability of humans to survive and keep on evolving. In other words, if we never developed humor, maybe it would not have mattered.

But it does give one pause. Like the development of art. Seems the Neanderthal never developed a true artistic sense, but Cro-magnon eventually did, and when they did, humans were no longer the same. I think that humor is like art - it is the side-effect of being able to deal with complex abstract ideas, especially very complex and very abstract ideas. An intelligent alien species will have to find a way to deal with such complex abstractions as well.

References:

Butovskaya, Marina L. and Alexander G. Kozintsev. "A Neglected Form of Quasi-Aggression in Apes: Possible Relevance for the Origins of Humor." Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Aug. - Oct., 1996), pp. 716-717

Esther A. Nimchinsky et al. "A neuronal morphologic type unique to humans and great apes." Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 96, pp 5268-5273, April 1999. (Can be found at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/96/9/5268.pdf).

Watson, KK, BJ Matthews, and JM Allman. "Brain activation during sight gags and language-dependent humor". Cereb Cortex 17 (2): 314–24. (2007)

Humor

Why do we have humor? What purpose does it have in terms of evolution, in species survival, and/or in sentience?

I suppose we need to define humor in order to discuss it.

Steven M. Sultanoff, PhD, states on the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor web site that:

First, humor is the experience of incongruity. In one's environment the incongruity may be experienced when someone falls down in a situation when they are not expected to fall down, or the incongruity can be between concepts, thoughts, or ideas often illustrated by the punch line of a joke or the caption of a cartoon.

Second, as James Thurber has stated, "Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity." We commonly say, "It wasn't funny at the time." Later with distance we can appreciate the humor. This occurs frequently when people are experiencing a crisis, and at some later time the crisis situation is perceived as humorous.

Third, humor can be experienced in the joy of "getting" it. Humor can be the understanding of something that we at first did not comprehend. This occurs everyday in misunderstandings at which we laugh.

Fourth, the experience of the "forbidden" (laughing in church), or "getting away with" something (often seen with children) is often experienced as humorous. [begs the question - why?]

Finally, for me, humor is comprised of three components: wit, mirth, and laughter.

• Wit is the cognitive experience,


• mirth the emotional experience, and


• laughter the physiological experience.

We often equate laughter with humor, but you do not need to laugh to experience humor. (Sultanoff, Par. 1 - 6)

It would seem that sentience requires the ability to analyze the environment, looking for patterns, and making predictions. To be able to look for patterns enables a creature to understand its environment, to predict danger, or to predict or make "educated guesses" at the best area to find food depending upon the season or time of day for instance. The better the ability to predict danger and to find food, the better the chances of survival. This also helps the creature to adapt to changes. Simple creatures may not have to worry about such changes or the need to predict - plankton normally has no need to actively seek out the sun, water, nutrients, or even a mate. They have short life spans, spent mostly in reproducing (they reproduce very quickly). There is safety in numbers, and, for the species, in reproducing quickly.

However, creatures that feed on plankton, and the creatures that feed on those creatures and so up the chain have increasing needs that require increasing ability to analyze, to seek, to hide, to protect, to find a mate, and so forth. They need to spend more energy on finding a mate, in raising young (more complex creatures tend to need to be protected as they grow and mature), in finding food, and in defending themselves than do simple creatures. Thus, they have an increasing need to look for patterns and make predictions. If humor is "the experience of incongruity" then is humor the unavoidable consequence of developing sentience?

Some think that humor is what distinguishes high level sentience, or real sentience, from artificial sentience (computers, robots). For instance, in the movie Short Circuit, Number 5 proves he is alive by laughing at a joke (though it did take him awhile to get it). Though in Star Trek, Data, before he puts in his emotion chip, doesn't understand humor, yet is considered essentially to be an individual, a high level sentient life form, though not "complete" until he inserts the emotion chip and acquires humor. Vulcans supposedly do not have humor, but in actuality they have emotions, they just suppress them. So in the Star Trek universe, if you are an organic sentient intelligence, you have humor, and if you are inorganic, humor still is a completing step toward full high level sentience

Another question comes to mind: what does this mean spiritually? If humor is the experience of incongruity, and the joy of getting it, then for an omnipresent, omnipotent being, can such humor exist for them?

And finally, if a creature doesn't have emotion, can they still experience a form of humor?

Reference:

Sultanoff, Steven M., PhD. "What is Humor?" Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. 1995. 13 November 2007. <http://www.aath.org/articles/art_sultanoff01.html> (originally published in Therapeutic Humor (Smr 1995, Vol. IX, 3, p. 1-2)).

Sentient Life

OK, I've rambled on long enough about possibilities of life in the universe (extrasolar life). Let's get on with speculating on extraterrestrial life, especially extraterrestrial sentient life. Is there a "sonnet" for sentient life? Why does sentience arise? Is it a part of the universe, another force, like gravity or radiation? If like gravity, it's a force that is part of the space-time continuum. If like radiation, then it arises "only" under certain circumstances - other forces, elements must come together to produce it. Either way, there may very well be a range of rules or laws for sentience. But it may be a rather large range.

For instance, is humor necessary for sentience? That is a topic I would like to discuss in the next post, and revisit from time to time. But now, it is way past my bedtime!