This thesis presents the hypothesis that humans use escapist abstraction and humor as neurological defense mechanisms to forget our mortality and insulate ourselves from the fragility of existence. As technology further integrates into our lives, it may propel our desire for escape through distraction and also reliance on humor for relief. The document discusses philosophical theories of humor, cognitive science, neuroscience and the relationship between humor and human cognition and creativity. It proposes exploring how humor and right-brained thinking may define our humanity as technology satisfies rational needs.
A playful stroll thru heuristic fields of thought & feeling, focused upon opportunities for Foreign Language Learning Pedagogy to be transformed by New Media (Lev Manovich), NeuroCinematics, WeChat/WhatsApp, English Corners, right-brained learning/acquisition. Wikinomics and the practices of mass collaboration can be used by language learners for income generation--by doing audio editing of their target language to expandtheir level of i+1 (Krashen's concept of expanding one's level of comprehension of the target language input),by using repetition of audio segments (speeches/film dialogues/songs/etc.), silence, background music, slowing the speed of speech (but not the frequency). Such income-generating mass collaboration projects can benefit economically-challenged individuals/schools/NGOs/etc.
Learn how virtual reality, brain-based technologies and the language of arts can be used to support transformative experiences, that is, emotional experiences that promote deep personal change.
The Pervasive Experience - project review July 2010Rob Manson
This document reviews the Pervasive Experience project. In this project the driving assumption is that increasingly pervasive, networked technologies are impacting our lives. The research question is: How is Pervasive Computing changing you?
A playful stroll thru heuristic fields of thought & feeling, focused upon opportunities for Foreign Language Learning Pedagogy to be transformed by New Media (Lev Manovich), NeuroCinematics, WeChat/WhatsApp, English Corners, right-brained learning/acquisition. Wikinomics and the practices of mass collaboration can be used by language learners for income generation--by doing audio editing of their target language to expandtheir level of i+1 (Krashen's concept of expanding one's level of comprehension of the target language input),by using repetition of audio segments (speeches/film dialogues/songs/etc.), silence, background music, slowing the speed of speech (but not the frequency). Such income-generating mass collaboration projects can benefit economically-challenged individuals/schools/NGOs/etc.
Learn how virtual reality, brain-based technologies and the language of arts can be used to support transformative experiences, that is, emotional experiences that promote deep personal change.
The Pervasive Experience - project review July 2010Rob Manson
This document reviews the Pervasive Experience project. In this project the driving assumption is that increasingly pervasive, networked technologies are impacting our lives. The research question is: How is Pervasive Computing changing you?
Computer, Consciousness, Creativity
By Susan Greenfield
Talk presented at the 19th International Interdisciplinary Seminar
What differentiates human persons from animals and machines? Netherhall House, London, 5-1-2017
Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords. Specialising in the physiology of the brain, Susan researches the impact of 21st century technologies on the mind, how the brain generates consciousness and novel approaches to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Susan has written a range of non-specialist books on issues relating to the mind and brain for the general reader. She appears regularly on radio and television and frequently gives talks to the public and private sector.
How do creative networks are born and evolve? What is the key to optimal creative collaboration? Is creativity contagious? A summary of our theoretical and empirical research addressing these questions.
My night with philosophers presentation - London June 8David Roden
Humanism, Transhumanism and Posthumanism
The Humanist and the transhumanist propose different methods for cultivating human capacities. The transhumanists claims that traditional techniques favoured by the humanist run up against the limits of our biology. She believes that prospective technologies could further the humanist cause by improving our nature. However, the transhumanist faces a difficulty. Her policies could produce posthumans. Evaluating posthuman lives might be impossible for us. But discounting them is not an option because she will share responsibility for their creation. I argue that one way through this impasse is for the transhumanist to produce posthumans or to become posthuman.
Who are we? If we are not a thing, what are we? Who is talking when I say “I”.
Is there any present-day approach to the self which takes into account the naturalistic claim without losing the self, its existence and its durability?
Is there any contemporary account of the self which let us defend the narrative and cultural production of the self without converting the self into a fake, into something strictly decided by others either culturally or evolutionarily.
A response to these challenges can be found by mixing a phenomenological and an hermeneutical approach.
Computer, Consciousness, Creativity
By Susan Greenfield
Talk presented at the 19th International Interdisciplinary Seminar
What differentiates human persons from animals and machines? Netherhall House, London, 5-1-2017
Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster and member of the House of Lords. Specialising in the physiology of the brain, Susan researches the impact of 21st century technologies on the mind, how the brain generates consciousness and novel approaches to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Susan has written a range of non-specialist books on issues relating to the mind and brain for the general reader. She appears regularly on radio and television and frequently gives talks to the public and private sector.
How do creative networks are born and evolve? What is the key to optimal creative collaboration? Is creativity contagious? A summary of our theoretical and empirical research addressing these questions.
My night with philosophers presentation - London June 8David Roden
Humanism, Transhumanism and Posthumanism
The Humanist and the transhumanist propose different methods for cultivating human capacities. The transhumanists claims that traditional techniques favoured by the humanist run up against the limits of our biology. She believes that prospective technologies could further the humanist cause by improving our nature. However, the transhumanist faces a difficulty. Her policies could produce posthumans. Evaluating posthuman lives might be impossible for us. But discounting them is not an option because she will share responsibility for their creation. I argue that one way through this impasse is for the transhumanist to produce posthumans or to become posthuman.
Who are we? If we are not a thing, what are we? Who is talking when I say “I”.
Is there any present-day approach to the self which takes into account the naturalistic claim without losing the self, its existence and its durability?
Is there any contemporary account of the self which let us defend the narrative and cultural production of the self without converting the self into a fake, into something strictly decided by others either culturally or evolutionarily.
A response to these challenges can be found by mixing a phenomenological and an hermeneutical approach.
General Education courses A gymnasium of the mindKnowledge.docxbudbarber38650
General Education courses A gymnasium of the mindKnowledge beyond one’s specialtyWriting and thinking across disciplinesWorking in collaboration with othersThinking critically & reasoning logically Developing some computer skills Sensitivity to others’ cultures & problems
*
Have Fun But Not Too Much!
“But perhaps the biggest reason why intellectuals excoriated entertainment was that they understood all too well their own precariousness in a world dominated by it. For whatever the overt content of any particular work, entertainment as a whole promulgated an unmistakable theme, one that took dead aim at the intellectual’s most cherished values. That theme was the triumph of the senses over the mind, of emotion over reason, of chaos over order, of the id over the superego, of Dionysian abandon over Apollonian harmony. Entertainment was Plato’s worst nightmare. It deposed the rational and enthroned the sensational and in so doing deposed the intellectual minority and enthroned the unrefined majority.
Therein, for the intellectuals, lay utmost danger and deepest despair. They know that in the end, after all the imprecations had rung down around it, entertainment was less about morality or even aesthetics than about power—the power to replace the old cultural order with a new one, the power to replace the sublime with fun.”—Neal Gabler, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1998, page 21.
Critical thinking tipsThink about thinkingLearn how to unlearnKnow the ‘what’ and the ‘who’Synthesis versus analysisWisdom versus knowledgeAcademia versus the mediaFacts versus judgmentsTruth as a thinking virtue Action versus reactionJustice as a social virtueResist appeals to prejudices Be prepared for different perspectivesDon’t believe everything you thinkLearn the habit of gathering and examining
evidence before forming conclusionsBe always aware of illusionsThink sometimes outside the box
Truth that Matters to Society
“Scientists must seek not just truth in general but truth that matters, and truths that matter not just to scientists but also to the larger society in which they live and work”
Philip Kitcher, “On the Autonomy of the Sciences,” Philosophy Today, 2004, pp. 51-57.
Consider the Big Picture
“Many people fall for mistaken common beliefs regarding their health because medicine today does not look at the human body as a whole. For many years there has been a trend for doctors to specialize, looking at and treating just one part of the body. We can’t see the forest for the trees. Everything in the human body is interconnected. Just because a component found in a food helps one part of the body function well, it does not mean that it is good for the entire body. When picking your food and drink, consider the big picture. You cannot decide whether a food is good or bad simply by looking at one ingredient found in that food.”
Hiromi Shinya, MD, The Enzyme Factor: Diet for the Future that wil.
(note: many animations do not replicated in SlideShare; it is suggested that you view in the native PowerPoint program)
Week One – “A History of Media Psychology”, which will feature discussion of the early “moral panic” days of research, including The Payne Fund Studies, The Seduction of the Innocent, and a discussion of the psychological underpinnings of the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast. Our discussion this week will also include an overview of the history of leisure and it’s relation (positive and negative) to society.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo (March 14, 1903 â November 17, 1976) was a Dutch Doctor of Medicine and psychoanalyst.
Born as Abraham Maurits 'Bram' Meerloo in The Hague, Netherlands, he came to United States in 1946, was naturalized in 1950, and resumed Dutch citizenship in 1972. Dr. Meerloo was a practicing psychiatrist for over forty years. He did staff psychiatric work in Holland and worked as a general practitioner until 1942 under Nazi occupation, when he assumed the name Joost to fool the occupying forces and in 1942 fled to England (after barely eluding death at the hands of the Germans). He was chief of the Psychological Department of the Dutch Army-in-Exile in England.
After the war he served as High Commissioner for Welfare in Holland, and was an advisor to UNRRA and SHAEF. An American citizen since 1950, Dr. Meerloo was a member of the faculty at Columbia University and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the New York School of Psychiatry. He was the author of many books, including Rape of the Mind, the classic work on brainwashing, Conversation and Communication, and Hidden Communion.
He was the son of Bernard and Anna (Benjamins) Meerloo. He married Louisa Betty Duits (a physical therapist), May 7, 1948.
Education: University of Leiden, M.D., 1927; University of Utrecht, Ph.D., 1932.
Meerloo specialized in the area of thought control techniques used by totalitarian regimes.
This book has regained prominence because of the Barack H, Obama regime, and the methods that were used to establish it. One can gain many useful insights into Obama's campaign strategy by reading this book.
Tuesdays with Morrie: Symbolism - Free Essay Example | StudyDriver.com. Tuesdays With Morrie Summary. Free tuesdays with morrie Essays and Papers - 123helpme. The Profound Lessons of Morrie Schwartz Free Essay Example. Learning Perspective: The Memoir Genre in “Tuesdays with Morrie .... ≡Tuesdays With Morrie Essays | Summary, Analysis | Format Template .... ⇉"Tuesdays with Morrie" Book Review Essay Example | GraduateWay. Tuesdays with morrie final essay - copywriterdubai.x.fc2.com. Tuesdays With Morrie eNotes Lesson Plan - Our eNotes... - Language Arts .... An Analysis of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom Essay Example .... Tuesdays with Morrie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... Striking Tuesdays With Morrie Essay ~ Thatsnotus. Persuasive Essay: Tuesdays with morrie essay. ️ Tuesday with morrie reaction paper. Reaction Paper for Tuesday with .... PPT - Tuesdays with Morrie Response to Literature Essay PowerPoint .... Tuesdays with Morrie Summary Free Essay Example. Tuesdays with Morrie. Tuesdays with Morrie - 1970 Words | Free Essay Example on GraduateWay.
Manuel Manga
www.evolutionleader.com
This work created by Manuel Manga is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
81018, 1018 AMWhat Defines a Meme Arts & Culture Smith.docxsleeperharwell
8/10/18, 10'18 AMWhat Defines a Meme? | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian
Page 1 of 4https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-defines-a-meme-1904778/
Smithsonian.com
What Defines a Meme?
Our world is a place where information can behave like human genes and ideas can replicate, mutate
and evolve
With the rise of information theory, ideas were seen as behaving like organisms, replicating by
leaping from brain to brain, interacting to form new ideas and evolving in what the scientist Roger
Sperry called “a burstwise advance.” (Illustration by Stuart Bradford)
By James Gleick
Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe
May 2011
What lies at the heart of every living thing is not a fire, not warm breath, not a ‘spark of life.’ It is information, words, instructions,” Richard Dawkins declared in
1986. Already one of the world’s foremost evolutionary biologists, he had caught the spirit of a new age. The cells of an organism are nodes in a richly interwoven
communications network, transmitting and receiving, coding and decoding. Evolution itself embodies an ongoing exchange of information between organism and
environment. “If you want to understand life,” Dawkins wrote, “don’t think about vibrant, throbbing gels and oozes, think about information technology.”
We have become surrounded by information technology; our furniture includes iPods and plasma displays, and our skills include texting and Googling. But our
capacity to understand the role of information has been sorely taxed. “TMI,” we say. Stand back, however, and the past does come back into focus.
The rise of information theory aided and abetted a new view of life. The genetic code—no longer a mere metaphor—was being deciphered. Scientists spoke grandly
of the biosphere: an entity composed of all the earth’s life-forms, teeming with information, replicating and evolving. And biologists, having absorbed the methods
and vocabulary of communications science, went further to make their own contributions to the understanding of information itself.
Jacques Monod, the Parisian biologist who shared a Nobel Prize in 1965 for working out the role of messenger RNA in the transfer of genetic information, proposed
an analogy: just as the biosphere stands above the world of nonliving matter, so an “abstract kingdom” rises above the biosphere. The denizens of this kingdom?
Ideas.
“Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms,” he wrote. “Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine,
segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely play an important role.”
Ideas have “spreading power,” he noted—“infectivity, as it were”—and some more than others. An example of an infectious idea might be a religious ideology that
gains sway over a large group of people. The American neurophysiologist Roger Sperry had put forward a similar notion several years earlier, arguing that ideas are
“just as real” as the .
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Let's dive deeper into the world of ODC! Ricardo Alves (OutSystems) will join us to tell all about the new Data Fabric. After that, Sezen de Bruijn (OutSystems) will get into the details on how to best design a sturdy architecture within ODC.
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
From Daily Decisions to Bottom Line: Connecting Product Work to Revenue by VP...
Outline Update Thesis One v05
1. THESIS ONE
Humor & Humanity
Abstraction, Delusion, and Escapism
Michael Silber | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
2. “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–
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
3. 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.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
4. 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
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
5. Human Cognitive Activity
Areas of the Brain and Their Cognitive Function
• Block, N. (1983). Mental Pictures and Cognitive Science. Philosophical
Review, 92, 499–541.
• Hirschfeld, L.A., and S.A. Gelman, 1994, (eds.), Mapping the mind: Domain
specificity in cognition and culture, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Noonan, H., 2010, ‘The Thinking Animal Problem and Personal Pronoun
Revisionism’, Analysis 70: 93–98
Contemporary Discussion of The Brain
• Eagleman, David. 2011. Incognito: The Hidden Life of the Brain. New
York: Pantheon Books/Random House.
• Hurley, Matthew M., Dennett, Daniel C., Adams, Jr., Reginald B. 2011.
Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind, Boston.
MIT Press.
• Malone, Michael S. 2012. The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of
Human Memory. Macmillan.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
6. 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.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
7. Cognitive Science
The 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.,
New York: Worth.
• Boden, M. A., 2006. Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science,
Oxford: Clarendon.
• Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson, 1980, Metaphors We Live By, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
• Thagard, P., 2009. “Why Cognitive Science Needs Philosophy and Vice
Versa, ” Topics in Cognitive Science, 1: 237-254.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
8. Neuroscience
• Bickle, J., 2003, Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive
Account, Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Press.
• Clark, A., 2008. Supersizing the Mind: Embodiment, Action, and
Cognitive Extension, New York: Oxford University Press.
• Erneling and D. Johnson (eds.), The Mind as a Scientific Object: Between
Brain and Culture, New York: Oxford University Press
• Thompson E., 2007, Mind and Life, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Smith, L.B., and E. Thelen, 2003, “Development as dynamic system,”
Trends in Cognitive Science, 7 (8): 343–348.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
9. Augmented Reality/ Transhumanism/
Posthumanism and Genetic Modification
Machines Are Becoming Part of Us.
• Kurzweil, R., 2006. The Singularity is Near, New York: Penguin Press.
• Bedau, M. and E. Parke (eds.), 2009, The Ethics of Protocells: Moral and So-
cial Implications of Creating Life in the Laboratory, Cambridge: MIT Press.
A Place for Humans in the Digital Age
How Do We Differentiate Ourselves From Machines?
The Turing Test
• Christian, Brian. 2011. The most human human: what talking with comput-
ers teaches us about what it means to be alive. New York: Doubleday.
Logic and Rationality.
• Ariely, Dan. 2010. The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of
Defying Logic at work and at Home. New York: Harper.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
10. “Nothing in man is more
serious than his sense of humor;
it is the sign that
he wants all the truth.”
-Mark van Doren
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
11. The Philosophy/ Psychology of Humor
• Descartes, René. (1649/1987). Les Passions de L’ame. Paris. Excerpts in Morreall
• Freud, Sigmund (1928). “Humor.” International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 9, pp. 1-6.
• Kant, Immanuel. (1951). Critique of Judgment. J. H. Bernard, Trans. New York: Hafner.
• Geulen, Eva, 2006, The End of Art. Readings in a Rumor after Hegel, trans. J.
McFarland. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Martin, Rod A. (2007). The Psychology Of Humour: An Integrative Approach. London,
UK: Elsevier Academic Press.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur (1818). The World as Will and Representation.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
12. “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)
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
13. HUMOR
Right-Brained.
Uniquely Human.
Emotive.
Subjective.
Improvisational.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
14. HUMOR AND DESIGN
Synthesis 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
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
15. Project Proposal
Questions
Can Humor Define Our Humanity?
Will We Gravitate Towards Right-Brained Thinking and
Humor As Techonology Resolves Our Rational Needs.
Is Humor Inherently Memorable?
Goals
Explore Right-Brain Activity and the Role of Humor.
Implementation/ Applications
Absurdity and Humor in Design Imagery.
Participatory Interaction Projects that Amuse
and Engage the Right-Hemisphere of the Brain.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein
16. “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.
Michael Silber | Directed Research | Professor Tom Klinkowstein