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