Comedy

[kandrathe]

I couldn’t do it without conceding that all humor is based on misfortune in one way or another, rather a slight infraction to ones ego, such as Petes Elephant joke, to the more perverse, such as the television show Jack-Ass.

Which only reveals the limitations of you, and your understanding. I'm not meaning that in a mean way, but your concept of AI, or a robot is limited. In fact, no one yet has created or conceived of any artificial "brain" that comes close to the computing/chemical complexity of a human brain except through science fiction. We are probably to the point where we understand our own limitations in being able to create an artificial brain. What you propose is a very elaborate straw man, which in this case is actually a robot man.

Then again, speaking as a computer scientist, one who studies artificial intelligence, it would be the simplest thing in the world to emulate given certain preconditions. It's the preconditions which we are finding difficult to artificially produce. A primary one being, "consciousness". But, some other items our AI brain needs to attain are, "self awareness", "understanding", "learning", and "relative value". Then, you want to introduce "emotions" which for us are a complex set of chemicals which are intricately wired to our instincts for fight or flight, for courtship and mating, for nurturing, and for many, many other things. Things like "Love" and "Hatred" are very complex, and probably limited to only the most complicated organisms in the animal kingdom. I took an entire semester philosophy course just studying "Love", and another just studying "Beauty".

I would say then, once our AI brain, has these preconditions, it would be fairly simple to code in situations which induce "Humor" and "Laughter".

The first joke I would teach it would be; "Treat your passwords, like your underwear. Don't leave them laying around, and change them often." But, in order for the AI brain to understand the humor, it must "know" some information about underwear, and their use by humans. So, another requirement for humor is a fair amount of knowledge. A computer has no use for underwear, and so just as a some indigenous Polynesian tribe, may not have a context for understanding our culture, where we wear underwear. Also, of course, they would need to understand enough about computer to know about passwords. The humor is in drawing the parallel between the two.

This same issue arises with my young sons, where I need to explain why the joke is funny. They missed many jokes, because their life experience (knowledge) isn't sufficient to allow them to understand the humor. But, my oldest son began laughing at everything in his life well before he could walk. He had the most prodigious belly laugh by six months of age. And still, he and his brother spend most of their time getting each other to laugh. Like feisty kittens sparing... They do that too, then laugh!

For example, in Monsters vs Aliens, the sea monster gets off the transport ship experiencing the outside for the first time in 20 years, and he says, "Is the planet getting warmer? Because, that would be a convenient truth, if it were." That joke, as well as a hundred other ones which rely on life experience go right over his head.

Here is a Gedanken Experiment for you; Consider an isolated tribe of very sensitive, peaceful people living in the deepest parts of the Amazon. Would you think they have jokes? Would it be impossible for their humor to be entirely based on only the most pleasant, and non-deprecating forms? For example, throughout Lakota culture, Heyoka was a character who often did things contrary, and it was funny.

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The logic to turn that into tragedy will have to be Gordian, indeed.

AHHHH!!! Shredded hogs flesh!!!! The horror!