Re: Humour. Nice idea.

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Tue Nov 09 2004 - 01:10:45 MST


At 04:24 PM 09/11/04 +1100, Anthony wrote:

> > While I would not like to see a *lot* of this type of humor
> > on this list, I think some is valuable. Humor evolved for
> > useful function, probably escaping loops and warning you away
> > from areas of thought that are potentially harmful.
>
>Interesting Keith. And enlightening.
>
>I am thinking of a framework for moral AI system.
>And I must confess I have never even consider!! to put humor
>in my design.
>
>I wonder if there is any studies/paper on the utility and necessity
>of humor. I will do some search I think.
>Since I am a programmer, I got worry when you mention
>"loops". ^^

Marvin Minsky is the most thoughtful author on the subject I know
about. There is a page or two in _Society of Mind_ but you can probably
find more of his writing about humor on the net. If you find his papers,
please post pointers back to this thread.

Long ago, when I was just getting into this cult quagmire, Minsky was on a
humor panel at Stanford with Steve Martin and a third person who I can't
remember but he had been doing research on programs that wrote jokes.

Afterwards I talked a some length with Steve Martin about my adventures
with the cult. I like to think that led to _Bowefinger_.

Keith Henson



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Feb 21 2006 - 04:22:48 MST