[ExI] uncommon lols

[William Flynn Wallace]

Don't want to read all that stuffy sciency prose?
If this is a dig it is not appreciated.  I love reading science.  Can't do
much with physics, chemistry or math unless written for laypeople.  Let's
just say that I made an offhand comment and didn't google anything.   bill w

On Thu, Jul 1, 2021 at 3:04 PM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 30, 2021 at 8:47 PM spike jones via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > On Jun 30, 2021, at 6:35 AM, spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> > >>…We all need more laughter in our lives.  Of all beasts, I know of no
> other species that does that,
> >>> and just think about how much of a waste that is.
> >
> > From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf
> Of Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat
> >
> > >…I don’t think anyone’s saying this is the last word, though it looks
> like good evidence at this point that laughter isn’t peculiarly human.
> >
> > Human laughter takes on so many different forms, I can’t think of
> anything which would be analogous to it in nature.
>
> Have you read the journal piece I mentioned? See:
>
>
> http://www.bioacoustics.info/article/play-vocalizations-and-human-laughter-comparative-review
>
> Don't want to read all that stuffy sciency prose? NPR did a segment on it
> too:
>
>
> https://www.npr.org/2021/05/22/999491591/dozens-of-animals-laugh-too-study-shows
>
> Much easier to access, and it seems like the examples they use are
> analogous to human laughter.
>
> Disagree? What would qualify as analogous in your mind? It might be
> you're setting the bar too high. (Which isn't to say that human
> behavior hasn't ramified the trait to a greater extent than other
> extant animals. For instance, tool use is observed in primates,
> corvids, and even cephalopods, but none of these organisms has
> organized anything like a textile mill or a 3-D printer.)
>
> Think of this: laughter is almost certainly an evolved behavior. And
> it seems fairly basic -- as humans do it at an early age and I don't
> know of a human culture without laughter. Humans share many other
> basic behaviors with other animals, especially with primates and other
> social animals. (Some of these could be shared primitive traits,
> others convergent evolution, still others simply things that
> regardless of evolution any social species would do.) So, I'd start
> from the position not of human exceptionalism here, but of what is the
> likely evolutionary path of the behavior.
>
> (I don't like to use 'in nature' because it presumes humans are
> outside nature. But I get what you mean. I'm not into the strong form
> of Sapir-Whorf, but I think using such idioms reinforces an
> anti-evolutionary view here.)
>
> > Perhaps beasts really do have a form of laughter which we cannot
> detect.  This brings up a rather disturbing thought…
>
> Again, look at the evidence. It seems like there are other animals
> have something like laughter, sometimes that's close enough that using
> terms like 'play vocalizations' almost seems pedantic rather than
> informative. See also:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughter_in_animals
>
> To me, being around humans, cats, dogs, etc., it seems like play and
> laughter are there if you pay attention. Yes, a cat or a dog or a
> parrot isn't going to laugh at a clever pun, but in the context of
> their understanding it seems they do laugh or have 'play
> vocalizations.'
>
> To me, this is similar to how people live around cats their whole
> lives yet can't figure out why most cats don't like belly rubs or get
> irritated after being pet too long. (Not to mention, there is this
> thing called Google that one can use to see if anyone else has figured
> out pressing issues like this.:)
>
> > What if… our dogs and cats really are laughing at us.  We can’t see it,
> > but inside, they have contemptuous gales of derisive laughter.  Dogs
> > don’t really act as if they do, but cats… one can never really tell with
> > those aloof clawey bastards.  They might be laughing at us.
>
> Eh.
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>   Sample my Kindle books via:
> http://author.to/DanUst
>
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