Moore's Law of Humor

The idea of a supercomputer was proposed in the early 80s by Paul Benioff, Richard Feynman, David Deutsch, and others. At the time, quantum computers didn't exist. They were a wholly abstract concept. Which is a nice way of saying, nobody had a clue how to build them. 

Advancements in technology is a phrase that is synonymous with "have a nice day" because the phrase essentially acknowledges another's existence. If you're alive, we want you to have a nice day, just as we ourselves hope to have a nice day. If you're alive, you know that we're living in an age when our technological prowess has already surpassed our understandings as to how it will effect us. Without this integral piece of the puzzle, we are flying solo, drunk, and in the dark because we haven't a clue as to how to protect ourselves from ourselves. 

Over the last 50 years, the power of computers has doubled every year and a half. This explosion of computer power is known as Moore's Law. Moore's law, named after Gordon Moore, noted the exponential advance in the power of computing in the 60s. "Moore's law isn't a law of nature, it's a law of human ingenuity." Seth Lloyd, Programming the Universe. 

There seems to be an equally exponential advance in the search for positive humor. While I have not yet gathered enough data to support this hunch, I am observing on smaller scale, a similar interest in positive psychology or positive humor. People are actively searching for things on the internet that provoke laughter and provide amusement. 

It's a playful amusement that seems to be driving humor searches. Cheerful views on adversity that allow us to cope and sustain higher levels of happiness, longer, and the ability to make others smile and laugh (share) seems to be on the rise. 

The ability to cope (adapt) during difficult times is one of our defining characteristics as a species. It's this character strength that our societal and cultural milieu depend upon. In this respect, humor does effectively increase our sense of happiness and resilience. 

Our ability to cope is something that can be quantified exponentially. This echoes our search for positive humor - a key component of the evolutionary process. It can be seen in the popular images we encounter when we Google the word "life." 

LOL = LGL

Sophy's Joke Cards - Ad Hominem

Dressing life in humorous clothing is an art that when applied with great care can entertain, teach, and motivate. However, humor applied poorly can damage innate receptivity, both for the person telling the joke and for the receiver of it. The audience's response is a critical component that can either release or restrict the experience of shared comedy. 


Conceptually, this illuminates our understanding as to why it is important to analyze jokes to death. My intention is to eliminate some of the impediments found in humor so that eventually we can all laugh together. 


Humor is acknowledged as subjective, which is its universal appeal. Any manmade construct of the mind that is shared on this scale, warrants serious consideration. The fact that this serious consideration can be applied to the world of humor, jokes, and comics, delights as it tickles my funny bone. Exploring and applying humor brings out, what I believe, is the very best in me. How more honest can one be than to be true to themselves. 

"Wittgenstein once said that a serious and philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of jokes (without being facetious)." Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, p. 27 - 28. 

The below comic card is my best foot forward in the field of humor studies. Simple as it may be, it is indicative of a joke, a cosmic jest, if you will, that by laughing at ourselves, we give each other permission to do the same thing. 


Recognizing and not being hindered by the fallacies we have adopted throughout life in order to adapt to our world and our place in it, makes for a smoother life. As a sailor, who feels most at home on the water, I enjoy smooth sailing. While I've encountered some heavy swells on the sea of life, they didn't sink my boat. Anyone who has ever come face-to-face with a mammoth storm in their lives, will no doubt instinctively "get" from where I'm coming. 


Debunking humor and exposing the true nature of a joke allows us to more easily choose the ones we want to share and propagate. Rather than falling prey to the illusion that we laugh because something is "funny", debunking humor allows us laugh while remaining true to ourselves. Socially, we do not always recognize injustice, in particular if we have not been personally faced with another's version of it. For those of us who profoundly value solidarity, laughing together, rather than at each other, is very important. 


Given humor's power to connect people in shared laughter, understanding how to best do this is important. It's important to me because I only wish to propagate concepts and ideas that allow each of us to rise to the heights of our unencumbered potential. Look for the good and you'll find it, right? 


Keeping true to these values within myself, it is my pleasure to offer the world "a serious and philosophical work (which) could be written that would consist entirely of jokes." 

Supervillain Humor

"It's amazing how many Supervillain's have advanced degrees. Graduate school should do a better job of weeding those out." Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory ("The Codpiece Topology"). 

Think about it. What are these grade school admission committees thinking? What sort of selection process criteria takes in Doctor Doom? Sure, he's both a genius inventor AND a sorcerer, and ranked as the 4th greatest villain by Wizard on its "100 Greatest Villains of All Time" list, but seriously folks, who let's a guy that is essentially all skin and bones, sans the skin, waltz right into a university? 


Lady Unpleasantries, in A Publication of the International Society of Supervillains, wrote that "Basic villainy may be easy, but crossing that line from normal everyday villain to terror-inspiring super villain is a challenge many people are not up for." 


So, how does a Supervillain rise to the occasion when instinctively super villains are focused more on the descent? Looking back to the super villain's childhood, just might reveal a few of the answers. 

Here our super villain wasn't given one of Edmund C. Berkeley's Brainiac Computer Kit's for Christmas, so she switched her attention to Brainiac, following to the letter his Basic Pyrotechnic's Course in Miracle Booms! 

When kids everywhere wanted the Atari CX2600 Video Computer System to be a flying ace, a race car champion, a tennis star and a space pioneer all in one afternoon, mom and pop once again failed to recognize our little super villain's good intentions. 

Naturally, her "mechanical mind" made other plans. Instead of playing the gunner in 27 shooting gallery games, she delved into "tinkering" in the basement and built Lex Luthor, Superman's arch enemy, a sophisticated piece of hardware called a Time-Space Thought Scanner. 

The boatload of money Luthor paid for this device to search for the most powerful mind that has ever existed in the universe, eliminated permanently our little super villain's need for student loans. *Here we encounter the first tangible piece of evidence that financial transactions in the form of university endowments affect university grad committee decisions. In particular, when Lex Luthor sits on the board. 

Being intelligent is mainly about thinking logically and having lots of facts at one's disposal. Clark's "combination logic machine and filing cabinet," translated into super-villainy-speak implies that the standards designed to support discerning university admissions are being run by the underachieving cousins of super villains. In Superman 271, when Superman attacked Brainiac's flying saucer, Brainiac's thought bubble read "He shook my flier with that blow...but my calculations show that in desperation he is beginning to panic...so it would be logical for me to go outside and give him a reason to panic!" 

Following this thought train to its lesser conclusion, it would appear as if our university grad committee's generalized sentiment concerning the limitations of their own system, pinpoint the direction to our answer of the above question "who let's a guy that is essentially all skin and bones, sans the skin, waltz right into a university?"  

It is the unending list of possible side effects that they have been trained to imagine that allows them to think that putting candidates through the wringer will weed out logical machines with big filing cabinets to begin with. It is this faulty logic that gives our super villains access to technology that can blow things to smithereens. When we as a species learn the difference between relevant and irrelevant implications, our categorizing side effects, such as allowing Supervillains into grad school, will end. 

The answer lies in not taking ourselves too seriously. Visible intelligent behavior, when extended in length, breadth and depth, does not participate in "facts and logic" alone, but rather... in the humor of it all. 

Sophy's Countdown to Christmas

My 13-year old son composed the musical score for this video on his computer...

Tis The Season To Laugh

Laughter is a noisy and benevolent chain reaction of enthusiasm and encouragement, even in the face of tragedy, which is perhaps why we can laugh at it. 

Laughing at tragedy doesn't make someone callous. It makes them human. "Frame your mind to mirth and merriment, which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life." Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew. 


Growing up, I read that laughter was the best medicine. It was woven throughout The Reader's Digest, which endured because of this very truism. This message was mirrored back to me by my loving grandparents. I'm proud to say I was blessed with a grandmother and two great-grandmothers to guide me in this understanding. 


These wonderful ladies who lived through many generations of fascinating history taught me the art of conversation. The art of story telling. I sat fascinated, hanging on every word of their many adventures. They ignited in me a passion for living, and a passion for life. 


They shared with me the gist of their life stories, which naturally conveyed the same message over and over again. The same logical and heartfelt conclusion hit you by the end of every punchline, which was hilariously funny in a sobering way. Their stories left me forever mindful. 


Cicero's poem "On a Life Well Spent" beautifully and poignantly shares what was lovingly passed onto me. It's my pleasure this morning to pass it back along to anyone would find it of value. Whether it is the first time you hear these words or a gentle reminder, it is impossible to read them aloud and not simultaneously find yourself regenerated by their truth in a way that ignites your passion and subsequent ability to laugh at life in all its triumphs and tragedies. Laughter truly is good medicine, and at this time of year, the best gift idea. For it really is the *season to laugh... 

On A Life Well Spent

The best Armor of Old Age is a well spent life

preceding it; a Life employed in the Pursuit of useful

Knowledge, in honorable Actions and the Practice of

Virtue; in which he who labors to improve himself from

his Youth, will in Age reap the happiest Fruits of them; 

not only because these never leave a Man, not even in the 

extremist Old Age; but because a Conscience bearing

Witness that our Life was well spent, together with

the Remembrance of past good Actions, yield

and unspeakable Comfort to the Soul.