Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial intelligence and laughter
Summary: I cannot consistently assert this line of reasoning.
Keywords: Laughter, Inconsistency, Absurdity, Nonlinear Logic
Message-ID: <41420@linus.UUCP>
Date: 31 Oct 88 15:47:48 GMT
References: <448@soleil.UUCP> <347@uceng.UC.EDU>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Kort)
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid, NY
Lines: 16

In article <347@uceng.UC.EDU> dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny) writes:
> I have heard that laughter may be a way for the brain to react to
> thoughts it cannot rationalize, as a way of avoiding having to
> confront hopelessness. For example, the following Woody Allen 
> vignette is initially funny
> 
> ``Two women are talking about a restaurant they don't like. 
> First woman: `The food is horrible.'
> Second woman: `And such small portions.' ''

Do you suppose it is a coincidence that mathematicians refer
to inconsistency as "Reductio ad Absurdum"?

--Barry Kort

Today's Definition:  "Nonlinear Logic - A mode of reasoning favored
                      by people who can't think straight."