AIN'T GOT NO SOUL

Years ago, in the Continuing Education Department, at Emory University among the courses I taught was the popular, “Writing Humor But Seriously Folks.” I was never under the impression that people can be taught to be funny, but I do know that people can be made more aware of what they hear, see and read, and they can learn to interpret it in a different way.
So what’s funny?  For Mel Brooks, “Jokes don’t make it.”

For instance from Rodney Dangerfield, “ I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.” Brooks left  that school of comedy a long time ago. “Humor has to come out of human endeavor—the unexpected and true—from everyday life. Then it works.” (AARP Bulletin, Jan/Feb 2022).

How’s this for everyday life? “I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” (Winston Churchill)

So, now, in 2022 I am supposed to believe that robots, given the right algorithms can be programmed to tell jokes and become more humanlike. “Why did the robot cross the road? Because he was programmed to do it.” Humor is a window to how people see the world, and it can be very powerful.  Have you ever had someone say to you, “Stop making me laugh, I’m going to pee in my pants.” That is power! It can also be manipulative.  Ask yourself, “Who benefits when humor wins us over?”

Artificial Intelligence isn’t all that new. Lots of people claim to be intelligent. We like robots because they are a reflection of ourselves. “People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” (Isaac Asimov).

Robots have many useful capabilities, but even though they are sometimes called “humanoids” and can fly to Mars, they cannot feel nor have values or ethics. In other words, robots are not human! Besides, aerospace, robots can be designed to look like people and dance like people, but they cannot feel the emotion of a love song. They can be programmed to clean your carpet as well as search for survivors in a disaster, but they cannot experience the emotion of pulling a child out of a pile of rubble. There are industrial and surgical robots, and robots that are programmed to scout explosive devices, but if a robot is blown up during the search all that is lost is a very expensive machine—not the heart and soul of a person.

Research goes on and on and of course telepresence is everywhere including self-driving cars and deep sea exploration. However, humor has its own power.  As Steven Wright reminds us, 
“If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.”

A scientist can program a robot to tell jokes and measure audience reaction, but the robot will not understand the emotions of another person or reason a situation. A robot may be programmed to tell a joke but it won’t get the punchline.  Here’s the programmed joke told by Jon the Robot (Time Magazine, 1/17/22,  “Funny Equals Ha Ha” (Corinne Purtill).

“Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to solve inverse kinematics equations to pick up a cup and you get ‘Error 453 no solution found?” The article says that Jon can deliver that joke based on the length of audience laughter—the level of noise in the room. I hope he gets  better material.

“When all else fails, there’s always delusion.” (Conan O’Brien)

Esther Blumenfeld