Inside Jokes (Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, Reginald Adams)

The authors describe a very interesting theory as to the function and importance of humor, and why only humans seem to display it. What the human mind is best at is the very rapid and risky development of predictions and expectations, based on heuristics and unconscious ideas about the world. If there were no mechanism for checking those expectations to remove the ones that proved to be incorrect, we would become less and less effective as incorrect assumptions built up. Therefore we need to spend time looking for inconsistencies and discrepancies. What will motivate us to devote precious time and mental effort to doing this? There has to be some internal reward - and mirth is that reward. Evolution has set up this reward system to get us to do what we need to do. I find the theory interesting and think it has a lot of merit. I have to say, though, that what I enjoyed most about the book was the jokes!