{"product_id":"inside-jokes-using-humor-to-reverse-engineer-the-mind-9780262518697","title":"Inside Jokes: Using Humor to Reverse-Engineer the Mind","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis evolutionary and cognitive theory of humor seeks to reveal the complex science behind why we crack up. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A sophisticated analysis . . . written with clarity, good cheer, and, of course, wit.\" ―\u003cb\u003eSteven Pinker\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eHow The Mind Works\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Some things are funny--jokes, puns, sitcoms, Charlie Chaplin, \u003ci\u003eThe Far Side\u003c\/i\u003e, Malvolio with his yellow garters crossed--but why? Why does humor exist in the first place? Why do we spend so much of our time passing on amusing anecdotes, making wisecracks, watching \u003ci\u003eThe Simpsons\u003c\/i\u003e? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eInside Jokes\u003c\/i\u003e, Matthew Hurley, Daniel Dennett, and Reginald Adams offer an evolutionary and cognitive perspective. Humor, they propose, evolved out of a computational problem that arose when our long-ago ancestors were furnished with open-ended thinking. Mother Nature--aka natural selection--cannot just order the brain to find and fix all our time-pressured misleaps and near-misses. She has to bribe the brain with pleasure. So we find them funny. This wired-in source of pleasure has been tickled relentlessly by humorists over the centuries, and we have become addicted to the endogenous mind candy that is humor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMatthew M. Hurley is currently researching teleology and agency at the Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition at Indiana University. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDaniel C. Dennett is University Professor Codirector of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eBrainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eElbow Room\u003c\/i\u003e T\u003ci\u003ehe Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness \u003c\/i\u003e(all published by the MIT Press), \u003ci\u003e From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, and other books. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReginald B. Adams, Jr., is Associate Professor of Psychology researching emotion and social perception at Penn State University.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50318722662674,"sku":"9780262518697","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_fafee3b6-0ab8-4a8e-802c-f642dc26cc0d.jpg?v=1727560306","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/inside-jokes-using-humor-to-reverse-engineer-the-mind-9780262518697","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}