Science of Meaning

As the picture suggests, there is a world inside our heads. A world we know intimately - because we live within its folds. A world we navigate with intuitive ease - because we are experts in the algebra of meaning that define its contours. All of which makes it curious that the story of this world has never been told. Because if we know it so well, how come its geography has never been mapped by its owners? In fact, how is it that our scientists, who have done such an amazing job mapping almost everything else, have nevertheless failed to chart its contours? In fact, why do we have a geography of pretty much everything, on and even off-planet, but no geography of where we actually live, inside our heads?

And let us be clear about one thing here: we are not interested in mapping the actual brain. Our aim is rather the mapping of the world of meaning that we live in, which is quite another matter. And let us be clear about the scale of this challenge as well. ‘Meaning’ is about what matters to us, and although ‘What Matters To Us’ is of little interest to the rest of the universe, it is, to us humans, and I don’t exaggerate, Everything.

So, what is the task facing us? How can science map meaning when the challenge amounts to an area as breathtakingly large as ‘Everything’? A challenge that ranges from the most apparently trivial issues (such as ‘What Makes Us Laugh?’) to the most profound of questions (such as ‘What is the Point of Existence?’). At which point, we have to ask ourselves where, in all of this hugely complex, vast and varied landscape, where can we possibly make a start? Well, let's begin with what makes us laugh, and here’s why.

Imagine hovering over the forests of Earth, back in the distant past, searching for signs of ‘Intelligent Life’. Suddenly, in the forest clearing below, we hear the sound of laughter. Instantly, we realise what this means: it is the vital sign we've been looking for all along. Because laughter IS the sound of intelligence. The one vital characteristic that tells us that an Ape really has changed into a Man. For it is probably humour, more than anything else we can think of, that marks this point of change. The point where the sparks from the glowing embers of our animal past have ignited into that new, and flaming power that is the human imagination.

The sound of laughter in the forest clearing makes for a powerful image of the dawn of human intelligence. And it offers us a neat alternative to the ‘Let there be Creation stories’ in our opening paragraph. Instead, we can choose to put ‘Let there be Laughter’ in its place. Which works rather well, not only because humour symbolises the human spirit at its best, but also because it begins with a letter ‘L’, allowing us a measure of alliteration. So now we have what is perhaps a better way of summarising the three levels of reality on planet Earth:

Let there be Light  -  Let there be Life  -  Let there be Laughter

The echo of the alliterative ‘L’ works well, but pleasing ‘base triplets’ and powerful images about the dawn of intelligence apart, we still have to explain why we are choosing to make humour the starting point for our investigation into the meaning of meaning. Especially given that jokes are notoriously indefinable; that the basic code of the joke is a mystery; and that taking on a jester as our guide is surely asking for trouble. Also, why choose something as trivial as humour? And how on earth can jokes help us with the serious task of finding our way around the maze of meaning inside our heads? Well, the answer to these questions lies in how jokes work, and in something very surprising about humour itself.

Humour is special. We all know that. But the most exciting thing about humour is not its importance as entertainment, or indeed the challenge that it poses to our understanding, but simply the fact that it is a ‘science’ of the human mind in its own right. Or, to put it more accurately, humour is an intuitively inspired, colloquially expressed, and yet highly analytical precursor to the sciences of psychology and sociology. And it is for this reason that it deserves the full attention of any scientific attempt to analyse meaning. However, this really only becomes clear when the nature of the joke and its action are considered more closely.

Jokes attack the boundaries and contour lines of the human landscape, momentarily twisting our cherished perceptions of the physical and social realities that we live in. They coax the objects and values of this combined experience into unfamiliar postures, positions and alliances. The ‘twists’ that form the nucleus of this attack shadow the logic of human thought itself. All of which means that these twists can be used as a pointer to our most hidden perceptions, furnishing the investigator with a clear, and high powered focus into the underlying logic of the human condition.

It is as if we humans have been studying ourselves from the very start. To produce what amounts to an in-depth study of our lives. A study created by some of the best creative minds in each generation. A study that seeks to express those findings in thousands of the neat, recognisable units of simple language that we refer to as ‘jokes’. And these jokes, all together, comprise the most extensive, and the most objective body of material on the workings of the human mind in existence. A surprising conclusion given the apparent triviality of the joke...

How then does Humour pursue this commitment to the bottom line whilst remaining unchallenged by the interests it so often attacks? Well, it is precisely the triviality of the joke that enables it to continue unnoticed and uncensored by the status quo. Indeed, it is the ‘surface shimmer of inconsequence’ that always surrounds the joke that ensures its protection. And if we look at Humour as a whole, we see it is largely devoid of practical directives, and that it lacks a unified approach to life. Which means that it is too abstract to look like a political movement, and too fragmented to have an agenda. All of which adds up to an immunity that has allowed humour to continue as an important outlet for objectivity in our everyday lives.

In summary then. Jokes pluck at the contours of our landscape of meaning (as if they were the strings of a musical instrument). The result is the resonant effect we call laughter. And it is this activity that reveals, at least for the moment of the joke, the underlying logic of human meaning. Which is exactly why this quest takes on humour as its guide, and why much of this website is concerned with the nature and logic of jokes.

So. All we have to do is break the secret code of the joke (this has never been done before). If we succeed, the underlying logic of the landscape of meaning will be revealed. That is, as long as we avoid the traps set by our jester guide along the way. And we do have to break that code…