Reflex and I. Column in ComputerreOnline #67
Laughter is a transformed expression of aggression that serves to regulate the behavior of individual organisms. And – note! – we can laugh not only at others but also at ourselves.
In the penultimate column I concluded with the intention to identify which features of internal world models are the prerogative of our species. I will immediately answer a couple of questions raised in the comments. No, our unique ability does not lie in the fact that we can model the psyche of other members of our species, nor even in the fact that we are capable of deception. When a chimpanzee deceives a conspecific with a false signal, diverting it from moving toward food carefully hidden by the deceiver, we can observe that it uses a model of its conspecific’s psyche. I do not think that the capacity for self‑serving deception is widespread among our relatives, but in this respect we are still not unique.