Haha

Chemical Animal

Manoj Manduva
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

I remember starting any essay in childhood with the sentence “ Man is a social animal”. I was not completely sure what it meant back then. Sometimes I still wonder what aspects of humans wants us to live, move and work together in harmony. Yuval Noah’s ‘Sapiens’ is great book which clears lot of air in this matter.

Something interesting happened yesterday, we were three complete strangers in the cab. Myself , driver and another girl. We didn’t talk for about 40 min. Everybody was in their own thoughts. However by the end of our journey we all bursted into laughter and talking to each other.

‘Humour’ is interesting. I felt it can be that adhesive which can bring strangers together. Start conversations. May be form friendships and anything beyond. What is there in humour that does all this magic. I could only think of the Oxytocin ( how boring of me? ). The pleasure in laugh wants us to have more, and is contagious when we see others laughing. There are many social experiments done in New York metro subways to demonstrate the contagiousness of laughter and humour.

Does this make humans ‘chemical animals’ ? Driven by chemicals and divided by chemicals. I suppose adrenaline brings that stress in us when we are fight or flight situations. We try to avoid difficult people because of the same reason.

This thought led me to ask few questions. What happens if three stranger bots come together. Can they start a conversation? What is the trigger? Do they share a laugh together? or fight or stay in silence forever? Well it depends on what the ‘Reward’ is I guess?

P.S : By the way we three ended up laughing in the cab because we saw a middle aged dark man wearing facial ( white mask ) and strolling on the street talking on phone. He was damn scary and funny.

Being curious

A collection of my daily observations and questions

)

Manoj Manduva

Written by

Product designer — Electric Mobility

Being curious

A collection of my daily observations and questions

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade