Human laughter as we know it likely developed between ten and 16 million years ago. For context, the stone tools our distant human ancestors made in the Early Stone Age date back around 2.6 million years. These are vast time spans, but it was perhaps good that our Palaeolithic ancestors had a sense of humour ready to deal with tech fails such as a blunt hammerstone.
Why does this matter? Well, let’s fast forward to today and our contemporary issues with technology, such as how to deal with the things we’ve made when they fail us. Anger is a common response (see the video below) – but tech companies would much rather harness the soothing power of laughter.
