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Happy birthday to The Laughing Baby

Welcome to the blog. Here you'll find a bunch of snippets from the book and updates on how the project is going. A good place to start is at the beginning.

Here's the first few paragraphs of the very first chapter: I hope you like it.

Chapter 1 - What's so funny?

This baby is 7 seconds old & already delighted to be alive.

Laughter makes life worth living. It makes impossible situations possible. Just ask a baby. Imagine the scenario; You have just been dropped on a completely alien planet. You know nothing about this place, about its people or its language, its customs or its culture, its animals or its architecture. Heck, even its very physics is alien to you. If you couldn't laugh, you'd cry. This the world of a baby.

But for a baby it's even worse than that. Not only have you arrived cold wet and helpless in a world you know nothing about. In fact you know nothing about anything. Your memory is blank. Your limbs are not your own to command. Your muscles are too feeble to even lift your head. You can't control your most basic bodily functions. You don't even have a language of your own to think in. Oh and did I mention all those aliens about fifteen to twenty times your size? No wonder babies start screaming shortly after their arrival.

The first month or so is a time of bewilderment, mostly taken up with sleep and screaming, nutrition and growth. But three cheerful miracles help babies survive in this terrifying situation. Survive and indeed thrive. First, babies come equipped with the most remarkable computers ever invented. Babies brains are the most powerful learning devices in the known universe. In two short years babies probably learn more profound truths than in the rest of their lives. Secondly, babies have landed in an extremely benign environment. Human parents do infinitely more for their offspring than any other species. People have an inbuilt tendency to cherish and support babies. We can’t help loving these new invaders into our lives. Thirdly and most remarkable of all, it turns out we can communicate with each other right from the start. Despite no shared language or culture we can make an amazing emotional connection from day one.

I've only just begun on my own slightly terrifying journey to funding this project. There is a LONG way to go. But for now at least I am smiling and laughing that I'm finally underway. So thank you if you've already supported and please consider it if you haven't.
- Caspar

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