In Huxley's version of the world, people wouldn't choose to laugh instead of think, but rather not know anything about what they are laughing at, and not knowing why they aren't thinking about things either.  The distinction is that television has caused us to just go with the flow and laugh along with the "laughing" of the audience on the show, and it has caused us to not think about things we see on television. This is bad because if we are just laughing at what other people laugh at, we are not laughing at what we think is funny and we are just accepting what other people laugh at as comedy, which is some cases it isn't comedy but could be just plain harsh. One example of this idea is when Ricky Gervais hosted the golden globes and just ripped on all the nominees, people laughed even thought most of what he said was harsh. The fact that we don't think about things as much as people used to when newspapers were the source of news is a bad thing for us as well, because this shows just how desensitized we are to real news. One major contributor to our lack of thought is when real news is mixed in with celebrity "news," like someone having a baby or what Snooki did the other day.

Talking2Machines

    In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman says that with the invention of eyeglasses we have discovered that we do not need to accept what nature has given us. In his speech at Calvin College, he talks about cloning and how they will be used as “spare parts” just in case someone will need a new kidney or a new lung later on in life. Both of these inventions are great for society, but they both bring up idea that we can improve our lives through these means. With glasses we no longer need to deal with the destiny of anatomy, the destiny of not being able to see clearly, and with cloning the destiny of anatomy of not having extra organs to use when the original fails.
    Postman quotes the author of Being Digit in saying that we will one day become used to talking to machines, which are inanimate objects. In his book, Postman talks about how a person who is strictly oral isn’t used to reading a book and asking question to a text who will not answer in a vocal way. Just like one must adapt to using and speaking to machines, a strictly oral person will have to adapt to reading written words.