The basis of tragedy is man's helplessness against disease, war and death; the basis of comedy is man's helplessness against vanity (the vanity of love, greed, lust, power).
Bio: J. Doyne Farmer is an American physicist and entrepreneur, with interests in chaos theory, complexity and econophysics. He is currently Professor of Mathematics and Co-Director of the program on Complexity Economics, Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford University Martin School.