An Indian at an Englishman’s table watches beer foam out of a bottle. Kant says laughter is an expectation turned to nothing; the Laughter Series says laughter judges that “the construct still has such a remainder.” At the moment of laughter, construct and remainder are both in view, and no one loses.

A mother covers her face, uncovers it, and the baby laughs. Perception says “out of sight”; prediction catches “still there.” Laughter at 12DD already has part of the structure of construct and remainder, but no owner who knows it is he who judges: the Laughter Series registers it as laughter as tendency.

A roomful of people bursts out laughing; someone who has just come in laughs along, then asks: what are you laughing at? At 13DD laughter has an owner for the first time: this judgment is mine. Self-mockery, contagious laughter, laughter on a misjudgment, onlooker’s laughter: one thread runs through them all. Laughter does not decide whether the construct stays or goes.

Someone checking the results list sees “admitted” and laughs out loud; late in life Su Shi inscribes his portrait, asks about his life’s work, and answers with three places of exile. At 14DD one’s own purpose enters the construct laughed at: triumph and wry laughter form a pair, comparative laughter can slide into derision, and doing things with laughter must be judged separately.

Someone convinced there is nothing left sees that he is still searching; someone finally understands his father’s “To be safe and well is a blessing.” The two laughs of 15DD, the laughter of despair and the knowing smile, both stand within non dubito, and both are unidirectional. Looking at each other and laughing comes after them, and there the Laughter Series stops.