How important are laughtracks to a sitcom? If "Friends" didn't utilize laughtracks as often, would it still be as funny?

I think an inherent part of our nature is to join the crowd; Despair.com gets it right with their Conformity poster, which says:

CONFORMITY: When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.

So following this reasoning, does the laughtrack lower our humor standards by making our subconscious think, "Hey, everyone else thinks this is funny! You laugh too!"

I find myself laughing harder at funny parts with a laughtrack. So my next question is, who makes the laughtracks?

And how? You can't just force people to laugh. So do they watch something funny to laugh? And do they hear a laughtrack while they are laughing to amplify their laughs? Do the people who make these laughtracks ... are they professsionals? Do they have business cards that say, "Professional Laughtracker?"

Argh, so many questions!