gray_ghost | The Uncanny Valley

eeeek.....check out the creepy talking head lady I found on Boing Boing It's a 17 meg Quicktime file.

It appears to be a JPL research project. Really cool article on the The Uncanny Valley.

It's the gulf robotic designers encounter when they try to create machines that mimic human behavior. You reach a peak where the machine (even though it's trying to act human) still looks and sounds like a machine and there is no mistaking the two. So it is easy for humans to anthropomorphize the machine and even feel affection for it. But beyond a certain point, you plummet into this abyss where the machine looks and acts just enough human (like the woman's head in the video) but is so obviously not that it summons up all these base primal human impulses. Beyond this gulf on the other side is a point we haven't reached yet. It's where it's almost impossible to tell the difference between a human and a robot.

I mean - a lot of people if they are on-line enough start to anthropomorphize their computers and even make up names for them. But try to imagine the robot in the video with a body attached walking around your house as your electronic maid or something. *shiver*.....

Made me think of Philip K Dick's book Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep. If you read the book, it's pretty clear the androids he describes are wallowing in the abyss of the uncanny valley. They are creepy. They are logical. They are strong and without ability to empathize. You want Decker to kill them. In Blade Runner - we are nicely past that void and on the other side and it's much easier to feel sympathy for the android plight.

Neat discussion in the article on how the uncanny valley might warp our relations with alien races should we encounter them. I mean - if we run into a race of ewoks or wookies or something with warm fuzzy noses - then that's great! They are just like us! But even on Earth - think of all the species of plant/animal life walking around that give humans the willies. Imagine our first explorers encountering an intelligent race of giant telepathic spiders that live in caves, or 3-headed millipedes or.....Well this exchange from Aliens comes to mind:

Ripley: I say we take off an nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Hudson: Fuckin'A!

Americans freak out at the thought of Mexicans crossing the border illegally to pick our strawberries and tend our lawns. What do you think would be our reaction if we encountered something that looked like egg salad left in the fridge for 5 months walking around on ceilings?

Anyway - back to grading papers.