The Uncanny Valley

[confusitron!]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

[xodar]

I had an interesting thought about that before reading today's posts.
Suppose a fembot is designed that we can't tell from an actual human (without clobbering her with a baseball bat or stabbing her or something). Complete with pheremones and subliminal muscle movements, individual expressions...

But domestic animals have different sense mechanisms than humans. Dogs don't see as well and their sense of taste is quite poor, but their hearing and smell sense are incredibly acute. So even if we can't tell, dogs, cats, birds, and so forth might be able to and will find "uncanny" a bot we think is a biological human.

A household bot is something pets might get used to if exposed while extremely young, but there might be "bot sniffing" dogs for various uses.

[Frostillicus]

What this fails to take into consideration is that the transition will be much easier (if any at all) for the next generation of humans; literally and officially now dubbed as "The Cyber Generation". Children are now raised with these notions firmly in place and humans are the most addaptive of animals. This is the older generation's projected anxiety and bias. It won't be of as much consequence as they think when that time comes.

I can't believe I'm actually saying anything here. I never read anything other than the Reports; I just clicked the discussion by accident. Back to lurking.

[visceralpsyche]

Ah, the uncanny valley! I actually based my second film around this theory and wrote a thesis paper for it which you can download here.

The final paper, with additional material from feedback gained once it screens, will be made available in the DVD-ROM section of the "Birth" DVD, along with my production notes and other goodies

For now though, enjoy my thesis paper!

[tectile]

I don't klnow if I buy the uncanny valley thing.

People go to wax museums and some of the figures can be very realistic.
That doesn't seem to creep people out so why would a realistic bot?

[xodar]

I don't klnow if I buy the uncanny valley thing.

People go to wax museums and some of the figures can be very realistic.
That doesn't seem to creep people out so why would a realistic bot?

I doubt people would be as upset as imagined, though if you didn't expect a bot and it was highly realistic you might find it disturbung. However that will probably simply be the way people sense that someone isn't real.

True, people are adaptable. There have, for example, been a number of cultures, including Celtic European ones, where heads were stuck on poles around dwellings or set in niches in homes. Some tribes defleshed their deceased and toted their skulls about and babies played with them. It would repulse modern Western people but those people were used to it.

[RancidInsanity]

I read about "The Uncanny Valley" theory on wikipedia before I joined this board. In it's honor I named my signature wrestling move after it, The Uncanny Valley Driver. lol...it's really just a DDT...lol...
I think the uncanny valley could be real like how some paintings are so real but yet you can tell there not real, there just....creepy.

[rabiator]

I guess we have assembled exactly those people in this forum who like creatures from the uncanney valley. What else would you call a sexy but recognizably artificial fembot?

So if some people say they don't buy it, I'm hardly surprised. I guess if Masahiro Mori would repeat his studies with the people from the fembotcentral forum, he would get an "uncanny hill"

[noidguy]

or at most an Uncanny Cranny

[xodar]

Well, I would prefer they be indistinguishable from a human.

However, if she didn't nag, bitch, complain, criticize, cry at nothing, remember things you said 20 years ago and get mad about them, want more shoes...etc... I'd get the uncanny feeling this wasn't a real female.

[ehy]

I think the uncanny valley phenomenon actually applies to a lot of humans - those from a different culture or upbringing, or with certain diseases that affect behavior (like Aspegers' or mild autism, for instance), or even just with different interests in some cases. They just don't seem quite right to those of us not familiar with them.

[xodar]

I think the uncanny valley phenomenon actually applies to a lot of humans - those from a different culture or upbringing, or with certain diseases that affect behavior (like Aspegers' or mild autism, for instance), or even just with different interests in some cases. They just don't seem quite right to those of us not familiar with them.

Not to mention some people who actually aren't quite right.