mikey falls into the uncanny valley
tonight i stumbled upon a site dedicated to the japanese comedy "OH! Mikey" about an american family trying to make it in fast-paced japan. i'm sure that'd make for a funny show, but then the creator had to be inventive and do this:
mannequins. all of 'em. moving, talking, laughing, sleeping.
my god. i was terrified. i never knew mannequins could be so scary.
i then proceeded to research pediophobia (fear of mannequins) and read that while an intense fear of mannequins is pretty rare, many people still find them disturbing, which could be due in part to the "uncanny valley" effect that they possess.
it is hypothesized that as a robot (or scary moving mannequin) is made more human-like in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human towards the robot will become increasingly positive and empathetic, until a certain point. there's an area of repulsive response that is aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely human" to "fully human" entity, otherwise known as the "uncanny valley":
personally, i'm going to put mikey and zombies in close proximity on this graph.
this whole thing reminds me of all those articles that keep popping up about sex and marriage between humans and robots in the future (as soon as 2050). ok, sex robots i could see people going for. but falling in love with them? there are already 6 billion of us on this earth, can't we all find someone of our own species to fall in love with when the time comes? there may be more predictability with a robot but where's the fun in that (i use "fun" loosely to discard crazy humans)?
in defense of robot love, a PhD student (who actually got his PhD in human-robot relationships...) said, "...one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable."
that's almost as wrong as mikey's dad's face.
mannequins. all of 'em. moving, talking, laughing, sleeping.
my god. i was terrified. i never knew mannequins could be so scary.
i then proceeded to research pediophobia (fear of mannequins) and read that while an intense fear of mannequins is pretty rare, many people still find them disturbing, which could be due in part to the "uncanny valley" effect that they possess.
it is hypothesized that as a robot (or scary moving mannequin) is made more human-like in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human towards the robot will become increasingly positive and empathetic, until a certain point. there's an area of repulsive response that is aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely human" to "fully human" entity, otherwise known as the "uncanny valley":
personally, i'm going to put mikey and zombies in close proximity on this graph.
this whole thing reminds me of all those articles that keep popping up about sex and marriage between humans and robots in the future (as soon as 2050). ok, sex robots i could see people going for. but falling in love with them? there are already 6 billion of us on this earth, can't we all find someone of our own species to fall in love with when the time comes? there may be more predictability with a robot but where's the fun in that (i use "fun" loosely to discard crazy humans)?
in defense of robot love, a PhD student (who actually got his PhD in human-robot relationships...) said, "...one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable."
that's almost as wrong as mikey's dad's face.