I experienced Uncanny Valley earlier today. I interacted with a creature that looked a lot like me but not exactly like me. It left me deeply unsettled. "Have a daughter," they said.
Love this concept. Brought up the inverse up a lot when discussing our projection of ourselves out into space and what we expect to find there. Dare I say some men I’ve dated have verged on the uncanny valley a bit - all seems human and real until you dig deeper...
There's a fourth way for art to deal with the uncanny valley, to push through and make the creation even *more* human-like. It's a valley, after all, just a local minimum in the attraction curve.
Fair enough, and a good observation, Bob! For whatever reason, I didn't really think about this as a solution, but you're right: that's more or less what modern CGI is.
Uncanny Valley in some cases was used to describe the opposite behaviour, when humans behave weirdly and unnaturally, presenting a robotic manner. For example, being extremely nervous and stuttering whilst presenting their public speeches (I've read about it in a public speaking guide by TED's curator Chris Anderson).
I think the uncanny valley phenomenon is a factor with transgender people, and (arguably) increases the closer they are to “passing”. Compare someone who is obviously “a bloke in a wig” (Eddie Izzard, for example) with Dylan Mulvaney.
Excellent point, Paul. Understanding the psychology of mistrust or "otherness" is very important. I think this tendency goes a long way to explaining a lot of biases we have.
I experienced Uncanny Valley earlier today. I interacted with a creature that looked a lot like me but not exactly like me. It left me deeply unsettled. "Have a daughter," they said.
Has she picked up her dad's sense of humor yet?
She has her moments. I'm not proud of it, but what are you gonna do.
Love this concept. Brought up the inverse up a lot when discussing our projection of ourselves out into space and what we expect to find there. Dare I say some men I’ve dated have verged on the uncanny valley a bit - all seems human and real until you dig deeper...
There's a fourth way for art to deal with the uncanny valley, to push through and make the creation even *more* human-like. It's a valley, after all, just a local minimum in the attraction curve.
Fair enough, and a good observation, Bob! For whatever reason, I didn't really think about this as a solution, but you're right: that's more or less what modern CGI is.
Great post!
Uncanny Valley in some cases was used to describe the opposite behaviour, when humans behave weirdly and unnaturally, presenting a robotic manner. For example, being extremely nervous and stuttering whilst presenting their public speeches (I've read about it in a public speaking guide by TED's curator Chris Anderson).
Very interesting! Maybe you could do a follow up post called "The Canny Valley", all about this. Psychology is very, very interesting stuff.
Psychology is very interesting indeed - thank you! I have saved it as an article idea
Awesome. Ideas are percolating!
I think the uncanny valley phenomenon is a factor with transgender people, and (arguably) increases the closer they are to “passing”. Compare someone who is obviously “a bloke in a wig” (Eddie Izzard, for example) with Dylan Mulvaney.
Excellent point, Paul. Understanding the psychology of mistrust or "otherness" is very important. I think this tendency goes a long way to explaining a lot of biases we have.
I love uncanny valley as a horror tope... tends to do the trick well. I really enjoy what the Mandela Catalogue does with it.
Hahaha, man, you and I are really in sync. Take a look:
https://open.substack.com/pub/aroundscifi/p/the-uncanny-valley-in-a-cyberpunk?r=2l25gf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Excellent compliment piece! I'm gonna make a note telling folks about this coincidence. I love it when that happens.
We are a superposition of states, man ;-)