Was anyone else freaked out by that robot dog video? I know I was. That thing was creepy looking. Anyway, it got me thinking about the Uncanny Valley. It is a theory about how humans react to robotic beings. The basis of this theory is that how lifelike, or similar to a human being (or in this case dog, I guess) a robot is, determines how one will respond to it. The Uncanny Valley itself is, in a graphical representation (included in this post) what happens directly before something is exactly humanoid.
The reasoning behind the existence of the Uncanny Valley is complex. Most of the reasons stem from primal urges or feelings in the human psyche. For example, if an android moves in a very jerky fashion, it elicits the fear of losing control of one's bodily movements. Basically, an "uncanny" robot or object reminds one of the possible flaws in one's self. Another reason for the Uncanny Valley has to do with disease. Flaws in one's self can indicate disease. An uncanny robot reminds one of the possibility of contracting a disease, and causes angst.
To sum up, I suppose the reason the robot dog creeped me out so much is because it isn't quite humanlike. Or doglike... It acts similar to a dog, it can even right itself, and walk on uneven terrain. But it lacked a head, made lots of noise, and was made of metal. This makes it uncanny, as it is similar, but not exactly like what it is mimicking.
The reasoning behind the existence of the Uncanny Valley is complex. Most of the reasons stem from primal urges or feelings in the human psyche. For example, if an android moves in a very jerky fashion, it elicits the fear of losing control of one's bodily movements. Basically, an "uncanny" robot or object reminds one of the possible flaws in one's self. Another reason for the Uncanny Valley has to do with disease. Flaws in one's self can indicate disease. An uncanny robot reminds one of the possibility of contracting a disease, and causes angst.
To sum up, I suppose the reason the robot dog creeped me out so much is because it isn't quite humanlike. Or doglike... It acts similar to a dog, it can even right itself, and walk on uneven terrain. But it lacked a head, made lots of noise, and was made of metal. This makes it uncanny, as it is similar, but not exactly like what it is mimicking.
The thought of having robots interacting with humans and being around in everyday life, seems very creepy to me, Maybe someday they willl be able to give a robot the same looks as a human, this may be possible someday maybe not in my life time but this could be a change in what we do as people in our lives, if we can program something like you see in movies, you will never have to do errands again.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that comes to my mind is having robots doing work for us. We definitely have put them to work already, planes, cars, assembly lines, PCs; the list goes on and on. To think that we're entering the age of " the jetsons" where every house has a robot nanny is kind of scary, or promising depending upon how you look at it. The final question is if people can handle it. I believe we could harvest many uses out of this, but it is yet to be foreseen.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the Uncanny valley is intriguing to me. I wonder how much of this fear comes from nature and how much is programmed into us through media. With the exception of the movie Wall-e and Ironman's robot, movies generally depict robots in a bad light. To add to that, before they go haywire there near human actions unavoidably turn mechanic as the robotmalfunctions. Its a real possibility that our fear comes from this and not from within or psyches.
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