Rare Bits

Robots. Am I right folks? The future is gonna be bright, baby! Ro-butlers! Kill-bots! Sex-bots (NSFW)-AAAAA!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

See, here’s the problem: the more you make a something look human, be it robot, statue or CGI Tom Hanks, the more the human mind identifies with it. BUT: there comes a point when the likeness is so close to realistic–without being realistic enough–that the mind’s ability to identify with the subject drops precipitously. This drop is what’s known as the “uncanny valley,” an idea presented by roboticist Masahiro Mori in the 1970. But here, let’s let TV’s Frank Rossitano explain by clicking on his delightful ball cap.

Simple, right? But wait! Recently this long-held idea has come under fire:

Mori’s paper sounds like a revelation, an academic’s articulation of the robot creep factor that so many of us experience. It’s a compelling argument. But from the skeptic’s perspective, the uncanny valley is a surprisingly easy target: Throughout his entire career, Mori never presented data to support his proposed graph. “It’s not a theory, it’s not a fact, it’s conjecture,” says Cynthia Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at MIT. “There’s no detailed scientific evidence,” she says. “It’s an intuitive thing.

THE TURTLE IS ON IT’S BACK, BAKING IN THE SUN.

DO YOU HELP THE TURTLE, LEON?