it's not like I don't live my life waiting for skynet to show up

Dear Uncanny Valley,

Seriously?

No love,
Seperis

I'm saying, when is the time we pull out our I, Robot, Bladerunner and Terminator to treat them as the necessary survival documents they are? Maybe when the android gets to star in its own play about itself? You think?

It's so weird to watch that; even knowing--scientifically, or at least, wikipedially--the nature of my reaction, it does not change my instinctive kill it with fire in any rational way. There are reasons a lot of horror movies are about things that shouldn't be moving that suddenly start moving, you know? Wax figures, mannequins, androids that blink and turn their head in ways that make me want an axe. You know. The usual.

I'm curious; the uncanny divide threshhold is different for everyone; does this hit yours, or what does hit yours?

Comments

[akacat]

I think she's lovely, the only time she hits something like uncanny valley is when she turns her head. I'd really like to know why her head turns in such a jerky manner. I'm positive they could make her move more smoothly, as I've seen it done. Was it to expensive for them to use smoother mechanics? Or what?

I wish I knew if she would have tripped uncanny valley for me five years ago. I'm pretty sure several years of buying Asian ball joint dolls has skewed my perception.

(Icon relevant.)

[nagasvoice]

Word here. Also, having ball-jointed dolls paradoxically makes my standards for acceptable art on the robot imitation much, much higher. (They could totally use some of our really good bjd or porcelain or vinyl doll artists to make that face a *lot* more convincing without even changing any of the contours or mechanics.)
Besides the jerk of the head, the eyes don't entirely close when she blinks, for instance.
My bjds are on the more "realistic" end of the spectrum (not the anime character end of things) and from reactions to those, I know a lot of folks would be far more comfortable with a frankly nonhuman servant robot like those in I Robot.
Japan already has very expensive giant dolls intended as sex-fetish items, so making this one capable of independent movement is not a huge surprise. Odd that they've made it rather sad and pensive and woebegone (cue "helpless girl who needs rescuing" music) rather than overtly smexy. That makes the reactions of the guys taking pictures much harder to interpret. Some of them may well be the honestly hero-self-image "rescuing" sort, but the last guy is deeply creepy because he seems to be thinking more about taking advantage of a vulnerable person.
You could almost plant this robot as bait for rapists, which is incredibly creepy.

[seperis]

Some of them may well be the honestly hero-self-image "rescuing" sort, but the last guy is deeply creepy because he seems to be thinking more about taking advantage of a vulnerable person.

And I just commented above to someone else that I couldn't work out why I was freaked out by more than just the not-humanity.

[akacat]

I do have one BJD that's much more realistic looking than the one in my icon -- and I've owned a couple that were completely realistic. (They were absolutely gorgeous; I only sold them because the posing sucked.)

I'm not creeped out that these robots are being built. Most of them are being designed to care for and interact with the elderly. No doubt some of them will be used for other purposes, but I'm going to ignore that.