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Why the Uncanny Valley Doesn't Really Matter

malachiorion writes "Are humanoid bots and CGI characters still crawling their way out of the Uncanny Valley? Maybe, but maybe it doesn't matter. Here's a cold, hard look at a popular robotics theory that might have no legs to stand on, android or otherwise. It's everything that seems wrong and irrelevant about the Uncanny Valley that I wasn't able to fit into this month's Popular Mechanics cover story on social bots."

14 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Woah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Depends what manufacturer made your Android based phone. No I didn't RTFA, why do you ask?

  2. Re:Why the Uncanny Valley Doesn't Really Matter by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clearly you did not look at the picture at the top of TFA. That thing is creepy as hell.

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
  3. Re:Dogs hate cats. Dolphins hate sharks. by mewsenews · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are sharks and dolphins friendly after becoming acquained in a controlled environment? I'll leave that as an experiment up to the user.

    you owe me 11 replacement dolphins

  4. Re:Woah! by igadget78 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Check out the Rack on that Android. Is it a drop in?

    Go Go Gadget Implants.

  5. Re:yeah, but why humanoid robots in the first plac by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Kinda hard to have a relationship with a Roomba....

    I take it you've tried?

  6. Re:Dogs hate cats. Dolphins hate sharks. by Arancaytar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Careful. Dolphins are highly intelligent and sharks are death with fins. If they *do* become friendly, you're looking at Deep Blue Sea.

    (Though the opportunity of Samuel L Jackson being tired of these motherfucking sharks and dolphins on this motherfucking marine biology lab is too good to pass up.)

  7. Re:yeah, but why humanoid robots in the first plac by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 1, Funny

    Robot actors

    How about Steven Segal? Or Tom Cruise? Dolph Lundgren? Ah-nuld Schwartzenegger? Sylvester Sallone? Jean-Claude Van Damme? Vin Diesel?

    There's already been a number of successful robotic actors.

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  8. Re:yeah, but why humanoid robots in the first plac by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sure you can imagine a humanoid robot being a bit more comfortable to be around than something out of the terminator series at the doctor's office as an example.

    "What? My appointment with doctor Smith isn't until four o'clock?

    I'll be back."

    You'll be back? Well I should certainly hope so, my silver-skulled simpleton! Late for your last appointment, early for this one, it's a wonder you ever should turn up at all, you Meat-packed metal moron, you colossal chrome cretin!

    Oh, the pain, the pain of it all...

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  9. Re:yeah, but why humanoid robots in the first plac by Polumna · · Score: 2, Funny

    What do you expect, Mother? I'm HALF MACHINE!

    --Buster Bluth

  10. Re:Dogs hate cats. Dolphins hate sharks. by LeperPuppet · · Score: 2, Funny

    Funny, but I ran the same experiment and you owe me 11 replacement sharks. As a side note, the squids at them both.

    Sounds like we need to run more tests.... PeTA is going to love this.

  11. Re:yeah, but why humanoid robots in the first plac by rjmx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps if evolution had given us wheels instead of legs, we'd be using ramps instead of stairs now.

    And even more worrisome, human progress would have taken a great leap (!) forward when somebody invented the leg, way back in the Stone Age.

  12. Re:when lewis and clark by 93,000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm a normal American of Scandinavian descent, and I speak perfect Klingon. I randomly walk up to people in the mall and start speaking it.

    Their minds are so blown by how perfect my Klingon is that they pretty much always grab their children and walk away really, really fast.

  13. Re:evolved communication protocols by misexistentialist · · Score: 2, Funny

    And it was recently discovered that our more intelligent enemies, the Neanderthals, wore makeup and long shoes resembling that of clowns.

  14. Re:Woah! by colinrichardday · · Score: 2, Funny

    Shouldn't that be gynoid? At least that's my preference.