Slashdot Mirror
The Uncanny Valley Explained
ColdWetDog writes "Scientists now believe they've figured out what causes the uncanny valley response. They compared functional MRI scans of volunteers watching two different types of videos: those showing human-appearing androids, and those showing the humans that the robots were created to mimic. 'The results suggest that the uneasiness we feel could be caused by a "perceptual mismatch between appearance and motion."' Basically, the brain seemed to react in a strongly negative manner when the robotic motions of the android didn't match its human-like appearance."
Really, all I want from a robot is for it to look like an attractive human female of my choosing that way I can have my own sexbot so that my girl can't/won't get mad at me for having sex without her. Bonus if she wants to join in!
Must have been a very uneasy time for society.
My internetting is no good.
Finally, we see a front page reference to a graph that includes stuffed animals and zombies!
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
They're working on it.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
From the Wikipedia article:
That describes my reaction to watching politicians.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
I don't care how weird they move; as long as she's got some big ol' funbags, I'll explore her uncanny valley any day!
My immediate thoughts are that a humanoid who is moving in a consistently odd fashion may be ill, disabled, deformed, injured or under the effects of substance. It's probably not a surprise that people react negatively, especially when they look "almost" human.
We knew this already. They're realistic enough to fool our brains into thinking human, but different enough that the "human" has something seriously wrong with it. That something might be contagious, so you get the "stay the hell away" signal. Imagine a zombie horde where all the zombies are replaced by normal people, but they still act like zombies. Still has the squick factor.
404: sig not found.
So they explained that the uncanny valley is caused when something looks/moves *almost* human but isn't human it creeps people out?
Wasn't that the original definition of the valley anyhow? Was this just not experimented on before? Also how does this work with those *almost human* things that are in still pictures? Sometimes those things are freaky as hell.
is when that future don't come as expected. We see a pattern, figure how it could continue, and if it don't, worries us, or at least call our attention. If that is what explains the uncanny valley, makes some sense. But what about things that surprises or marvels us? What about, i.e. moonwalking? Some extra factor must be taken into account.
As an Aspie who has dedicated a large proportion of my adult life trying to be accepted as "normal" by people, I can sympathise with the robots.
When somebody smiles broadly at me, I have to "manually" trigger my (pretty natural-looking) smile, but there is a small delay before my returning smile kicks in. In that fraction of a second, the person smiling at me subconciously realises that something is not quite right, and their smile fades slightly.
So I'll forever be associated with the notion that I am odd, weird, strange, whatever, because no matter how hard I try (and I'm a pretty good actor), I will never come close to having natural charisma. It's not all bad news though - I've built up a group of friends over the years who appreciate me despite my eccentricities, and I have got enough "game" to go out and have a reasonable chance of finding a new girlfriend on any given night. But it wasn't easy to get to that stage, and required a lot of introspection and acting skill.
One way to escape the uncanny valley is to spend a while in a completely different culture, where people expect you to be different and strange, and do not read negative interpretations into tiny social cues. Asia is good.
Brain is hard wired to do a lot of things, some of which are: recognize other humans, read their body language and assess their mood/threat level. Your brain does this in fractions of a second. It's why you flinch if someone raises a hand while moving towards you suddenly.
I suspect the brain's thought process goes something like this when it encounters something that has a semi-human but obviously not real human appearance: "oh something that looks a bit like a human but obviously isn't, ok let's figure out if it's a threat (is it showing teeth? is it bigger than me? etc.)".
But when we enter uncanny valley territory I suspect the thought process goes like this "Oh wow that looks like another human, I wonder what they're intention is... HOLY S*IT BALLS IT'S NOT A HUMAN! Ok something obviously not human is trying very hard to look human. Sure there's probably a lot of innocent explanations but I can't think of one right away so I'm going to go with insanely dangerous predator trying to mask itself, Time to alert the tribe, kill it with pointy sticks and burn the corpse with fire.
....So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to support the notion that we could rid ourselves of the uncanny valley if we only budgeted more for, and employed better and more sophisticated motion capture software in our 3d animations?
The feeling of being creeped-out by a NON-moving humanoid.
at they who are not of my tribe
You know in nature there are plenty of cases where predators (and prey) act like things they are not in both appearance and behavior. When the actee detects unusual activity, it will react in a negative manner toward the actor.
Perhaps this sort of instinctive reaction is holding over into this case, where the slight difference trigger a subconscious negative reaction that harkens back to this common situation of nature. The thing to take away from all this is that its likely something that will be very difficult to work around, and will probably be impossible to integrate lifelike androids into our society. That's just my guess though, take it with a grain of salt.
Fellow Aspie here. Here's what childhood sounds like to somebody unknowingly living in the uncanny valley (or at least my childhood):
"You're such a freak!"
"Nobody likes you."
"I bet you don't have any friends."
"Ew, get away from me."
For those who want to know what that really was...there is an artist who has been working with scientists to synthesize or resurrect the sounds made by long-extinct human ancestors, such as "Lucy." She's also working on recreating the sounds of the woolly mammoth. Look it up on NPR's web site.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
... scientists using MRI scans determined that fire is hot, people generally prefer the company of people who smile a lot, and the check isn't really in the mail.
It's not everyday that both authors are cited in a neuroscience paper.
In a predictive coding account of action perception, the android is not predictable--an agent with
that appearance (human) would typically not move mechanically. When the nervous system is presented with ‘the thing that should not be’ [Lovecraft, 1984 (1936); Hetfield et al., 1986], a propagation of prediction error may occur in the APS. While we cannot state a conclusive or causal link between prediction error and the uncanny valley based on the present data, we suggest this framework may contribute to an explanation for the uncanny valley.
Lovecraft, H.P. (1984 (1936)). The Shadow Over Innsmouth. In: Joshi, S.T., editor. The Dunwich Horror and Others. Sauk City, WI: Arkham House.
Hetfield, J., Ulrich, L. Hammett, K. (1986). The Thing That Should Not Be. Master of Puppets, Electra Records. 12 inch Vinyl.
Anyway, the full article is freely accessible
This is why people hate them.
Why is Snark Required?
When anyone claims to be an aspie, my smile fades and then comes back stronger than ever.
I'm never laughing with them...
Your extreme lack of empathy suggests that you are perhaps borderline psychopathic?
They spent money to scientifically determine 'it looks weird'.
Actually, no. If it "looked weird", that wouldn't be a problem. The problem occurs when it looks normal, but moves weird.
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
I went hiking this weekend with my wife and (2 year old) kid, and as we went along, we came across a completely normal-looking woman who had her eyes open, was standing to the side of the path, a semi-smile on her face staring out at the scenery. However, she didn't move, didn't acknowledge us in the slightest as we approached. My thought (and later, I found out, my wife's, too) was that she was doing a walking meditation or some such and was just lost in her own world.
Our kid, on the other hand, did not know what to do with it. He got up to about 4 feet shy of the woman's place on the path, and would not follow us past her. He just kept staring, unwilling to move forward. I picked him up and carried him past her, and as soon as she was out of site, he relaxed and went along his way. I asked him if that was a little uncanny, and he responded, "widdo uhcangy".
No, it suggests he realizes that Asperger's syndrome is the probably one of the most self-diagnosed mental illnesses out there, and 9 times out of 10 it's just some neckbeard trying to justify their anti-social behaviour.
It ranks up there with "bisexual" teenage girls.
At least here in the US, we keep voting in the same jokers, over and over again.
I'd argue that with politicians, your average Joe has developed the canny valley - with them, inhuman behavior garners trust, while fear and distrust stems from actual human mannerisms.
Someone give me a research grant. :(
My solution is dyeing my hair bright turquoise. I'm also in the Aspie-and-good-actor category, and especially when I'm in full social mode I can pass for neurotypical even to psychologists, but I've found that maintaining an appearance that's unconventional without being unattractive goes a long way. I come off as incredibly charming for someone who looks so eccentric, instead of as a little odd for someone who looks so normal.
I know. Some friends and I were watching some CGI whatsis a few years ago, and came to the exact same conclusion for the cost of some pizza and Heinekens.
Too good for ya'll huh.
It's because they can't yet simulate the stretchiness and flexibilty of facial muscles. Cameron Diaz knows how to invoke the "little girl" look and mannerisms which appeal to all, but she's not all that "beautiful", compared to others.
Smile first at everyone. The best defense is a good offense.
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss her - even if you didn't enjoy her work, there's no denying her contributions to popular culture. Truly an English icon.
As someone who was diagnosed with Asperger several years before it became a catch-all for anyone 'not normal but not sure what to call it' it is very, very frustrating to see what has happened.
I have made the conscious decision that unless I'm asked directly WHAT my problem is, I'm not going to say anything. People don't hear the five years in and out of the psychiatric ward trying to get diagnosed, they just hear something it seems a large portion of the population is 'infected' with.
It sucks. It really does.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
Thanks for defining "uncanny"... again.
Become a television presenter, gameshow host, or some other kind of pro-active, always-taking-the-initiative kind of job. Hell, if you don't want to go into media, Sales or Marketing could also work, as one has to take the initiative all of the time. If you manage to remember names well then that would be an advantage in sales, and if you normally have some difficulty with subtle sarcasm, being able to discard or gloss over the comment made by someone else in your duties would probably actually be a bonus in marketing to large groups. It'd be like being able to ignore the heckler or peanut gallery in an auditorium to continue one's presentation or pitch.
Note: There is mild, mild sarcasm in the comment above, but the bulk of it is intended to be truthful.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
A few years back I was briefly acquainted with a man with Asperger's who was in a group I also participated with, and one game we played as a group very much showed his condition. This game required someone with a topic to make a statement about that topic, and for the other person playing (the rest were observers) to ask questions on the topic that were either seeking more specific knowledge on the topic or else were deflections to similar but related topics. The catch was that the asker had to do more than say, "Tell me more on X" or "That X reminds me of Y". The gentleman with Asperger's simply couldn't ask questions that kept the topic going.
I suppose the game was a sort of philosophy version of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" where they have to ask back and forth questions, but without the specific intentional humor.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
You know, if Aspberger's syndrome had been defined when Erving Goffman was writing I think our understanding of the interaction you describe would be very different. I did my Master's Thesis on people with multiple disabilities that had at least one disability 'negatively' impacting 'normal' face-to-face interaction. It was informed heavily by symbolic interactionism.
What I saw was that any disability could be 'overcome' in a face-to-face interaction in a public setting (a public bus, buying something at the store, ordering food in a restaurant, and so on) as long as the person with the disability could have that split-second response to verbal and non-verbal queues. For example, a paraplegic who could verbally communicate such that you wouldn't know he had a disability by just listening to him had much smoother interactions than someone who had cerebral palsy and had a more halted manner of speech.
When you mentioned that short delay before returning a smile it brought back quite a few memories of my time spent with folks who had physical disabilities that prevented them from having that split-second response to a question. It's amazing how little can disrupt social interactions - using the word 'fuck' in the wrong setting can be just as disruptive as someone who stutters.
Goffman's book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is a very accessible book on this topic and considered a classic of American sociology and a groundbreaking work in the symbolic interactionism tradition.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
While acting can help overcome typical responses, I don't think that sales would be much of a position for me. I'm never sure what people around me are really feeling/thinking. What a lot of people have inborn, is a very learned skill for me. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to pick up people being untruthful around me whereas normal folks seem to fall hook line and sinker, not sure why that is, but to me the deception seems obvious.
I can work a cocktail party if I'm trying to get something done, but take away a goal and I really find it hard to deal with trivial chit-chat. I'm pretty sure that's from aspergers, but I could be wrong.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Fellow Aspie here. Here's what childhood sounds like to somebody unknowingly living in the uncanny valley (or at least my childhood):
"You're such a freak!" "Nobody likes you." "I bet you don't have any friends." "Ew, get away from me."
IIRC correctly I heard those exact things when a First Edition D&D Dungeon Master's Guide fell out of my locker in high school. I spent nearly all of U.S. History, Political Science and English classes designing dungeons for my friend's bemusement. We had desks that had a shelf under them. I could balance the DMG on that and my knees to reference the tables needed when building encounters.
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
But the real question is: would you have come up with a less lame excuse for building a realistic robot in your own image (using the university's money and labs) ?
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
I don't think this could have been a more OBVIOUS outcome if they'd tried.
Again -
D'ERRRRR
If this was true then people behaving oddly deliberately would be shunned, not payed huge sums of money to entertain us.
Why does a human statue not frighten us? Mime's? Oh okay, I give you that one. People doing the robot? For that matter I am not uneasy if someone around me is sick and some (mothers) go straight into care mode.
Might it be something far simpler? The Simpsons only trigger my "god this animation quality is crap" mode when the episode is bad. If the story is good, I don't care. R2-D2 never triggered any "this ain't real" reaction with me UNTIL he used those jets in the new movies. How come the desk-lights from Pixar are perfectly understood by people but Final Fantasy Spirits Within failed? The uncanny valley or simply that Pixar is better at telling a story? In understand the fears and hopes and dreams of the desktop lights... the chars from FF? Not so much. It would be very interesting to see what would happen if Pixar created a story with the animators from FF.
If it was a merely animal reaction then how does it explain barn-yard cats still happily chasing a toy despite them being intimately familiar with the real behavior of prey?
I think the uncanny valley reaction is triggered when our brain has already decided this is boring and then start to notice details that otherwise it wouldn't care about. The uneasy feeling ain't just "something is wrong" but also "I paid for this?".
The simple animalistic explanation for me fails to address all the times we have no issue whatsoever with things that are slightly off. After all, every time a woman puts on make-up should upset us, wears a bra (oh okay, that does upset me). All that causes "wrongness" in the picture but we don't care.
The example given by the parent of a herd of zombies has been proven by "Thriller" to be untrue. Same with the series Cats. People behaving as they shouldn't be and us paying to good money for it because we like it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The reaction is as if we have been tricked AND didn't want to be tricked.
This explains the reaction between a cross-dressing male in a comedy situation and when we think we finally for the first time in our live gotten close to scoring!
Like I said above, for me the uncanny reaction only occurs in entertainment when I am bored. Chewbacca never triggered it, Jar Jar did. Old Darth Vader good, new Darth Vader bad. Most of the acting in the new Star Wars movies triggered the "this ain't real" reaction but we do not link it to the uncanny valley because the actors are real but the reaction is much the same for me.
Is the uncanny valley not just the same as we have with an air-stewardess smile? A cosmetic surgery freaks face? They are human (barely) but still trigger "this is wrong". Might all of this be nothing more then "this is bad acting" and not acting as in mimicing human behavior but acting as in successfully entertaining/engaging us? Why can everyone understand every emotion by a pair of desktop lights? Because the story tellers do a superb job of telling a story, engaging us. Meanwhile human actors can totally fail to convince us that they are even real let alone experiencing any emotions.
We accept good actors, we reject bad ones.
I would like to see this experiment, using the Spirits Within animation team with a story by Pixar. Or one of those lifelike robots used to express something interesting as a good actor would but with the silted animation. Bring in the entertainment and see if the reaction is the same. I don't think it is.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Wasn't it an evolutionary mechanism, where the non-human characteristics on something resembling a human triggers the idea in people that the thing in questions is a sick human and as such should be avoided?
Would make perfect sense why the brain would react to the uncanny valley in that case. After all, avoiding sickness makes you survive longer.
But the real question is: would you have come up with a less lame excuse for building a realistic robot in your own image (using the university's money and labs) ?
I'm sure there are better usage of college funds
http://clas.asu.edu/node/10122
My solution is dyeing my hair bright turquoise. I'm also in the Aspie-and-good-actor category, and especially when I'm in full social mode I can pass for neurotypical even to psychologists, but I've found that maintaining an appearance that's unconventional without being unattractive goes a long way. I come off as incredibly charming for someone who looks so eccentric, instead of as a little odd for someone who looks so normal.
Hacking the Uncanny Valley effect for Fun and Profit!
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
This may also explain why zombies can tell the difference between another zombie and a human acting like a zombie. Perhaps zombies have their own uncanny valley..,?
There is nothing to explain here. There is no uncanny valley. The simple fact that robotics experts don't like to emphasize is that even the best machines available today completely suck at emulating humans. They can't walk like humans, don't have the facial expressions of humans, and in particular don't behave even remotely like humans. They also can't understand what you say in an everyday conversation and can't talk like humans. People find them creepy or amusing in the same way as they find bad animations in video games creepy or amusing. People also find real-looking plastic fruits creepy. Heck, I personally also find Soya "steaks" rather creepy (not to speak of the horrible taste...).
Car analogy: People would also find a car with fake wheels that reminds of an existing Ford model but is made of strange glass-like material, has fake wheels, and hovers slightly above the ground a bit creepy until they get used to it.
Doesn't really explain the effect some people get with still images though, does it?
=Smidge=
Hey, nice to see someone open about ASD who isn't a whiny internet shutin - Those guys have negatively stereotyped us to the point where I never talk about it any more. You raise an important point, which is that we are essentially learning how to win friends and influence people, not subconsciously as part of our character, but as a learned discipline. It scares me sometimes. Is this what sociopaths do also? I learn to smile and laugh with someone as they talk because I want to express the inner feelings that normal people can do with laughing and smiling - it doesn't matter if the impression I'm trying to force is an accurate picture of my own mental state, but it's still manipulation. Is this something we're worthy and responsible enough to wield?
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
Damn straight! My aggro-looking goatee has people pleasantly surprised, and as a bonus I rarely get lip from neds (a fat face is natural target for the street urchins of scotland, but not if you look like you bite the necks off beer bottles for fun)
There is a lot of work in Theatre about what makes acting feel real to the audience.
For example, reading about Status and Status transactions (in the domain of Improv) is a huge eye openner about how we (humans) pick up a lot of cues subconsciously and what kind of cues are they.
I suspect anthropomorphic androids will have to give out the right cues to be confortable for us, rather like an actor has to give out the right cues for a scene to feel right to the audience.
Do decent writing skills still exist these days?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
When I was in college, there was slightly "flawed" guy in my class. I don't know the name of the syndrome or whatever, but he was significantly shorter than normal, had slightly misshaped body (somewhat bulky bone structure), etc. and some small facial problems that caused, among other things, drooling. He was in no way mentally retarded.
I can honestly say that I felt somewhat disgusted when he was in the same table as me, eating lunch. I can't give a single intellectual reason for that feeling: It was obviously genetic and not contagious, he wasn't so close to me that there would have been a hygienic problem, etc. so I wish I wouldn't have felt any negative feelings about it. Some less-conscious part of my brain simply felt the kind of repulsion that encouraged me to drive the "different one" out of the pack. Based on the experiences he told me about, I figure that the feeling is really common and quite a few others (especially, as kids) don't fight against it as much as I did.
I sometimes feel a similar repulsion when around other people that my brain considers "flawed" (when obviously retarded people sit next to e in a bus, etc. I feel quite uncomfortable). I always do my best to suppress it but... it's there and apparently quite common.
The problem is that you'll be disgusted by these robots, if not outright afraid of them. You see, actroids exist, they're not successful. Their movements are slow, forced, and not realistic. Nothing really clicks together. Their mouth moves all wrong for the words they make.
But they're good enough to pass for human initially if you pass them by (God forbid anyone ever gets the idea that you could probably place rather heavy bombs inside them and have them walk into buildings without attracting attention before detonating them. Or arm them, have them shoot, and know that the first dozen return shots will probably not disable the robot)
And if you're wondering why your brain has this response, look up a few camouflaged species living in the African savannah. If something isn't what it appears, there's good reason to run away. It's probably poisonous and hungry.
Btw : clicking through to other youtube actroid videos is a good way to see how amazing these robots are getting. They're actually getting past the uncanny valley. Seeing as what obvious uses these robots have, I fear for the consequences, but it is rather amazing.
Our entire cognitive system is based around that. It has to do with pattern matching and energy cost of analytics in the brain.
It's why we're uncomfortable outside of the familiar. It requires more energy to process. Discomfort is the way we're wired to prevent us from over-expending energy. We were starving animals for most of our evolutionary history. Those that spend more energy in processing information die easier.
So we collapse things down into patterns, which require a lot less energy to use. When those patterns are disrupted, we feel bad. Basic feedback mechanism.
As someone with OCD, I completely empathize. I've concluded that most 'mental illnesses' are just excuses that people can't prove wrong, and which have resulted in nobody caring if you actually have something. Then again, I don't really care, it's not like I'm proud of it and trying to show it off. In fact, come to think of it, maybe it's a good thing it's become so diluted. It reduces the 'freak' factor, when everyone has convinced themselves they 'have it too'. Although, just like my hair color, it does grate when people jokingly blame it for stupid things they do.
No, cleaning your house once in a while is not OCD. Cracking your knuckles until they bruise; THAT is OCD.
Sounds similar to the ability some folks have (usually women) of feeling uneasy around sociopaths. They generally fool most people, but sometimes the mind will see something (which we can't put our finger on) that warns you that something is wrong. A sociopath or an human-android could easily be a "wolf in sheeps clothing" and the brain wants to alert you. So, I don't know if its necessarily the same thing as trying to avoid someone who you think is sick, but more that you're subconsciously warning yourself about a possible threat.
My son is an Aspie too and I see the same with him. Hadn't thought of the uncanny valley in that context but its a very interesting way of looking at it. I like the Asia idea too.
Obsessing that other people have hijacked "your illness" isn't going to do you much good. How would your life be better if people treated you as more of a "special case"?
Actually I think this is not true. Even though near perfect human models look strange, they still look more human than a less perfect version. This whole uncanny valley is a load of bs.
Well, what it really suggests is that he's a troll posting for kicks.
The sneering tone of your post makes it obvious that you are more interested in causing offence than participating in any discussion.
I don't (believe I) have anything like Asperger's, and can be sociable when I want to be, but goalless and non-clever chit chat can be like torture. All I can think about is how much better spent the time could be. I'm certainly not the smartest guy in the world, but many people simply have nothing interesting to say.
Congratulations. But what you didn't figure out was how to fix the problem. It's easy to just say it looks funny over a few beers, but knowing the cognitive mechanisms behind it will hopefully help us develop more natural movement, etc.
"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish"
Albert Einstein
I have no unease with watching a stop motion tin can dog while I do not accept a multi million dollar motion capture, trillion polygon laser scanned person.
The fact that you are willing to compare your social interactions with a sociopath suggests that you are far from being a sociopath. Good method actors submerge themselves in their role to the extent where they truly believe that they are the character that they are trying to represent. It's possible to learn all the different parts that you want to play in your life - employee/employer, amiable bloke at the bar, family member - the fact that each role is difficult to learn does not detract from the sincerity of your subsequent actions.
A few hours spent alone is usually enough to get me back to my "normal self" - it's a good time to check in with my self-conciousness and work out whether or not my actions are causing other people to get hurt. I suspect that my studied approach to relationships and morality works out better than most people's "go with the flow" default setting. But it never hurts to question this assumption every now and then - thank you for the reminder.
Congratulations.
Thanks! (hoofbump)
But what you didn't figure out was how to fix the problem.
Do we need to? I'm used to the idea that androids are a curiosity, and that real robots doing real work will always take more practical shapes.
Why has this not been modded to +5?
I had the same experience. Currently my roommates get very distraught when I've had a long day at work and I'm too tired to act like I'm normal.
I always assumed it had to do with identifying those that were ill. Someone with a truly debilitating illness might be contagious and should be avoided.
Alternatively, many react similarly to people with genetic conditions, perhaps this is a way of preventing breeding with those individuals and removing the condition from the genetic pool.
Such a repulsion reaction would be evolutionarily beneficial in both situations.
and the tone of your post suggests you're a coward looking for an excuse.
You raise an important point, which is that we are essentially learning how to win friends and influence people, not subconsciously as part of our character, but as a learned discipline.
It's not subconscious for the normal folks either. Social skills are just as learned as any other. As a "normal" person, social situations still require a lot of work for me. What is subconscious, is our ability to pick up cues that you'd probably miss. During a conversation, there is always a part of my brain that is concerned about what is going on in everyone else's head, that is fed, in part, by the social cues picked up as well as being able empathize with them (predict how they are feeling). That part of me is always there and always going, it is far from subconscious.
The idea that lack of communication can improve relationships is counter-intuitive, but it puts Aspies on an almost-level playing field - in the Asian countries that I have visited, people generally love to meet Westerners. To make lasting friendships with people who don't know that you are "supposed to be weird" can be a wonderful life-changing experience.
It ranks up there with "bisexual" teenage girls.
Please don't dispel any of our illusions about bisexual teenage girls.
People behaving oddly generally are shunned in public. But when they're on a stage or screen, we expect them to behave out of the norm, so our brains understand that even though they're acting strange, they're really "normal" people. For some reason this makes me think of Andy Kaufman...
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
There is a patch for the brain in the works.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
1) In case you're not already aware of it: are you smiling with your eyes as well? A smile is not just in the mouth.
;) ).
2) The "fading" might be normal. Many people don't normally hold their smiles for more than a second (when not posing or being a politician
3) From what I see most of the "normals" don't have much charisma either... So don't worry too much about it.
You raise an important point, which is that we are essentially learning how to win friends and influence people, not subconsciously as part of our character, but as a learned discipline. It scares me sometimes. Is this what sociopaths do also?
The main difference is the motive.
Is it just me, or do the annotations in the articles graph appear to indicate a heavy preponderance of mustaches in the uncanny valley? Perhaps they should use an arrow instead of a rotated brace symbol...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
You're comparing apples to oranges.
Desk lamps are not trying to be human, even though Pixar has a way of personifying animals and normally inanimate things. People already have a natural inclination to attribute human emotions and qualities to non-human things and animals. We get attached to objects and we believe that our pet fish have personalities, a complete fantasy. However, that has nothing to do with the uncanny valley phenomenon. Your counterpoint, Final Fantasy, worked very hard to give very human qualities to very human looking CGI. The effect was not complete and many people were turned off by it. That is the uncanny valley.
Makeup and bras alter a persons appearance in a manner that is pleasing; most of the time. Makeup can enhance one's color to be warmer, or create a more even skin tone. However, the wrong makeup, too much makeup, improperly applied makeup, can trigger repulsion. Many people find clowns frightening or repulsive. Also, to your point, mimes make some people uneasy. People differ wildly on how much makeup is attractive. A bra can enhance one's shape. The wrong bra, not so much.
I think the bottom line is our brains don't like to be tricked unless we see it coming; and, like almost any human attribute, some people are more sensitive than others. Most people can accept an animation that has human traits but doesn't look all that human (Simpsons, Flintstones, etc.). They are so far from looking human that it doesn't trigger our alarms. Most people can accept a human that acts like a robot, or even a zombie. We see these things for what they are. Humans with decoration, not things trying to look like humans. Most people can not accept something that looks and acts a lot like a human, but not quite. It gets past some of our filters, but sets off alarms in others. We get conflicted subconsciously. We don't like it...
I think the concern is more about people who will end up dismissing your legitimate problem because other people misuse the label to make excuses for themselves.
I'd figured this out for myself like, 10 years ago, when 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' came out. sure, the people looked a little plastic, but the main thing that made them 'wrong' was the fact that they did not move right. for example, when you take a step on hard ground, the moment your foot impacts the ground, a very small shock wave is sent up your leg, across your torso, into your head, and right out the end of your hair. You barely feel it.
However, if something moves 'like' a human, and that shock wave does not happen, your brain instantly knows something is amiss. There are hundreds of thousands of nigh-invisible movements and tremors and vibrations that occur in the human body, doing the smallest of tasks, and because we are so attuned to what a human looks like, the absence of any of those movements screams 'fake' to our brains.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Living in Asia (Japan), I think I can say with some accuracy that it doesn't really help you escape, it just gives them something to blame your oddness on. It doesn't help you to be more attractive (although the automatic street cred of being an "exotic foreigner" can). Now your visual cues are even more off-track, which gives you a longer row to hoe. For instance: Westerners tend to frown more frequently (to show you're considering something seriously, for example), which may make them think you're angry. Comfort zones vary in size, which may make people think you're either stand-offish or too aggressive, depending on the local variable. Finally, in Japan, for example, you have to nod to show you're listening attentively; go with the Western norm of not nodding at all and they'll think you're bored or not paying attention.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
I allays thought the uncanny valley was, what can be observed when an overweight person puts on a pair of low riding jeans.
If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame