An Uncanny Fallacy . . .

. . . as I was poking around the internet, I see some recent mentions of that whole 'uncanny valley' thing (example 1, Kottke, example 2, Tyler Cowen).

Masahiro Mori was way ahead of his time when he postulated this whole Uncanny Valley thing. Thing is dude is wrong, the uncanny valley doesn't exist. It's not the near resemblance to real life that gave folks the willies with projects like the Final Fantasy Spirits Within film, or Polar Express, or Beowulf, it was the particular execution of nearly realistic humanforms in those pictures that creeped people out. Humans will interact with various simulacra of humans, whether they be strictly in video games and movies, or full blown robots, the time is getting closer where the software and hardware will be good enough to not just fool the eye, but fake all those body language, non-verbal communication and other clues that when we are dealing with another human we tend to sense but not think about consciously.

On top of that, you have a generation of kids who are growing up with these simulacra (mostly in their movies and videogames), and they will be far less apt to find the weirdness at all weird.

One example I'd like to draw on from my own videogaming, in GTA IV you have a strip club you have to visit as part of developing a relationship with a fellow criminal (or you can visit on your own, but going to a strip club on your own is kind of loseriffic, whether it be in the virtual or real world). Nothing like a little male bondage in the presence of women in thong underwear (and little else). Anyway, you can pay for a lapdance, and there's where you can tell both how far they've come in realizing the richness of the human experience, and how much farther they have to go. While the stripper moves to the music, her motion is a bit mechanical, her face is largely without expression, and her breasts while large and bountiful, sit rigidly on her chest and don't have the same undulations you'd expect from real mammaries, furthermore, the whole act isn't something that's really erotic or sensual, instead it's more of a curiosity. Wait, I forgot, was I talking about in-game, or in-life, cause re-reading that bit, seems like that could describe either . . .

In other words, Tracy Jordan, don't give up your dream, it will come true, one day very soon . . .