It seems obvious that the more human robots are,the more familiar we find them. But it’s only real up to a point – then we find them disturbingThe “uncanny valley” is a characteristic dip in emotional response that happens when we encounter an entity that is almost, but not fairly, or human. It was first hypothesised in 1970 by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori,who identified that as robots became more human-like, people would find them to be more acceptable and appealing than their mechanical counterparts. But this only held real to up a point. When they were close to, and but not fairly,human, people developed a sense of unease and discomfort. If human-likeness increased beyond this point, and they became very close to human,the emotional response returned to being positive. It is this distinctive dip in the relationship between human-likeness and emotional response that is called the uncanny valley. Related: Artificial intelligence: Homo sapiens will be split into a handful of gods and the rest of us’ Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com