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Home > Robots > What the ‘Uncanny Valley’ Means for Robot Love and Sex

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Home›Robots›What the ‘Uncanny Valley’ Means for Robot Love and Sex

What the ‘Uncanny Valley’ Means for Robot Love and Sex

By Ross Dawson
August 16, 2021
38111
5

Will ultra-realistic robots be highly attractive… or very creepy?

The ‘Uncanny Valley‘ is one of the most important concepts in the development of humanoid robots. Proposed by robot scientist Masahiro Mori in 1970, the basic idea is that we warm more to robots as they look more like us, but beyond a certain level of similitude that is very good but not perfect, we start to be repulsed. As shown in the diagram, this repulsion is amplified by robots that try to emulate human movement.

Image source: WikiMedia Commons

Many refer to the computer-generated characters in the 2004 film Polar Express (see trailer below) as creepy, as they are human-like but not quite human. At the bottom of this article you can see a number of videos of humanoid robots that definitely look a bit weird. While I personally think the issue of the uncanny valley is often overblown, it is a real phenomenon.

So what does this mean for robot love and sex?

In fact one of the hypotheses for why the uncanny valley exists comes from the field of ‘evolutionary aesthetics‘, which looks at what drives our attraction to potential mates. Unusual facial or bodily expressions could denote being evolutionarily unfit, which results in not being sexually attractive.

On the other side of the uncanny valley robots will be able to mimic the full panoply of facial cues of sexual attraction, from blushes and pupil dilation through to winks, sidelong glances and more subtle expressions.

However, before these can be done almost perfectly, it may be better for the designers of attractive robots to keep their expressions simple. A mechanical wink is more likely to kill any attraction rather than heighten it.

Interestingly, more recent research suggests that individuals will react in different ways to the uncanny valley. Personality traits such as anxiety and perfectionism correlate to eerie response, while those who don’t like to be reminded that humans are in fact animals (called Animal Reminder Sensitivity) also are more likely to dislike human-like robots. Age and gender play a role, with younger and female participants experiencing more aversion. There are clearly many cultural aspects to the response, including religious upbringing and the role of robots in your entertainment as a youth.

Further research is now delving into more detail on the nature of the response to human-like robots to enable the design of better – and perhaps sexier – androids and gynoids.

It is worth remembering the expression ‘love is blind’, which describes how we can overlook flaws of all kinds while we are in the extraordinary state called being in love. Robots are not yet sufficiently developed for us to truly fall in love with them. But when they get a bit better at expressing their appreciation for us with all our foibles and failings, we will probably forgive them for some imperfections in their humanity.

Examples of the Uncanny Valley

Polar Express
CNN said that “‘The Polar Express,’ should be subtitled ‘The Night of the Living Dead.’ The characters are that frightening.”

Jules the Robot
One of the earlier “conversational robots” from Hanson Robotics, getting closer to human facial expressions (but not quite). In this clip Jules ponders his sexual identity.

Repliee Q1
This robot can at times look human, but the uncanny valley becomes evident at a few points.

The Uncanny Valley
This PopSci video uses a variety of examples to illustrate the concept of the uncanny valley.
0

Ross Dawson

Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies Group of companies.

Strong demand for Ross’s expertise has seen him deliver keynote speeches and executive workshops in over 30 countries across six continents and consult to leading organizations worldwide such as American Express, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Dubai Ministry of Finance, EY, Gartner, Google, Macquarie Bank, News Limited, Procter & Gamble, PwC, Star Alliance, Visa and many other leading organizations.

He is author of four books including the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, now out in its second edition, and the acclaimed book Living Networks, which The New York Times credits with predicting the social networking revolution.

Ross’s frequent media appearances include CNN, Bloomberg TV, SkyNews, European Business Network, Channel News Asia, ABC TV, Today and Sunrise shows, New York Times, The Guardian and many others. Ross has been named as one of the most influential people in the world on topics including the future of work, fintech, crowdfunding, and Enterprise 2.0.

Ross has run executive education programs and lectured at numerous academic institutions around the world, including the University of Virginia, Australian Graduate School of Management, Singapore Institute of Management, Institute of Banking and Finance, Institute of Company Directors Malaysia and Singularity University in Silicon Valley, and is faculty for the innovation programs of Australian Institute of Company Directors.

He has a B.Sc(Hons) in Physics from Bristol University, Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance from Macquarie University, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Previously Ross worked in senior positions in London, Tokyo and Sydney with organizations including Merrill Lynch, NCR and most recently Thomson Financial as Global Director – Capital Markets. He has extensive international business experience and speaks five languages.

Ross is the founder and publisher of FutureofSex.net and is a globally recognized authority on the future of sex, extensively quoted in the media on the topic.
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5 comments

  1. Brilliantman 2 March, 2011 at 05:46 Log in to Reply

    Until I can’t tell the difference from a person a robot will be repulsive – how can I be attracted to a piece of machinery?

  2. Betterman 9 March, 2011 at 00:11 Log in to Reply

    i can’t wait. robots don’t get old and they don’t get fat. in the words of charlie sheen: BOOM! bring it.

  3. Thomas Wendt 15 March, 2011 at 13:55 Log in to Reply

    I wonder to what extent the uncanny valley will become less of a valley once personal robots become more mainstream. Will they approach familiarity when they are everywhere, even if we can tell the difference between humans and robots?

  4. Davecat 21 April, 2011 at 07:12 Log in to Reply

    Personally, I don’t give the whole ‘uncanny valley’ theory a tremendous amount of credence, as a lot of it is down to personal perception. While some people may be repulsed by less-than-lifelike movement and appearance, others let their minds fill in the blanks, as it were, and don’t have an issue with it. After all, as you’d said, love is blind.
    I think when more Gynoids and Androids are visible in society, that’ll get people used to their appearance, and as the technology and aesthetics improve, mainstream society will become less and less averse to the idea of artificial humans.

    Interestingly enough, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics, is quoted as saying, ‘The “uncanny valley” is a theory, but people treat it like science’. People’s perceptions towards humanoid robots may not be entirely promising now, but it’ll change.

  5. Sex Toys For Men 20 September, 2011 at 09:30 Log in to Reply

    Wow state of the art technology!

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