Tetherd Cow Ahead

The Continuing Misfortunes of Simple Graphics Man ~

#29: The Vicious Voltage.

In which SGM once again has a negative experience with electricity. This time, very grumpy electricity. Electricity with a grudge to settle. The veritable Travis Bickle of electricity.

(This installment of SGM’s adventures brought to you by Anne Arkham. Thanks babe).

Sometimes the level of idiocy in the world just brings me to a screeching stop. Atlas Cerise draws The Cow’s attention to this story hot off the Associated Press about an ‘activist’ prayer group in St Louis the US who have decided that the most productive method for getting petrol prices down is to pray to God to lower them. What’s more, because there has been some easing on the $US4-per-gallon prices over the last week, these feebleminded halfwits think that their prayers are actually working.

Now how many levels of stupid does this idea contain? I think I’ll go stick my finger in an electric pencil sharpener.

OK, as we’re on the subject of the Uncanny Valley, let’s drift over to the phenomenon of Reborn Baby Dolls. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look here. This is a Reborn Baby Doll web ring. Kick back. Spend a few minutes browsing around. And be prepared to be really creeped out.

This is a huge community of people who are devoted to making, buying and selling minutely detailed facsimiles of babies. I’m not a biological parent, so I may not be the best one to judge, but these ‘dolls’ really give me the willies. They don’t say ‘cute lifelike baby’ to me – they say ‘DEAD baby’. I suppose the makers might argue that they are sleeping babies, but I would counter that they never wake up and are therefore back in the category of DEAD. Especially the ones with their eyes open.

If you had one of these things in your house, then I can guarantee that there’s one sound you’d never want to hear and that’s the pitter-patter of tiny feet.

___________________________________________________________________________

(Seriously – mothers who are reading – do you find this concept cute or weird? I’m really interested.)

___________________________________________________________________________

You may remember that in my post about the Coming of the Robots a little while back I talked about Hiroshi Ishiguro’s actroids and the inventor’s attempt to give his automatons a realistic human appearance. I penned the words:

…the closer these things come to having the semblance of humanness, the greater is my desire to punch them.

As I wrote in that post, my feeling is that there is something more disconcerting about the almost human appearance of these robots than there would be about having a clumsy metal quite obviously artificial ‘Robbie’ as a manservant.

Well I discovered today that there is in fact some interesting thinking devoted to exactly this idea, and even better, a cool term.

It is called The Uncanny Valley.

The Uncanny Valley hypothesis was advanced by Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori and basically states that, as robots develop and become increasingly ‘human’ in appearance, humans start to find it easier to accept and interact with them. However, there comes a certain point beyond which acceptance gives way, quite abruptly, to revulsion. Then (Mori’s hypothesis asserts) as the facsimile approaches even greater realism (that is, the ‘ideal’ human form) acceptance increases once more to ‘human’ level tolerance.

If you viewed the videos of Ishiguro’s actroids you’ll understand exactly what the Uncanny Valley idea encompasses – these robots are creepy and disturbing and there’s no way I’d want one lurking in my house after dark. Or before dark for that matter. So much so that I’m even wary of Mori’s use of the term ‘Valley’ in his hypothesis – from where I stand it looks more like an Uncanny Grand Canyon.

Mori has been criticised on this very point – there is of course no evidence so far that robots will become sufficiently lifelike to make the Uncanny Valley anything more than an Uncanny Precipice.

In fact Mori’s whole concept has been called into question by commentators such as US roboticist and sculptor David Hanson and Swiss artificial intelligence scientist Dario Floreano* who go so far to say that it is pseudoscience. Well, it may be true that there is little actual science behind the idea of the Uncanny Valley as yet, but to my mind at least it makes good common sense that we instinctively don’t lend our trust to something that could be human but also might not be. It’s not a new concept to humans in any way – it has been the subject of paranoid science fiction for decades, and before that an idea that surfaces in folk tales and myths as far back as we have records.

As I said in We Are the Robots, when we used to have the old electronic ‘cut-up’ voices on telephone answering services, it was clear that we were dealing with machines. In my opinion, as superficial semblance to machines decreases (in these ‘voice robots’ at least) then we expect, quite correctly I think, that their behaviour should increase in realism at the same rate or better. And as much as I respect the obviously informed opinions of people such as Hanson and Floreano I think that the Uncanny Valley will persist until such times as robots are indistinguishable from humans.

In other words, when the androids get as convincingly lifelike as Rachel in Blade Runner, then maybe The Uncanny Valley might start to look more like a Grassy Meadow.

___________________________________________________________________________

*Floreano has an MA in Visual Psychophysics. Oh, how much do I want one of those!

___________________________________________________________________________

A lot like life, really.

I’m posting this for Colonel Colonel after his recent paean to fresh corn. I suspect it’s very close, if not identical, to his own recipe, but heck, why do you care? You should be out firing up the barbecue!

Ingredients (makes a good sized salad for a half dozen guests):

• 3 large ears of fresh corn
• 4 – 6 Roma* tomatoes
• 1 Spanish (red) onion
• Half cup of good quality olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Strip the corn and barbecue it evenly all around over an open flame. Some ‘burnt’ bits are good. Let it cool down enough to handle (with your hands) easily.

While the corn is cooling, chop the onion and tomatoes semi-finely (the bits should be about the same size as a corn kernel. Roughly – we’re going for hearty & rustic here). Now cut the cooked kernels straight off the cobs with a sharp knife (I break the cobs in half first – it makes cutting easier). Mix the kernels and the chopped tomato & onion in a glass or ceramic bowl with the olive oil, and a good amount of salt & pepper. Let it all stand covered (not with plastic wrap! Use a tea-towel or something clothy) at room temperature for at least an hour. (It can be refrigerated, and keeps very well, but don’t serve it cold).

Do not make this salsa with tinned corn kernels. Do not make this salsa with inferior olive oil. Otherwise, improvise away. I prepare the version above specifically to serve with spicy meat or seafood. If you’re intending it as an accompaniment to a milder meal, a good teaspoon of ground chili (or a chopped fresh Thai chili) livens things up. As another variation I sometimes add a half teaspoon of smoked Hungarian paprika…

Bon appétit!

___________________________________________________________________________

*I use Roma tomatoes because they tend to be better than most supermarket varieties, but I recommend you use any kind of heritage or home-grown tomatoes if you have them – as fresh as possible.

___________________________________________________________________________