The Uncanny of the Uncanny Valley

The Uncanny Valley is a phenomenon that still befuddles me still trying to examine it now how I did not recognize this earlier. As Mori said "... as the appearance and motions..." of a robot become more human like, the creepier it becomes and the more of a negative response it will receive from real humans. But if it looks and acts completely like humans do, it leaves the valley? This was seen in the recent film with Ash in the beginning being feared by the woman and every unhuman trait he presented made her more and more uncomfortable. This goes to show that the uncanny valley can be used and personifies quite well how we view androids, cyborgs and robots today. For example, look at Gemenoid DK being one of the creepiest things I've ever seen because it appears ad speaks like me but I know it's a robot and that is quite uncanny. This falls under the Das Unheimlische with robots such as Gemenoid and Ash being both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. How can something be both at same the time though? This can be seen in Johnson's Addendum to the Uncanny Valley with things that we are not familiar with to the left (Non-Human) and things that we are used to on the right (Human) with the crazed human like robots being in the middle of that and scare the hell out of us. Ironically, this does not work in reverse though. There is not a human out there that is so robot like that they can fall into the uncanny valley. Trust me, I've looked up a ton of videos on YouTube and Google but even the best dance artists and performers could not give the same effect on a mind than that Gemenoid and others like it. So that all that had me thinking... what is going to happen when they become so life like that we will not be able to distinguish them from actual humans? Why does this even matter? Will they have the same rights as us? Will they have the same opportunity that we have to apply for government services and jobs? Will even know who is a real human and who is not...? Does matter if they are the same? These are the important questions we have to ask ourselves before we take this too far. Honestly, I feel like making robots this sophisticated and having them act and be so much like us is appalling. It is like were playing God and that's a line we should not cross. Human beings are things that are special from everything else in this world not something you just create. But the uncanny valley is something that spreads even away from just robots but everyday life. I have seen the uncanny valley at work with race relations with, I believe, young African American males when it comes to fear of them just passing you by on the street and there are studies that prove this. With white males being something we are "familiar" with. Same can be said with transgender people with those who change their gender being looked at through the uncanny valley. This can be used to recognize a variety of social problems and work on fixing them.