Lamest Blogotube Headline of the Week

Except when the Nightman Cometh.

Ah hell, it’s a Halperin post. I have to…The Nightman Cometh.The Secret Agent Man ComethThe Melty Man ComethThe Mole Man ComethThat should do cos I have to go-eth to class.

Bob – why do you know the term “uncanny valley”? I mean – that was a fascinating read, and I am forever indebted to you for the expansion of my knowledge, the enrichment of my appreciation for nuBattlestar Galactica (final episodes begin tomorrow!), and such as. But really… unless you’d linked to it, I’d have thought that “uncanny valley” was some sort of slang for “really uncanny.”Why do you know that term?QT

>>Why do you know that term?It’s used in animation a lot — mainly CG animation. The humans in POLAR EXPRESS, for example, are super creepy.

Little monsters in the “Ladders” commercial give me the creeps. Seriously, those things are freaky.

I’ve been creeped out by the talking baby who trades stocks and pukes on his keyboard. Is that how Bernie Madoff started?…………

>>Why do you know that term?It’s used in animation a lot — mainly CG animation. The humans in POLAR EXPRESS, for example, are super creepy.Posted by: Bob Cesca at January 15, 2009 3:36 PMThat’s actually what came to mind (animation, not Polar Express). I would imagine that sometimes the creepiness factor is what you want, right? Because I always thought Polar Express was supposed to be a little creepy. (I also think it was a Bush-Condi allegory, but that’s another story).QT

If Henry Waxman was performing in an O’neill play, would that title still be as offensive?

The uncanny valley is mentioned on slashdot rather regularly.Oops, is my geekness showing?The uncanny valley can be used in CGI to generate feelings of uneasiness in the viewer if that’s what you want. If you want the audience to be comfortable you have to either be very, very humanlike or on the other side of the valley. I’m not surprised that Bob knew about it.

If I’m not mistaken, Data’s creator referred to “uncanny Valley” in an episode of STNG. IT was the reason he had made Data not-quite-human.

Its talked about in video gaming circles too, a few games have elicited that revulsion response of uncanny valley.

^^Matt, that’s an interesting piece of ST trivia. I remember the episode, but as would have been the case here, had Bob not linked to the definition, I would have glossed over the unfamiliar phrase and simply placed it in context of the rest.QT