[UbuntuWomen] saw a robot and got that uncanny feeling

[Donna Metzlar]

hi,

i was looking at the new digg.com site and under the video section i
clicked on the "freaky transport robot" video.

i had to look away, it was so melancholic, especially with the song over:
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips.

reading the comments i found some comfort in the fact that i was not the
only one who didn't like the kicking of the "dancing mule". via a
wikipedia entry i now know the feeling is Uncanny Valley. a feeling of
limbo and ambivalence. what people feel when seeing the animated kids in
The Polar Express: they're so real and yet not. like the living dead.

and this!
from the article: "transexuals who are in-transition between genders often
experience an Uncanny Valley as their gender presentation shifts from
their birth sex to their identified gender"

another example is migrants, especially those that have made an extreme
shift in cultures.

perhaps this is what women new to technology feel, it's so different to
what we've been hardwired and socialised for...

momentarily under http://digg.com/videos/educational (i recommend you
watch this version of the video. the youtube and google video editions
have different music playing over the clip.)

http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog
the origninal video, for detail, the motor sounds....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley

xx, donna