Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we explore the Uncanny Valley. Inspired by Apple and Google’s recent AI marketing campaigns, we consider the impact of the phenomenon on different aspects of life.
The Uncanny Valley hypothesis, coined by robotics professor Masahiro Mori in 1970, describes the discomfort humans feel toward entities that are almost but not fully human. The valley exists when something moves from anthropomorphised traits, as seen in animations of talking animals, cuddly toys with facial features, and the projected thoughts and feelings we give to our pets, to unnervingly realistic human characteristics. These nearly humans freak many of us out. But why do some of us seem more impacted than others?
And my big question...why do we insist on creating technology that looks and sounds like people?
Timestamps:
02:30 Voices in The Uncanny Valley
06:10 What is The Uncanny Valley?
08:45 High Sensitivity and The Uncanny Valley
16:40 Why Do We Make Machines in Our Image?
22:14 The “Uncanny Valley” Is a Lonely Place | Autism, Masking, and The Uncanny Valley
26:48 Reaching The Other Side of The Uncanny Valley
Links and Resources:
Full notes 🔗
🎥 My video on the Apple Intelligence marketing campaign 🔗 youtube.com/watch?v=18dPiohytt8&
🎥 Google Gemini - Now We're Talking 🔗 youtu.be/mNTGbi5ReMc?si=Gv_BNTh5Fp8vjwKS
📖 Psychology Today Article - The "Uncanny Valley" Is a Lonely Place 🔗 psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/atypical-children-extraordinary-parenting/202211/the-uncanny-valley-is-lonely-place
Subscribe to The Gentle Rebel Podcast 🔗 the-haven.co/gentle-rebel-podcast
In this episode of The Gentle Rebel Podcast, we explore the Uncanny Valley. Inspired by Apple and Google’s recent AI marketing campaigns, we consider the impact of the phenomenon on different aspects of life.
The Uncanny Valley hypothesis, coined by robotics professor Masahiro Mori in 1970, describes the discomfort humans feel toward entities that are almost but not fully human. The valley exists when something moves from anthropomorphised traits, as seen in animations of talking animals, cuddly toys with facial features, and the projected thoughts and feelings we give to our pets, to unnervingly realistic human characteristics. These nearly humans freak many of us out. But why do some of us seem more impacted than others?
And my big question...why do we insist on creating technology that looks and sounds like people?
Timestamps:
02:30 Voices in The Uncanny Valley
06:10 What is The Uncanny Valley?
08:45 High Sensitivity and The Uncanny Valley
16:40 Why Do We Make Machines in Our Image?
22:14 The “Uncanny Valley” Is a Lonely Place | Autism, Masking, and The Uncanny Valley
26:48 Reaching The Other Side of The Uncanny Valley
Links and Resources:
Full notes 🔗
🎥 My video on the Apple Intelligence marketing campaign 🔗 youtube.com/watch?v=18dPiohytt8&
🎥 Google Gemini - Now We're Talking 🔗 youtu.be/mNTGbi5ReMc?si=Gv_BNTh5Fp8vjwKS
📖 Psychology Today Article - The "Uncanny Valley" Is a Lonely Place 🔗 psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/atypical-children-extraordinary-parenting/202211/the-uncanny-valley-is-lonely-place
Subscribe to The Gentle Rebel Podcast 🔗 the-haven.co/gentle-rebel-podcast
