http://www.arclight.net/~pdb/nonfiction/uncanny-valley.html
This may be a negative reaction to Neanderthal or another competitor in our evolution
space.
Why are monster-movie zombies so horrifying
and talking animals so fascinating?
Written and illustrated by Dave Bryant
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Japanese roboticist Doctor Masahiro Mori is not exactly a household name — but, for the
speculative fiction community at least, he could prove to be an important one. The reason
why can be summed up in a simple, strangely elegant phrase that translates into English
as “the uncanny valley”.
Though originally intended to provide an insight into human psychological reaction to
robotic design, the concept expressed by this phrase is equally applicable to interactions
with nearly any nonhuman entity. Stated simply, the idea is that if one were to plot
emotional response against similarity to human appearance and movement, the curve is
not a sure, steady upward trend. Instead, there is a peak shortly before one reaches a
completely human “look” . . . but then a deep chasm plunges below neutrality into a
strongly negative response before rebounding to a second peak where resemblance to
humanity is complete.
This chasm — the uncanny valley of Doctor Mori’s thesis — represents the point at which
a person observing the creature or object in question sees something that is nearly
human, but just enough off-kilter to seem eerie or disquieting. The first peak, moreover, is
where that same individual would see something that is human enough to arouse some
empathy, yet at the same time is clearly enough not human to avoid the sense of
wrongness. The slope leading up to this first peak is a province of relative emotional
detachment — affection, perhaps, but rarely more than that.
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