ANTH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Uncanny Valley

• School: McGill University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 202
• Professor: Eduardo Kohn

Document Summary

Speculating and fabulating a world that is different from our own. An invented world can tell you something about the real world, but also it introduces the idea that anthropology is not just about the past, but the present and the future. Cultural-critique: (cid:272)(cid:396)iti(cid:395)ue of (cid:449)hat (cid:449)e"(cid:396)e up to, (cid:449)he(cid:396)e (cid:449)e"(cid:396)e goi(cid:374)g. Uncanny valley: hypothesis in the field of human aesthetics which holds that when human features look and move almost, but not exactly, like natural human being, it causes a response of revulsion. The valley refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans (it resembles death). Sense of the uncanny st(cid:396)a(cid:374)ge a(cid:374)d fa(cid:373)ilia(cid:396) (cid:894)agi(cid:374)g old pe(cid:396)so(cid:374) (cid:271)ut the(cid:374) you (cid:396)ealize it"s you! (cid:895) (cid:862)the ha(cid:374)d thi(cid:374)g(cid:863) faces are sort of uncanny looks real but not exactly. The main character is doing this hand thing, and becomes obsessed with it. He becomes a sort of machine (obsessive compulsive behaviour).