Click To View Slideshow» In his new book, Humanoid author and photographer Max Aguilera-Hellweg visits robotics labs around the world to investigate the robots who are frighteningly close to being human.
The "uncanny valley" describes the psychological barrier an object—specifically a robot—must cross before it can be accepted as sufficiently human. This barrier is not a completely level one—it becomes far steeper to surmount (i.e. valley-like) the closer an object comes to crossing to the other side.
When an object—be it sculpture, doll, or robot—is designed to resemble a human, but is still obviously not one of "us," then our brains accept it on those terms (think of the beloved cartoons and puppets from your childhood). However, as an object inches towards a naturalistic human form, any small non-human deviations elicit a sense of yech (that's why clowns in full make-up, porcelain dolls, and zombies are horror movie tropes—they resemble us, but they're just slightly off).
For a long time, the uncanny valley was just ivory tower fodder divorced from practical concerns. However, we are now entering an era in which we increasingly interact with robots on a daily basis. Suddenly, the once-ephemeral debate over what is "close-enough" to human is becoming strikingly relevant.
In the new book Humanoid, photographer and author Max Aguilera-Hellweg offers an illustrated travelogue of his visits to labs around the world to meet robots whose aims are to mimic and mirror the human form. While some of these creations will surely invoke the yeechness of being slightly off, the field is further along than many may realize. Click through the slideshow to view how close our machines are coming to final making it through to the other side of the valley.
(All photographs are copyright © Max Aguilera-Hellweg, from Humanoid, used with permission of Blast Books. )
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