Editor's Blog
Ever heard of the Boston BigDog? No, it’s not a new gourmet sandwich—it’s “the most advanced quadruped robot on earth,” the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots, designed to walk, run and climb on rough terrain, and carry heavy loads. The name is misleading; the BigDog looks more like a headless deer or donkey than a dog, and it’s certainly not anything you’d want sleeping at the foot of your bed, or hanging around your home. In short, the Boston BigDog is very creepy indeed.
Boston Dynamics is a prototype engineering company that builds robots for use with DARPA, the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and other organizations. It also has a profitable line in “human simulation software” for adding lifelike human characters to real time visual simulations. BigDog is the company’s most advanced robot, but not its only one. There is also LittleDog, which is “designed for research on learning locomotion” and resembles a huge black cockroach; the RiSE, a mechanical creepy-crawly with a Mansonesque name that “climbs vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences,” and the SquishBot, a “soft, shape-changing robot” that looks like something David Cronenberg might have dreamed up. And then there’s the PetMan, “an anthropomorphic robot for testing chemical protection clothing” that walks upright on two legs and has the ability to sweat.
All of them are disturbing to watch. Video clips of BigDog in action, regularly posted on YouTube, elicit more shock than awe. One viewer comments: “If I saw that coming toward me I’d shit my pants.” “I swear I’m gonna have nightmares about that thing,” adds another. “Holy shit, that thing is creepy!” exclaims a third. It is beyond doubt: BigDog inhabits the depths of the Uncanny Valley.
For those unfamiliar with this concept — named by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori — it refers to a dip in the graph on which emotional response is plotted against similarity to real life appearance and movement. The more lifelike something appears — a doll, robot or manga character, for example — the more we respond to it emotionally. This affective connection continues right up to the point just before the object attains a completely lifelike look, when suddenly, the graph line takes a deep plunge. At this point, the object is so close to real life that, rather than identifying it as a lifelike object, our mind acknowledges it as an object-like lifeform. Because our brains are so accustomed to recognizing living things, these animate creatures can evoke a frightening cognitive dissonance: they seem unhealthy, genetically unfit. There seems to be something slightly wrong with them, something out of place—an odd surface texture, asymmetrical facial expression, exaggerated features, proportions or body parts that move in concert without being directly connected.
Sigmund Freud defined the uncanny as “that class of the frightening that leads back to what is known of old and long familiar.” Uncanny things give us the creeps, according to Freud, because they suddenly remind us of infantile beliefs and desires that we’ve long repressed —the belief in magic, for example, or the omnipotence of thoughts, the return of the dead, and the coming to life of inanimate objects.
These animate creatures can evoke a frightening cognitive dissonance: they seem unhealthy, genetically unfit.
In robotics, the Uncanny Valley effect is most often evoked by the face, which is why it may not be a good idea for sex dolls to look too lifelike, and why people look scary after too much plastic surgery. Interestingly enough, BigDog does not have a face. In this case, the uncanny effect is evoked by the set of organically coordinated legs. What is so disturbing about BigDog is the way it can right itself when it trips, falls, or skids on ice. BigDog’s legs, according to its designers, are articulated like an animal’s and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. The legs are so realistic that they leave us with the distinct impression that BigDog is alive.
If you don’t believe me, go to YouTube (See Resources) and watch as it struggles to right itself after being given a hefty kick in the mechanical ribs. If you don’t feel a quick pang of sympathy, you might well be a robot yourself.
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11 Comments
You are aware that the uncanny valley refers exclusively to the appearance of human-like faces, right? Big Dog can’t, by definition, fall into the uncanny valley. Besides, it’s not creepy, it’s awesome. Have you not seen the videos where somebody kicks it to test its ability to stay upright, and you have that sudden feeling of sympathy for it? It’s almost like you think, “wow, that guy shouldn’t just kick that animal. That’s mean.” I probably sound like a moron for complaining about this, but I disapprove of this article.
This is old news, from 2008. Blogger didn’t do his homework. Look up “Legged Squad Support System”.
It’s not news, it’s perspective. And she’s not a blogger, she’s a writer.
This article is absurd. The whole uncanny valley thing is so 1990′s, what a load of hooey. The brain can be trained, to find normal many things which at first seemed strange.
That is creepy. And I’ve never seen it before.
BigDog = stronger than humans, potentially smarter than humans, designed by humans = totally creepy.
if BigDog gets together with the outlet-finding robot and the best AGI out there and a satellite connection… we’ll be getting close to… It.
I wish NASA funded it, not DARPA.
I just watched some videos about BigDog, and that thing is so lifelike when it walks that it is extremely creepy. I probably would crap myself if I saw that coming at me.
Very good article. Perhaps this site should use the system that the Gawker sites use, to promote commentors with positive insight, rather than petty nitpickery.
I have seen the video of BigDog, and yes, IT IS VERY CREEPY. And when it recovers from the kick, I don’t think, “aww, poor animal”, I think “WOW that is some amazing robotics!” and then, “This does not bode well for humans in the longrun.”
So. . .BigDog looks vaguely life-like, which can evoke sympathy, but the uncanny valley refers specifically to things that evoke disgust, so BigDog is in the uncanny valley?
I don’t think the two have much to do with each other, which is probably why the article was so short. Half of it was just background on Boston Dynamics and the uncanny valley. It leaves one feeling like the author knocked it out in ten minutes after stumbling across a video that’s been popular for years.
Can there at least be a requirement that articles posted on a website named “human plus” in some way relate their content to a future in which humans are augmented? It wouldn’t have been too difficult for the thesis of the article to be something along the lines of “advanced robots are sufficiently life-like to enter the uncanny valley; soon they will cross it and will allow people to replace their bodies with socially acceptable machines.” Maybe the title of the article could even have avoided referencing war, which wasn’t even mentioned in the article, but could have been if the author had researched LSSS like one of the comments pointed out.
Basically:
cool – the author introduced people to a robot and a concept they might not have heard of before
lame – no more information than is available via a quick google search and no real effort to extrapolate from said easily available information
When I first saw footage of Big Dog (on an Australian TV show called Hungry Beast) I felt huge sympathy towards it. I felt the urge to stop the guy kicking it and wanted to help it find it’s footing. Creepy was not something that struck me about it. In fact I found my emotional response fascinating.
Perhaps one day kids will no longer ask their parents for a pony but harass them for a Big Dog instead.
No, it does not exclusively refer to faces. The effect is just more pronounced with faces because they’re very hard to get right.