The Uncanny Valley

Graph of the Uncanny Valley

The idea of the "uncanny valley"(http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2011/12/09/tintin-too-human-or-not-human-enough/) although mostly related to robots and 3D animation, reminded me about when I first decided I wanted to stop eating meat. I grew up having whatever pet my parents would let me keep. At the same time, I enjoyed delicious turkey dinners, crispy bacon breakfasts, and- my favourite- lobster. When I was 17, I spent some time as an exchange student in France, and I found myself having frog legs for dinner on night. My first thought was how stereotypical the meal was. A close second, however, was how odd I felt eating an animal I once owned. This ultimately lead me to think about why people choose to eat one animal over the other. I never quite found an answer until now: perhaps it's about how similar the animals are to us.

Take dogs for example. They seem to smile when their happy, and let us know when they're not. The thought of eating a dog makes us feel uneasy because they share human-like emotions. We are all too aware of the fact that they, like us, are sentient beings. Cows, though, are much more difficult to figure out. They don't seem to make many facial expressions, which probably prevents us from getting too emotionally attached, especially if we aren't the farmers who work with them every day.They are so dissimilar to humans that it doesn't pull at our heart strings at the thought of having one for lunch, dinner, and hey- maybe some new boots!

Learning about this uncanny valley also got me thinking about the video games that are currently out there. Usually when there are guns involved, the people who die are zombies, nazis, or aliens- all of are similar to human in some ways, but very different in others, which makes them part of that "uncanny valley", and therefore very easy to kill. They simply repulse us because we simply can't empathize with them. Even when you are playing against real people around the world (on x-box live, for example), the people are represented as monsters, machines, or aliens, also allowing for the killing of them to be free of any guilt.

Trying to understand why we experience certain emotions has always been a fascination of mine (and being a psychology major, perhaps that doesn't come as a big surprise). One of the best things about being human is, in my opinion, our ability to wonder and to inquire about these types of things. According to Tomasello (http://www.amazon.ca/Cultural-Origins-Human-Cognition/dp/0674005821), we are the only animal that seem to have the ability to do so at this degree. We can truly empathize with others- truly grasping our sense of self and enabling us to step into each others shoes and make decisions that are not only based on our own well-being, but the well-being of others. Ah, altruism (selflessness).

Talking about the differences between humans and other animals really sparks my desire to learn more. I guess that is another distinguishing trait of our species, and though I'd love to spend a day as dolphin or a bird, I wouldn't trade this passion for knowledge for anything in the world.

Altruistic behaviour in non-human primates? I wonder..