"Japanese roboticist Mashiro Mori, whose study of engineering is heavily influenced by the teachings of Buddhism, posits the theory of the Uncanny Valley. This theory explains how humans react to robots and other non-human beings. The Uncanny Valley theory states that social acceptance of a robot by humans increases as the robot becomes more human-like in quality. Emotional response is increasingly positive as the robot gains more human-like qualities like movement and appearance. However, at a point where an automaton is almost nearly human-like, acceptance of the robot suddenly drops off (MacDorman, 2005), and the emotional response is one of repulsion. This is the point at which a robot is nearly human. Plotted on a graph with reaction and acceptance on the X axis and human-like quality on the Y axis, this dip in the acceptance curve is the 'Uncanny Valley'- a point at which observers find viewing or interacting with the robot disquieting or disturbing (MacDorman, 2005). As the appearance, motion and behaviour of the robot continue to be more indistinguishable than those of a human, emotional response once again rises and approaches human-to-human empathy levels."
from "Robots and Nursing: Concepts, Relationships and Practice"
Aric Campling, Tetsuya Tanioka and Rozzano Locsin
in Technology and Nursing: Practice, Concepts and Issues eds Alan Barnard and Rozzano Locsin Palgrave 2007
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