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Khalil Greene is one creepy robot

I figured out what makes Khalil so creepy.  They made him too realistic!  Have you heard of the Uncanny Valley?  When you're making a humanoid robot, the more realistic it is made the more familiar it looks to the human eye.  You get a positive feeling because even though you can tell it's a robot your brain picks out the human characteristics and you have empathy for the machine.  That is until you reach the "Uncanny Valley".  This is the point where the robot looks a little too realistic so the eye finds all the non-human characteristics and flaws.  This tends to creep people out.  Check out this graph from Wikipedia:

The text in red is where I feel Khalil-Bot fits into this graph.  He's more lifelike than a zombie but less lifelike than bunraku puppet.  Actually after I did a google image search on bunraku puppets those things are pretty creepy, I don't know what they are doing on this graph.  It's natural to be creeped out by these imperfections because it could be dangerous to the human gene pool if you were attracted to even the slightest mutations.

When I see Khalil I'm transfixed by his lifeless eyes.  They are soulless, empty and they reflect my fears.  Then I see he his matted blonde hair, parted so perfectly yet obviously glued to his scalp.  Wisps of his dry damaged hair flutter from beneath his ball cap.  He barely moves, except when his optics sense a baseball within range to either swing at or dive towards.  His voice is void of emotion and he only answers in binary, "yes" or "no".

I'm not convinced that the far right side of this graph is true.  Some don't believe it exists because no robot has ever catapulted itself over the uncanny valley like Evil Knievel.  One day maybe technology will advance to the point where we can't tell the difference between a regular shortstop and a robot one, and maybe then Khalil will be accepted and loved.  Until that day comes he will always creep me out.

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I can't believe it
They got a picture of him smiling!

by wait till next year on May 1, 2007 4:52 PM PDT   0 recs

funniest thing...
ive read in a long time. When I read the title and saw that you included a graphical analysis, i blurted out a "oh no he di-ent". I was also laughing at the time so it came out kinda squeaky. Nonetheless my co-workers think i am ever weirder now.

Thanks for the laugh and the embarrassment.

by soulSD on May 1, 2007 4:56 PM PDT   0 recs

Seriously
That may be the funniest thing ever on this site and that is saying something.  Well done, jbox.

(And, really - there's NO WAY Tim Sullivan stops by this place...)

by Winfield's Ghost on May 1, 2007 6:40 PM PDT   0 recs

His interview on 4 the other night
was uncomfortable or downright creepy.  Now I know why.

by planetjeffy on May 1, 2007 8:57 PM PDT   0 recs

Classic
jbox- that belongs in your career highlight film. I loved it. I've been laughing for 5 minutes, but still failing to explain its significance to mrs. RBS.

by RBS on May 1, 2007 8:57 PM PDT   0 recs

Creepy funny
It's like Gaslamp's version of SexyHot.

by thenerdhater on May 2, 2007 7:04 AM PDT   0 recs

That is a hilarious post
On a side note, my buddy at the The University of Chicago has been studying the brain's response to when humans observe the actions of other humans and compared that to when humans observe the more mechanical actions of animated actors (like in virtual reality).

I showed him some clips of Khalil Greene performing his normal protocol, making diving stops, swinging at sliders low and away, etc.  My buddy (1) was blown away by the fact that no cognitive neuroscientists to date have studied the brain's differential patterns of activation elicited by watching a Khalilbot; (2) was confused as to why Cyberdyne or Qualcomm or whoever created the Khalilbot chose the likeness of Spicoli when building him; and (3) was concerned that there may be more Khalilbots out there, living beneath the earth's surface, making copies of one another, and waiting until the time is right to either attack us or form a baseball league made entirely of Khalilbot replicants and Manny Ramirez.

by TheGrandHatching on May 2, 2007 7:19 AM PDT   0 recs

Flawed by design?
One question:  Khalilbot has a known weakness for sliders out of the zone. Was this intentional on the part of the Tyrell Corporation, in order to prevent total domination of mankind?  Or is it simply an oversight that will be corrected in Khalilbot v2.0?  

by anthony on May 2, 2007 6:16 PM PDT   0 recs

Maybe the slider is one of the impossible problems
There are math problems that are known to be impossible... Like trying to compute "love". Maybe connecting a bat with the slider is one of them. When human beings are able to hit the slider, it's probably by accident.

by Dex on May 2, 2007 6:31 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

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