About the Canny Valley

Ernst Jentsch first identified the state of the uncanny, and it was later expanded upon by Sigmund Freud. The uncanny (Das Unheimliche) occurs when something is at once familiar and foreign. Classic examples include zombies, humanoid robots, and dismembered body parts, all of which evoke a conflicting perception of both animation and lifelessness.

The uncanny valley refers to the negative cognitive response humans experience when confronted with an unsettling likeness of a human, specifically the humanoid robots currently under development in Japan.

I wish I could say that I developed the theory of the canny valley as a counterpoint to the uncanny valley hypothesis, and that there are a number of both philosophical and cognitive theories associated with it. However, the simple truth is that the uncannyvalley.wordpress.com domain name was previously taken, and this was the quickest solution I could come up with.

If it makes you feel better, you can pretend I’m a Scotsman and that the blog title refers to a canny or “pleasant” valley.