Hostname: page-component-6587cd75c8-4pd2k Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T04:15:48.154Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

No Place for Robots: Reassessing the Bukimi no Tani (“Uncanny Valley”)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Jennifer Robertson
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Over the past decade, the concept of the “uncanny valley” (bukimi no tani) coined by roboticist Mori Masahiro (b. 1927), has appeared in over ten thousand (English-language) articles and chapters, Briefly, the concept presumes that the scary surprise of realizing that, say, a flesh-and-blood human was actually a zombie will send one tumbling into a valley of existential queasiness. As an application, this effect was hypothesized by Mori as grounds for avoiding the design and manufacture of humanlike robots or androids. In this edited and augmented excerpt from chapter 6 (Cyborg-Ableism beyond the Uncanny [Valley]) of my book, Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation (2018), I interrogate the 'uncanny valley“ hypothesis, which has been accorded an almost ”natural-law“-like status. I critically examine Mori's original 1970 essay in Japanese and draw attention to some of the problems posed both by translating bukimi as ”uncanny“ and by treating the ”uncanny valley“ as a self-evident truism.

Keywords

uncanny valleyrobotsandroidsprostheticsJapanMoriFreudJentsch
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 23 , December 2020 , e4
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2020

References

Arif, Shabana (2018, 12 November). Japanese Man Spends over £13k on Wedding to Marry Virtual Idol Hatsune Miku. VG 24/7. Accessed November 2020.Google Scholar
Bukimi, (1978). Kōjien. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.Google Scholar
Burleigh, T.J., Schoenherr, J. R., Lacroix, G. L. (2013). Does the Uncanny Valley Exist? An Empirical Test of the Relationship between Eeriness and the Human Likeness of Digitally Created Faces. Computers in Human Behavior 29: 759–771.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Oliveira Barata, Sophie (2015). What Inspires Me. altlimpro. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Expo-70 Fujipan Pavillion Robots (2011, 16 December). Cybernetic Zoo. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund (1919 [2003]). Das Unheimliche (The “Uncanny”). Trans. Strachey, Alix London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Gee, F.C., Browne, Will Niel and Kawamura, Kazuhiko (2005). Uncanny Valley Revisited. 2005 IEEE International Workshop on Robots and Human Interactive Communication. 151–157. ccessed July 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsu, Jeremy (2012, 12 June). Robotics' Uncanny Valley Gets New Translation. Livescience. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Guide, Cobots. Rethink Robotics. Accessed December 2020.Google Scholar
Huang, Lixiao, Picart, Jose and Gillan, Douglas (2020, 3 August). Toward a Generalized Model of Human Emotiona Attachment. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. Published online. Pp. 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishiguro, Hiroshi (2007). Scientific Issues Concerning Androids. The International Journal of Robotics Research 26: 105–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jentsch, Ernst (1906). Zur Psychologie des Umheimlichen (On the Psychology of the Uncanny). Psychiatrisch-Neurologische Wochenschrift (Psychiatric-Neurological Weekly) 22: 195–198; 23:. 203–210.Google Scholar
Kabata, Hisatoshi (2018). Jinkō chinō no gunji ōyō: sekai no genjō to Nihon no sentaku (Military Application of Artificial Intelligence: International Situation and Possible Choices by Japanese Academic Researchers [sic]. Kagaku Gijutsu Shakairon Kenkyū 16: 31–42.Google Scholar
Kageki, Norri (2012, 8 February). An Uncanny Mind: Masahiro Mori on the Uncanny Valley and Beyond. June 12. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
MacDorman, Karl F. (2006). Subjective Ratings of Robot Video Clips for Human Likeness, Familiarity, and Eeriness: An Exploration of the Uncanny Valley. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Mori, Masahiro (1970 [2012a]). Bukimi no Tani (The Valley of Eeriness). Enajii (Energy) 7 (4): 33–35.Google Scholar
Masahiro, Mori (1970 [2012b]). The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori. Trans. Karl F. MacDorman and Norri Kageki. IEEE Spectrum. June 12.Google Scholar
Nakamura Brace Co. (2016). Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Tomoji, Onozuka (2016). Sensō to heiwa to keizai:2015nen no “Nihon” o kangaeru (War, Peace and Economy: A Reflection on “Japan” in 2015). Kokusai buki iten (Global Arms Transfer [sic]) 1: 15–40.Google Scholar
Otake, Tomoko (2012, 12 August). Professor aspires toward the perfect prosthetic design. Japan Times. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Pfanner, Eric (2014). Japan Inc. Now Exporting Weapons. Wall Street Journal. July 20. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Ploeger, Daniël (2014). Eerie Prostheses and Kinky Strap-Ons: Mori's Uncanny Valley and Ableist Ideology. BST 13. Accessed July 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollick, Frank E. (2010). In Search of the Uncanny Valley. In Daras, Petros Oscar, and Ibarra, Mayora, eds., Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering. 69–78. Series Vol. 40. Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Reichardt, Jessica (1978). Robots: Fact, Fiction + Prediction. London: Thames and Hudson. Rethink Robotics (2016). Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Robertson, Jennifer (2010). Gendering Humanoid Robots: Robo-Sexism in Japan. Body and Society 16 (2): 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, Jennifer (2018). Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Yamanaka—Prosthetic, Shunji (2016). Design Inspiration.Net. Accessed November 2020.Google Scholar
Wang, Brian (2012, 18 September). Rethink robotics reveals its revolutionary Baxter Manufacturing Robot. Next Big Future. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar
Wiener, Anna (2020). Uncanny Valley: A Memoir. New York: MCD (Farrar, Straus and Giroux.).Google Scholar
Yoo, Doo-Sung (2013). Organ-Machine Hybrid: Experiments in Combinations of Animal Organs with Electronic Devices and Robotics for New Artistic Applications. Journal of the New Media Caucus 9. Accessed July 2016.Google Scholar