Mitt Romney, Robotics, and the Uncanny Valley 501
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Soulskill
from the suddenly-the-primaries-become-clear dept.
from the suddenly-the-primaries-become-clear dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Brian Fung writes in the Atlantic that one of Romney's electoral problems is that he occupies a kind of uncanny valley for politicians, inexplicably turning voters off despite looking like the textbook image of an American president. Just as people who interact with lifelike robots often develop a strange feeling due to something they can't quite name, something about Romney leaves voters unsettled. As with the robotic version of the uncanny valley, the closer Romney gets to becoming real to a voter, the more his likeability declines. 'The effect is almost involuntary, considering the substantial advantages Romney enjoys from appearance alone,' writes Fung. 'But in person, his polished persona gives way to what appears a surprisingly forced and inauthentic character.' Political commentator Dana Milbanks adds that although Romney is confident and competent, in casual moments his weirdness comes through — equal parts 'Leave It to Beaver' corniness and social awkwardness. 'Romney's task now is to work his way out of the uncanny valley toward a more compelling style of humanity,' concludes Fung. 'But every day he lingers in it, the hill grows steeper.'"
Best Canidate... (Score:0, Funny)
RON PAUL 2012!!
Fake Mitt Romney (Score:5, Funny)
Capt obvious says : (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Religion (Score:2, Funny)
Eh, most Christians will try to claim their "weirder", but only because they completely ignore their own weirdness. You don't really have a strong leg to stand on to make fun of people who wear "magic underwear" when you ritually eat crackers that you pretend are the flesh of your 2000 years dead savior.
John Jackson (Score:5, Funny)
He kinda reminds me of the futurama guys:
John Jackson:"It's time someone had the courage to stand up and say: I'm against those things that everybody hates."
Jack Johnson:"Now, I respect my opponent. I think he's a good man. But quite frankly, I agree with everything he just said."
John Jackson:"I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far."
Jack Johnson:"And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."
Re:Religion (Score:5, Funny)
I had forgotten he was Mormon. Isn't that considerably weirder than your average flavor of Christianity? 99% of what I know of Mormonism is from South Park.
Tough call. Mormons have the reputation of having multiple wives. The sad part is that Newt has had more wives than Mit.
Re:You're quoting Dana Milbanks (sic)??? (Score:5, Funny)
Because Mitt Romney is the most advanced humanoid robot we have yet designed. The fact that it has made it this far in politics is absolutely stunning, even if it fails the Turing test every once in a while.
Leaked drafts of Romney's acceptance speech (Score:4, Funny)
"Barack Obama is a socialist. He's trying to overhaul this country along the lines of Europe." (pauses while boos fill the hall).
"That's right, my friends. Now, Europe is a nice place to visit - I spent about five years there in France during the Viet Nam War. Bonjour, tout le monde! Comment allez-vous aujourd'hui?" (pauses, but is met by silence)
"And Switzerland is a great place to park your money for tax purposes, but I've found we have a better tax shelter right here in the Cayman Islands!" (pauses again.. scattered nervous applause)
"Not that I ever had much money in those accounts, contrary to what the elite liberal press has suggested. Maybe $30 million or so at the peak. But I am not going to apologize for being a successful businessman, I've created a lot of jobs during my career. There's Everett " (points to the someone in the crowd) "Everett worked for the printer we used at Bain Capital for the private equity contracts." (sustained applause)
"I'm going to repeal Obamacare. I'm going to win the debates - when the President starts in with one of his outrageous Keystone Cops statements I'll turn to him and say, Ten Thousand Dollar bet, Barack?"
"And when November comes, we're going to put Obama's dog on the roof of the car " (cheering starts to build) ".. and we're going to take it for a spin on the highway for a few hours, and then we're going to close down the union plant that built the car!" (wild cheers and cries of "Mitt, Mitt")
Reptilian Shape Shifter (Score:4, Funny)
What's left must be the truth (Score:4, Funny)
If Romney is in the uncanny valley, let's eliminate the impossible and what's left must be the truth. He clearly is not a corpse, and let's face it, zombies are fictional, so he must have some sort of prosthesis. Not a prosthetic hand, but perhaps a prosthetic forehead.
Letterman said it best... (Score:5, Funny)
...when he said Romney looks like "the guy who plays the American president in a Canadian movie."
Re:Religion (Score:5, Funny)
Then you know all you need to know.
Theologically, Mormons are the Muslims of the West. They're like every other religion, except with a double-extra draught of crazy. But then they became this country club for rich extra-white people with secret stuff that outsiders must not know. They begrudgingly gave up their extra wives around 1900 and begrudgingly allowed black people to have souls more than half a century later. They have wonderful teeth and if you find a mormon girl who has strayed they will do very dirty stuff. This last bit I found out when I was a postdoc at land grant school out West. [note to wife in case she's reading this: this was more than a decade before we met]
Most of the above is gleaned from rumors and South Park (except the bit about the lapsed-LDS girl and dirty stuff) because I've only met like two Mormons in my life. I have so little in common with Mormons that I seem to have existed in a separate plane of reality from them. Perhaps I just avoid crazy people. Or maybe Mormons avoid crazy people. I was going to say that perhaps I avoid people who wear magic underwear, but I know that's not true, since I've still got a pair of drawers that I've had since college because I think they're lucky. So maybe Mormons are not that crazy.
I used to not care about Mitt Romney, until I heard a serious biographer of his say in an interview that Romney will occasionally cut up for his family or friends by doing a spot-on impersonation of Michael Jackson singing Billie Jean. Apparently Mitt knows all the lyrics and can do a great moon-walk. Does the One Glove thing. Ever since I heard that, I am scared to death of the man. Whenever I see him on TV I start to hyperventilate and have to run out of the room.
Re:You're quoting Dana Milbanks (sic)??? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's left must be the truth (Score:3, Funny)
...let's face it, zombies are fictional
That will upset Christians. Zombie Jesus is a cornerstone of their system of myths.
News from 2013 (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who's the moron? (Score:4, Funny)
You dare post facts here? Prepare for a hoard of tri-corner hat wearing goons to pummel you with nonsensical ravings and coordinated mod bombing from a collection of attack accounts.
Re:Religion (Score:5, Funny)
I wouldn't sweat it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What bothers me (Score:4, Funny)
You may vote for ponies
It's the Celestia/Luna 2012 ticket for me.
Re:You're quoting Dana Milbanks (sic)??? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, all of you welcoming our robot overlords now have a candidate you can believe in!!
Re:You're quoting Dana Milbanks (sic)??? (Score:5, Funny)
Perry was a rebranding of the Bush 3.0 robot, but the code rewrite for Bush 2.0 introduced several bugs in the language synthesizer module that still weren't fixed in the Bush 3.0 version.
As the Bush 2.0 model once said, "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Re:Religion (Score:5, Funny)
I encourage you to take a latino friend to a Tea Party rally to see firsthand the things those racist fucking retards do and say to him.
Now, that there is downright uncalled-for. Going and assuming that jellomizer has a latino friend, like that.