Poise

Earlier this fall, I attended a party which featured a robot petting zoo. Intrigued, I found myself surrounded by mechanical creatures: robotic arms gingerly picking up balloons, a snuggly robot pillow, a soft tube that could explore its way through mazes, a sentinel guarding the doorway. But two life-like robots had the ability to dance. And dance they did. This was the first time that I had experienced the sudden, inexplicable fear and unease when interacting with technology - the so-called Uncanny Valley. I had no words to explain why the child-sized shiny human-ish piece of electronics had caused me to recoil so dramatically. It was involuntary, and decidedly memorable.

Uniqueness in human movement spans evolutionary ones like walking upright and grasping tools, and cultural ones like dance. These actions had a significant effect on human culture and customs. In robotics, replicating this human movement has been a common trope throughout history, appearing in many societies, and in works of fiction. 

Grasping tools with opposable thumbs allowed us to invent new and better means to survive, walking upright, a trait shared with our cousins for about 6 million years. The ability to grasp is innate: babies are born with this ability, although it takes a few months of practice for them to learn to reliably hold an object. Culturally holding hands can signal closeness and affection between individuals, and shaking hands in Western culture is a common business greeting.

Walking on two feet instead of four was a major evolutionary change in our ancestral family tree. At about a year old, toddlers begin to take their first steps on two legs, joining the rank of “upstanding” citizens, “standing tall” in the human world. More than just a psychological implication, the act of standing has an important place in human culture: it can show respect or appreciation as a standing ovation, be an act of defiance or insubordination such as in a political demonstration.

Transcendence through dance is one of the most storied parts of human culture, and it remains relevant to the present day. Pop icon Michael Jackson famously noted “On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists.” Human babies are also predisposed to dancing - moving to the beat of music. But dance not only exists in many human cultures but it is also common in animals. What are the differences between these phenomena?

But we have a very strong adverse reaction to machines whose movement mimics ours. This is one facet of the uncanny valley, first discussed by Japanese professor Masahiro Mori, who described the challenges with designing robotics that had an increasingly human-like appearance. And yet attempts to replicate the human form and movement has a deep history. Some of the very first attempts at replicating humanity have been in the form of human-looking automatons.

Why is dancing such a common publicity stunt performed by robots, sometimes amusing us, but just as often unsettling us? Is there an evolutionary reason for this? Where to mysteries still remain?

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