Robots, Twilight Zone, God, and Us

The modern field of robotics offers a concept called “uncanny valley.” Professor Masahiro Mori states that as we make robots to resemble human beings, our emotional response to them becomes increasingly positive and empathic.

As robots look and act even more humanlike, there is a point at which our emotional response becomes that of strong revulsion. Our empathy toward these sort-of-but-not-really human beings crashes off a cliff, as it were, and tumbles down in this "uncanny valley." Then, as we encounter robots that even more closely resemble actual human beings, our emotional response climbs back out of that valley, becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.

Therefore, the uncanny valley is the area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "barely human" and "fully human" entity.

This is easier to grasp with an example: We will feel little or nothing toward an industrial robot that essentially looks like a piece of machinery. But give that robot a "personality," such as with WALL-E, of the film and video game of the same name, or Number 5 from the earlier movie Short Circuit (whose greatest fear was of being disassembled), and we feel some empathy with it. Nevertheless, as the nonhuman becomes "almost human" -- such as in the case of a zombie -- our empathy crashes down into the "uncanny valley" of revulsion. Something even more humanlike, however, like Data, the humanoid crewmember on Star Trek, can cause our empathy to climb out of the valley and will evoke enough emotional connection for productive human-robot interaction.

A 1959 episode of the old Twilight Zone TV series titled "The Lonely" told the futuristic story of an inmate named Corry who was sentenced to solitary confinement on a distant asteroid for 50 years. Four times a year, a spacecraft piloted by a Captain Allenby arrived to bring him supplies. Allenby feels sorry for Corry, alone on this desolate planet. On one supply run, he brings Corry a crate, telling him not to open it until the ship has departed. When Corry opens the crate, he finds inside a female robot -- but one that looks completely human -- named Alicia. At first, Corry detests it, seeing it as a mere machine with synthetic skin and wires inside (he's in uncanny valley). Then Corry discovers that Alicia is capable of crying, and his feelings change; he begins to fall in love with Alicia and it -- or "she" -- becomes a companion to Corry, alleviating his loneliness.

Eventually, the ship returns and Allenby brings news that Corry has been pardoned. He may leave the asteroid and return to Earth immediately. The ship will be departing in 20 minutes, so Corry, anxious to leave this desolate place, hurries to get his things together. But then he learns that there is no space on board for his robot companion. By now, Corry has deep feelings toward Alicia, so he tries desperately to find some way to take her along. He argues with Allenby that Alicia is not a robot, but a woman, and insists that Allenby does not understand.

Allenby, however, knows that Corry's feelings aside, Alicia is still a machine. Deciding he must do something to break Corry's illusion, Allenby draws his gun and shoots the robot in the face. Alicia collapses, her face now a tangle of wires and broken circuitry, though she keeps repeating the name, "Corry."

Allenby then takes Corry to the ship, telling him that all he is really leaving behind is his loneliness. "I must remember that," Corry says tonelessly. "I must remember to keep that in mind."

If we make the relationship between Corry and Alicia a metaphor for that between God and us, how might this story have ended differently? Corry perhaps would have chosen to forgo his pardon and remain on the asteroid with Alicia. In a sense, that is what God did. He sent his only Son to where we are that he might restore us to himself, that our joy might be complete and full.

Moreover, that gives us direction for how to live a life of faith. We should embrace the relationship restoration God offers so that our life will be a place where God will be glad to be present with us.