Download or read book Uncanny Valley written by Lawrence Weschler and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shuttling between cultural comedies and political tragedies, Lawrence Weschler's articles have throughout his long career intrigued readers with his unique insight into everything he examines, from the ordinary to the extraordinary. Uncanny Valley continues the page–turning conversation as Weschler collects the best of his narrative nonfiction from the past fifteen years. The title piece surveys the hapless efforts of digital animators to fashion a credible human face, the endlessly elusive gold standard of the profession. Other highlights include profiles of novelist Mark Salzman, as he wrestles with a hilariously harrowing bout of writer's block; the legendary film and sound editor Walter Murch, as he is forced to revisit his work on Apocalypse Now in the context of the more recent Iraqi war film Jarhead; and the artist Vincent Desiderio, as he labors over an epic canvas portraying no less than a dozen sleeping figures. With his signature style and endless ability to wonder, Weschler proves yet again that the "world is strange, beautiful, and connected" (The Globe and Mail). Uncanny Valley demonstrates his matchless ability to analyze the marvels he finds in places and people and offers us a new, sublime way of seeing the world.
Download or read book The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation written by Angela Tinwell and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-12-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in technology have enabled animators and video game designers to design increasingly realistic, human-like characters in animation and games. Although it was intended that this increased realism would allow viewers to appreciate the emotional state of characters, research has shown that audiences often have a negative reaction as the human likeness of a character increases. This phenomenon, known as the Uncanny Valley, has become a benchmark for measuring if a character is believably realistic and authentically human like. This book is an essential guide on how to overcome the Uncanny Valley phenomenon when designing human-like characters in digital applications. In this book, the author provides a synopsis of literature about the Uncanny Valley phenomenon and explains how it was introduced into contemporary thought. She then presents her theories on its possible psychological causes based on a series of empirical studies. The book focuses on how aspects of facial expression and speech can be manipulated to overcome the Uncanny Valley in character design. The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation presents a novel theory that goes beyond previous research in that the cause of the Uncanny Valley is based on a perceived lack of empathy in a character. This book makes an original, scholarly contribution to our current understanding of the Uncanny Valley phenomenon and fills a gap in the literature by assessing the biological and social roots of the Uncanny Valley and its implications for computer-graphics animation.
Download or read book The Uncanny Valley written by Gregory Miller and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-12-30 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Uncanny Valley…“…is a macabre serenade to a small town that may or may not exist, peopled with alive and dead denizens who wander about the hills and houses with creepy fluidity. Told by individual inhabitants, the stories recount tales of disappearing dead deer, enchanted gardens, invisible killer dogs, and rattlesnakes that fall from the sky; each contribution adds to a composite portrait that skitters between eerie, ghoulish, and poignant. Miller is a master storyteller, clearly delighting in his mischievous creations.”Thirty-Three Tales. Thirty-Three Tellers. One Lost Town.
Download or read book The Uncanny Valley Girl written by Stephen W Houser and published by Lionel A. Blanchard. This book was released on 2020-10-11 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Artificial intelligence. Replicant. Robot. Humanot. When artificial intelligents first entered society, their designers strove to overcome the gap between being human and looking human. But people could always spot even the most human appearing AIs as artificial. Uncanny valley was an engineering term to designate this alienation--this gap--that humans experienced when seeing robot imitations that were somehow off. Existing beyond the divide that separated them from humans. Mirages. Imitations. Fakes. Soon they were rudely labeled humanots by those who came to fear and hate them.
Download or read book Beyond the Uncanny Valley written by Claudia Schmuckli and published by Cameron. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the 1970s, Japanese robotics expert Masahiro Mori published an article that coined and theorized the idea of the "uncanny valley" as a measurable correlation between the human likeness of a machine and people's comfort level with its presence. Criticized as flawed from the moment of its appearance and eventually debunked by empirical studies, Mori's original mapping of the "uncanny valley" may have no scientific grounding, but the term still endures as an apt metaphor for a technologically induced terrain of philosophical, biological, and social uncertainty. With the development of major technologies from the atom bomb to the digital computer and the emergence of cybernetics and artificial intelligence as academic disciplines since the Second World War, this terrain is no longer the sole purview of life-like automatons or robots but is increasingly occupied by developments in machine intelligence, biodigital mergence, and related issues of cloning and other forms of genetic manipulation that have reshaped the debate around the liminality of humanity. As the construction and definitions of subjectives and societies are increasingly organized and shaped by technological events that imitate or improve upon-even if only partially-fundamental functions of our bodies and minds, the question of what it means to be or remain human has been reopened for debate"--
Download or read book Naturalist written by Edward O. Wilson and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2006-04-24 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward O. Wilson -- University Professor at Harvard, winner of two Pulitzer prizes, eloquent champion of biodiversity -- is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. His career represents both a blueprint and a challenge to those who seek to explore the frontiers of scientific understanding. Yet, until now, little has been told of his life and of the important events that have shaped his thought.In Naturalist, Wilson describes for the first time both his growth as a scientist and the evolution of the science he has helped define. He traces the trajectory of his life -- from a childhood spent exploring the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida to life as a tenured professor at Harvard -- detailing how his youthful fascination with nature blossomed into a lifelong calling. He recounts with drama and wit the adventures of his days as a student at the University of Alabama and his four decades at Harvard University, where he has achieved renown as both teacher and researcher.As the narrative of Wilson's life unfolds, the reader is treated to an inside look at the origin and development of ideas that guide today's biological research. Theories that are now widely accepted in the scientific world were once untested hypotheses emerging from one mans's broad-gauged studies. Throughout Naturalist, we see Wilson's mind and energies constantly striving to help establish many of the central principles of the field of evolutionary biology.The story of Wilson's life provides fascinating insights into the making of a scientist, and a valuable look at some of the most thought-provoking ideas of our time.
Download or read book Multidisciplinary Perspectives on New Media Art written by Soares, Celia and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2020-06-26 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New media has been gaining importance in the academic world as well as the artistic world through the concept of new media art. As the connections between art and communication technologies grow and further embrace a wide range of concepts, interpretations, and applications, the number of disciplines that will be touched will likewise continue to expand. Multidisciplinary Perspectives on New Media Art is a collection of innovative research on the methods and intersections between new media, artistic practices, and digital technologies. While highlighting topics including audience relationship, digital art, and computer animation, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, high-level art students, and art professionals.
Download or read book Fake Accounts written by Lauren Oyler and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE * A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "An invigorating work, deadly precise in its skewering of people, places and things . . . Stylish, despairing and very funny, Fake Accounts . . . adroitly maps the dwindling gap between the individual and the world." —Katie Kitamura, The New York Times Book Review A woman in a tailspin discovers that her boyfriend is an anonymous online conspiracy theorist in this “absolutely brilliant take on the bizarre and despicable ways the internet has warped our perception of reality” (Elle, One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year). On the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration, a young woman snoops through her boyfriend's phone and makes a startling discovery: he's an anonymous internet conspiracy theorist, and a popular one at that. Already fluent in internet fakery, irony, and outrage, she's not exactly shocked by the revelation. Actually, she's relieved--he was always a little distant--and she plots to end their floundering relationship while on a trip to the Women's March in DC. But this is only the first in a series of bizarre twists that expose a world whose truths are shaped by online lies. Suddenly left with no reason to stay in New York and increasingly alienated from her friends and colleagues, our unnamed narrator flees to Berlin, embarking on her own cycles of manipulation in the deceptive spaces of her daily life, from dating apps to expat meetups, open-plan offices to bureaucratic waiting rooms. She begins to think she can't trust anyone--shouldn't the feeling be mutual? Narrated with seductive confidence and subversive wit, Fake Accounts challenges the way current conversations about the self and community, delusions and gaslighting, and fiction and reality play out in the internet age.
Download or read book Uncanny Valley written by Thomas Gibbons and published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE STORY: Drawing on current research in artificial intelligence and robotics, UNCANNY VALLEY charts the relationship between Claire, a neuroscientist, and Julian, a nonbiological human. As Julian is “born” a few body parts at a time over the course of the play, Claire teaches him how to be as human as possible: mirroring people’s speech, engaging in small-talk, playing a musical instrument. Their deepening friendship and Julian’s growing “humanity” lead to the revelations of an unhealed sorrow in Claire’s personal life and, ultimately, the purpose for which Julian has been created. UNCANNY VALLEY explores the painful divide between creator and creation, the inherent unpredictability of consciousness, and how we are redefining what it means to be human in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Uncanny Valley Seduction and Disillusionment in San Francisco s Startup Scene written by Anna Wiener and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Joan Didion at a startup’ Rebecca Solnit ‘Impossibly pleasurable’ Jia Tolentino ‘This is essential reading’ Stylist
Download or read book Uncanny Valley written by Greg Egan and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2017-08-09 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immortality, but at what price, in what form, and how could you be you? In the near future it’s possible to build a new you, a better you, one that could carry on forever. But if you could carry on, if you could make choices about who you would be forever, how much of your past would you bring with you? Would you be tempted to maybe...edit? Adam isn’t all that he used to be, but he wants to be. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Whistleblower written by Susan Fowler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A powerful illustration of the obstacles our society continues to throw up in the paths of ambitious young women.” —The New York Times Book Review “Important . . . empowering.” —Gayle King, CBS This Morning "That [Fowler] became a whistle-blower and a pioneer of a social movement almost seems inevitable once you get to know her. Uber should have seen her coming.” —San Francisco Chronicle Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR Susan Fowler was just twenty-five years old when her blog post describing the sexual harassment and retaliation she'd experienced at Uber riveted the nation. Her post would eventually lead to the ousting of Uber's powerful CEO, but its ripples extended far beyond that, as her courageous choice to attach her name to the post inspired other women to speak publicly about their experiences. In the year that followed, an unprecedented number of women came forward, and Fowler was recognized by Time as one of the "Silence Breakers" who ignited the #MeToo movement. Here, she shares her full story: a story of extraordinary determination and resilience that reveals what it takes--and what it means--to be a whistleblower. Long before she arrived at Uber, Fowler's life had been defined by her refusal to accept her circumstances. She propelled herself from an impoverished childhood with little formal education to the Ivy League, and then to a coveted position at one of the most valuable companies in the history of Silicon Valley. Each time she was mistreated, she fought back or found a way to reinvent herself; all she wanted was the opportunity to define her own dreams and work to achieve them. But when she discovered Uber's pervasive culture of sexism, racism, harassment, and abuse, and that the company would do nothing about it, she knew she had to speak out—no matter what it cost her. Whistleblower takes us deep inside this shockingly toxic workplace and reveals new details about the aftermath of the blog post, in which Fowler was investigated and followed, hacked and threatened, to the point that she feared for her life. But even as it illuminates how the deck is stacked in favor of the status quo, Fowler's story serves as a crucial reminder that we can take our power back. Both moving personal narrative and rallying cry, Whistleblower urges us to be the heroes of our own stories, and to keep fighting for a more just and equitable world.
Download or read book The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis and Beyond written by Marcus Cheetham and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2018-05-02 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A field of theory and research is evolving around the question highlighted in the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis: How does high realism in anthropomorphic design influence human experience and behaviour? The Uncanny Valley Hypothesis posits that a very humanlike character or object (e.g., robot, prosthetic limb, doll) can evoke a negative affective (i.e., uncanny) state. Recent advances in robotic and computer-graphic technologies in simulating aspects of human appearance, behaviour and interaction have been accompanied, therefore, by theorising and research on the meaning and relevance of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis for anthropomorphic design. Current understanding of the "uncanny" idea is still fragmentary and further original research is needed. However, the emerging picture indicates that the relationship between humanlike realism and subjective experience and behaviour may not be as straightforward as the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis suggests. This Research Topic brings together researchers from traditionally separate domains (including robotics, computer graphics, cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience) to provide a snapshot of current work in this field. A diversity of issues and questions are addressed in contributions that include original research, review, theory, and opinion papers.
Download or read book Mobituaries written by Mo Rocca and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From popular TV correspondent and writer Rocca comes a charmingly irreverent and rigorously researched book that celebrates the dead people who made life worth living.
Download or read book Uncanny Valley written by S. Mickey Lin and published by Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. This book was released on 2016-10-15 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions of identity and humanity galvanise the 12 stories in this provocative and eclectic collection by S. Mickey Lin, an original new voice in speculative fiction. The title story ‘Uncanny Valley’ reveals a glimpse of a futuristic Singapore where the Minister of Speculative Technology investigates virtual reality while the Ministry of Moral Affairs explains the importance of numbers to its newest employee in ‘Moral Clarity in Small Numbers’. In ‘Right History’, a professor questions the idea of history and in ‘Adrift’, a naturalized citizen is reminded of the meaning of home. Using a wide range of characters, from the construction worker to the professor to the badminton star, the multi-layered stories explore identity and various aspects of the human psyche. Uncanny Valley will gnaw on the corners of your mind and challenge your ideas on society and what it means to be human
Download or read book The Nightmare Hunter written by D A Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2021-07-25 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Along the Mogollon Rim in Arizona, hikers and campers have been disappearing with astonishing frequency for years. When an eyewitness comes forward, she's dismissed as being crazy for claiming that Bigfoot abducted a woman right in front of her. The people that are supposed to help only threaten her to keep silent. When the police won't believe her, the witness calls the Nightmare Hunter for help. What begins as simply taking the report of a cryptid encounter turns into the fight of his life. This investigation will take him into the heart of the Nightmare, deeper than ever before. Can he solve the mystery of the Mogollon rim and save the missing hikers, or will he too, fall victim to the Mogollon Monster?
Download or read book My Friend Anna written by Rachel DeLoache Williams and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Sex and the City meets Bad Blood and Catch Me if You Can in the astonishing true story of Anna Delvey, a young con artist posing as an heiress in New York City—as told by the former Vanity Fair photo editor who got seduced by her friendship and then scammed out of more than $62,000. Rachel DeLoache Williams’s new friend Anna Delvey, a self-proclaimed German heiress, was worldly and ambitious. She was also generous—picking up the tab for lavish dinners at Le Coucou, infrared sauna sessions at HigherDOSE, drinks at the 11 Howard Library bar, and regular workout sessions with a celebrity personal trainer. When Anna proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech at the five-star La Mamounia hotel, Rachel jumped at the chance. But when Anna’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, the dream vacation quickly took a dark turn. Anna asked Rachel to begin fronting costs—first for flights, then meals and shopping, and, finally, for their $7,500-per-night private villa. Before Rachel knew it, more than $62,000 had been charged to her credit cards. Anna swore she would reimburse Rachel the moment they returned to New York. Back in Manhattan, the repayment never materialized, and a shocking pattern of deception emerged. Rachel learned that Anna had left a trail of deceit—and unpaid bills—wherever she’d been. Mortified, Rachel contacted the district attorney, and in a stunning turn of events, found herself helping to bring down one of the city’s most notorious con artists. With breathless pacing and in-depth reporting from the person who experienced it firsthand, My Friend Anna is an unforgettable true story of “glamour, greed, lust for power” (The New York Times), and female friendship.
