Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

Creepy and crawly

Bugging the uncanny valley: Insect Lab is a project to hybridize insects and clockwork.  All sorts of bugs get the treatment, including a Hawthorne special.

A question for those interested in the robotic uncanny: do these count?  Artificial animals, androids bring the uncanny valley into play, yes, but are insects too strange, too uncomfortable for that effect?  Do some life forms (here's the one you'd expect) give us the creeps on their own terms, so much so that we can't feel additionally disturbed?

Put another way: are there animals, or people, for whom the uncanny robot effect doesn't work?  A creepy puppy-bot, yes, but perhaps a robot slime mold wouldn't engage us.  Perhaps the uncanny valley requires a certain sympathy.

We could launch a contest: nominate the people least likely to disturb us in robotic form!

(via BoingBoing)

Here's a fine Gothic song: "Creepy Doll," by Jon Coulton.  A lovely tribute to uncanny dolls.

And there’s the creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a ruined eye
That’s always open

And there’s a creepy doll
That always follows you
It’s got a pretty mouth
To swallow you whole

I like the soothing vocals, and the gentle initial theme.  Coulton's the same chap who penned and sang the fine zombie tune "Re: Your Brains". 

We have been keeping an eye on creepy dolls for a while: consult Elmo/Talking Tina, doppelganger toys for kids, or the very strange G.I. Joe meets Iraqi insurgents story for insomniac refreshment.

(thanks to John Lynch)

Uncanny moment in Second Life

On the theme of the uncanny and Second Life, consider this screenshot from Steven Kaye, who was visiting Warren Ellis:

The most apparent creepy aspect is perhaps the desolate ground, gray and lifeless for much of the observable area.  A boulder offsets the layer of human habitation.

Peer a bit closer in, and you'll see some floating bits.  Those are things belonging to Steve's avatar, including a collar.  His body failed to appear by that moment.  Another twist on the missing body part meme.  This is surreal, funny, and a bit disturbing.  It's somewhere between memorial and puppet, the objects standing in for the body in a provocative way.

Community broadband is up!

Our little town of Ripton, Vermont just took a big stride forward.  Our community-based broadband co-op successfully fired up its network, with highspeed signals traveling up and down our side of the Green Mountains.

A fiber optic signal enters the Middlebury office of North Branch Networks (NBN). The wireless signal is broadcast from the roof of the Battell Building to the roof of McCardell Bicentennial Hall on the Middlebury College campus, and is then redirected to a 100-ft. wind tower in Cornwall. From there, it is redirected to a second wind tower in Ripton. RBC broadcasts directly to most of Ripton, though low-lying households will be reached by bouncing the signal off additional access points (AP). Using the latest radio technology, RBC and NBN are delivering downloads at speeds from 96 kbps to 1500 kbps, depending on the type of service the customer chooses.

It's been a long time, and a lot of work.

Uncanny Second Life

I vowed to bleg about this, so here we go: does anyone have pointers to stories about the uncanny and Second Life? 
This question has two parts, consonant with my haunted spaces project:

• Stories which see Second Life as uncanny - scary, Gothic, creepy, disturbing.  These can be journalistic, literary, or places in between.
• Accounts of people making uncanny content in SL, accidentally, deliberately, or for unclear reasons.  For example, see a Dark Shadows "Gothic mansion."

Examples of the former Gothic Second Life category could be news or other popular stories demonizing SL as a source of moral decay.

Examples of the latter: haunted houses on SL islands - not just the various Gothic items to buy, or samples of the non-uncanny but charming Gothic architectural style, but creative attempts to elicit Gothic horror, such as this uncanny valley contest.

Accidentally, unintentionally creepy events might constitute a third category, such as lag- or error-driven body part errors, textual body parts, or the gloom caused by underpopulated empty spaces.  This might be the first sign of uncanny Second Life so far.

I'll aggregate and credit everything sent to and used by me.  If it gets big enough, a wiki page will serve.

NB: this bleg is not intended as a negative criticism of creators within SL, or of Linden Lab itself.  It's part of my ongoing research into the cultural intersections of the Gothic and cyberspace. 

Giant kitty!

Giant creature as building, spotted in Second Life (at Cisseps 9, 17, 126):

Uncanny Valley for Second Life

Uncanny valley for avatars: there's a contest for Second Life avatars, to celebrate which avatar best embodies that principle of scary human-ness in things.

Which reminds me: I'm going to bleg for uncanny or Gothic stories about Second Life.

Another Victorian collaborative information project

Just found a nice history from 2000 of Notes & Queries, a collaborative information project dating back to the nineteenth century (1849).  It's an important project to consider in terms of the history of information.  There's the sustained practice and growth of a collaborative knowledge-growing entity.  There's also the Victorian-era antecedent to the internet, alongside the telegraph.

(via Original Research)

I can die happy

Just met Sir Tim Berners-Lee.  I told him how much humanity owes to him, especially learners and teachers. 

He was entirely humble and self-effacing.  And he told me: "There's much work to be done!"  Indeed.

Comic junk food updated

Here's a cruel, fun twist on the old comic book ads for junk food.  Imagine one starring a character from Watchmen.

(thanks to Disturbingly-smilin' Steve)