In parts 12-15 of Oryx and Crake, the story is concluded for us. It bounces back and forth from Snowman’s present to his past memories as Jimmy. It starts off as Snowman is making his way to the dome and remembering how he originally got involved there in the first place. The chapter goes into how he ended up leaving his job at AnooYoo to work with Crake. The job was quite the upgrade as his best friend was in charge and they had millions of dollars in funding. It also gives us the backstory to the Crakers creation and how Crake made them immune to disease, die at 30, and are unable to be racist. He claimed he was trying to create immortality, but we see that it is immortality that fell under his own definition.
We take a tour of Paradice alongside Jimmy and see the backstory of how Crake orchestrated the eventual apocalypse. It also goes into the relationship between Jimmy and Oryx. We see how Jimmy grew so attached to Oryx and how their strange love story develops. Part 12 finishes quite violently at the height of the apocalypse with Crake slitting Oryx’s throat and saying “I’m counting on you”, and Jimmy shooting him. Parts 13-14 go into how Jimmy broke back into Paradice in an attempt to try to heal his wounded foot and his experience letting out the Crakers. He takes whatever is left and basically leads the Crakers into the world, sort of bringing Crake’s dream into fruition.
The book ends in Snowman’s present as he realizes that there are people who still exist. It is two men and a woman, interestingly enough, enough people to potentially repopulate the world. Snowman sees them in the distance and is conflicted about what to do. The part of him that remembers Crake’s words that he’s counting on him wants to kill them. The other part of him just wants to walk away.
The reading of “The Uncanny Valley: The Original Essay by Masahiro Mori” is an essay originally written in Japanese by one of the top professors of robotics talking about our levels of affinity towards robots depending on its human resemblance. It goes into what he defines as the “Uncanny Valley”. Essentially, we as humans can connect with things created that resemble humans in some form. According to his figures, the more something is human-like, the more we connect and like it. For example, we will not feel much connection to an industrial robot. But for a toy robot, that is made to look to have human features like two legs, two hands, and a head, people feel much more affinity for it. However, when something begins to look too human, our affinity for it drops aggressively. This is what he refers to as “The Uncanny Valley”.
One of the examples he uses as an example of the Uncanny Valley is a prosthetic hand. At first, you think it is real, but when you reach in to shake it and realize it is fake we are filled with an eerie uncomfortable feeling. This effect is increased with things that are given movement, like moveable prosthetic hands. He talks about how the level of affinity drops when something that isn’t supposed to move, moves, like a prosthetic hand, or when something that should, doesn’t anymore, like a dead body.
Although, I cannot say that I fully agree with all of Mori’s theories of how people react to things that appear too human when they are not, I do think he brings up some valid points. I would personally agree with having an uncomfortable reaction to a robot that appears too human. However, with other things like very human looking prosthetics, I would not feel uncomfortable. I would also imagine many people would not as well. For this reason, his figures seem a little too subjective to me.
The main idea behind his essay is the human reaction that he tries to capture when we think something is human and realize it isn’t. This can connect to many of the readings that we have done in this unit such as Frankenstein or Oryx and Crake. Much like Victor Frankenstein’s reaction to seeing a creature that resembles a human but isn’t, he had an eerie, horrific reaction. In Oryx and Crake, the Crakers are “human-like” creations that can speak and reason but are not human. In his essay, Mori hopes that the future of robotics will include creations that do not fall into the Uncanny Valley. In his essay, Mori says: “To illustrate the principle, consider eyeglasses. Eyeglasses do not resemble real eyeballs, but one could say that their design has created a charming pair of new eyes. So we should follow the same principle in designing prosthetic hands. In doing so, instead of pitiful looking realistic hands, stylish ones would likely become fashionable.”
In Oryx and Crake, I think it can be deduced that Crake made his Crakers to not fall into the Uncanny Valley. He did not attempt to make them seem too human. Just with certain human-like aesthetics like green eyes. Their features were designed to be as practical as possible and he did not get too hung up with making them resemble humans as much as possible, only as much as they needed to be. They looked just different enough that they were not human. The bigger question behind this is: Why do humans seem to be so disturbed by something that cosmetically captures what is natural when it really isn’t? Perhaps it tugs on some inner moral compass that we all have that demands what is natural ought to remain natural and what isn’t ought to stay on its side.
Discussion questions:
- Would humans accept a creation that strongly resembles a human but isn’t?
- In Oryx and Crake, do you think that the Crakers fall into the Uncanny Valley?
- Would you prefer to see a prosthetic on someone that looks clearly artificial but stylish, or human-like to the look but not the touch?
