The uncanny valley

Mitt Romney

The uncanny valley

by E.G. | AUSTIN

OF ALL the articles I've read mulling the question of why voters just don't seem drawn to Mitt Romney, this one, from Brian Fung at the Atlantic, is perhaps my favourite:

Mitt Romney is the storybook presidential candidate. He's successful, good-looking and a family man, to boot. Yet one of this political season's enduring puzzles has been the former governor's consistent inability to bond with voters. It's been suggested that Romney's robotic persona may be to blame -- and perhaps the analogy isn't far off. Much as people are repulsed and disturbed by automatons that mimic humans closely but imperfectly, Romney inexplicably turns voters off despite looking like the textbook image of an American president. Roboticists call this unsettling effect "the uncanny valley" -- and Romney is stuck deep at the bottom of it.

If true, it's bad news for Romney, but good news for us. It means we have less chance of being tricked by the replicants, right?