Oct 17, 2026 · 40 min · 10 segments
Why do humanoid robots, realistic dolls, CGI faces, and almost-human machines sometimes feel deeply unsettling? In this episode of **GL Deep Dives**, we explore the strange psychological effect known…
To even begin answering that, I mean, we have to isolate the foundational psychological phenomenon driving that wax museum reaction you just described.
A panic response.
Exactly.
We have to map out the exact boundary where a cute machine turns into absolute nightmare fuel.
I always assumed this was a super modern internet era concept, like something born out of bad 1990s CGI or early video game graphics where the characters look like possessed marionettes.
That is what most people think.
But the term actually predates modern computer graphics entirely.
Wait, really?
Yeah.
In 1970, a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology named Masahiro Mori published an essay.
He was observing how humans reacted to different tiers of automation.
Okay.
And he didn't just give the feeling a name.
He mapped it out mathematically on a graph, creating a concept that basically dictates the entire trajectory of modern animation and robotics today.
I have definitely heard the term thrown around in like movie reviews, but I really want to understand the actual architecture of this graph.
If we are plotting this out, what exactly are we measuring here?
Okay, picture a standard set of axes.
The horizontal x-axis represents how human-like an object is.
Got it.
So on the far left, you are at 0% human likeness.
Think of an industrial robotic welding arm in a car factory.
Purely mechanical.
Right.
To even begin answering that, I mean, we have to isolate the foundational psychological phenomenon driving that wax museum reaction you just described.
A panic response.
Exactly.
We have to map out the exact boundary where a cute machine turns into absolute nightmare fuel.
I always assumed this was a super modern internet era concept, like something born out of bad 1990s CGI or early video game graphics where the characters look like possessed marionettes.
That is what most people think.
But the term actually predates modern computer graphics entirely.
Wait, really?
Yeah.
In 1970, a robotics professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology named Masahiro Mori published an essay.
He was observing how humans reacted to different tiers of automation.
Okay.
And he didn't just give the feeling a name.
He mapped it out mathematically on a graph, creating a concept that basically dictates the entire trajectory of modern animation and robotics today.
I have definitely heard the term thrown around in like movie reviews, but I really want to understand the actual architecture of this graph.
If we are plotting this out, what exactly are we measuring here?
Okay, picture a standard set of axes.
The horizontal x-axis represents how human-like an object is.
Got it.
So on the far left, you are at 0% human likeness.
Think of an industrial robotic welding arm in a car factory.
Purely mechanical.
Right.
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