Davie is home for Christmas

Davie is home from Dundee for Christmas and it’s great to see him. This evening James and I took him out for dinner and to the cinema. Our meal at the Piper’s Tryst was tasty and the film “The Old Man and his Gun,” the recently retired Robert Redford’s last film, was entertaining although a bit long-winded towards the end I thought. Also, at 82, Robert Redford was really too old to be playing a sixty year old. During our meal Davie regaled us with tales of his scientific exploits. He has recently had an exam, a viva, and a symposium as well as preparing the draft of his dissertation. I find it fascinating that I have given birth to a scientist considering how little I understand of science myself. Among many other subjects, we also discussed the uncanny valley, a concept which was news to me but I thought very interesting. Apparently robots that don’t really look very human, or robots who look exactly like humans, are acceptable to people. However in the middle of these two sides, which is the uncanny valley, the robots that look almost like humans, but not quite, make people feel uneasy and repulsed. It raises all sorts of questions about why this is, and explains why films with eerie dolls or evil clowns or zombies are scary.
We also caught David up with all of our news and plans. Ally appeared home later from his Christmas office night out in a very jolly mood, carrying a large doner kebab.