TLO Dictionary

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A compilation of words and terms that may be of interest to TLOers.

Vastation

n. 1. A laying waste; depopulation; devastation.


Cotard's Syndrome


The Cotard delusion, also known as Cotard's syndrome or Walking Corpse Syndrome, is a rare mental disorder in which people hold a delusional belief that they are dead (either figuratively or literally), yet this is not essential to the syndrome. Historical statistical analysis shows that the denial of self-existence is present in only 69% of the cases, while, paradoxically, 55% of the patients may show delusions of immortality. Other delusions include the thought that the person does not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.


Uncanny Valley

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis in the field of human aesthetics which holds that when human features look and move almost, but not exactly, like natural human beings, it causes a response of revulsion among some human observers. Examples can be found in the fields of robotics, 3D computer animation, and in medical fields such as burn reconstruction, infectious diseases, neurological conditions, and plastic surgery. The "valley" refers to the dip in a graph of the comfort level of humans as subjects move toward a healthy, natural human likeness described in a function of a subject's aesthetic acceptability.