Training for stranger danger is sexy, even fun. It lets our imaginations run wild with action movie montages of skimasked strangers lurking in alleyways and parking lots. However, it doesn’t really get us ready for the uncomfortable entire other world in which we might have to protect ourselves — the world in which we’re among people we know. You might well already know the person you’ll eventually have to defend yourself from.
Sure, some of the physical skills may be the same, but there are some significant differences in the context in which they’re used. Those of us who have been harmed by family, partners, or friends know the dichotomy of loving someone and also needing to protect ourselves from them. It’s not just from heartache, but from violence and abuse. We tend to train an awful lot to defend ourselves against hardened, violent criminals with long rap sheets but spend relatively little time prepping for those statistically more likely to hurt us.
THEY WEAR HUMAN FACES
There’s a concept called the Uncanny Valley, and it’s the place where attempts at making humanoid robots currently fail. When viewing or interacting with them, we instinctually know
