Edmonton, Calgary, and the Uncanny Valley

I've traveled a bit. Not as much as I'd like, but enough that I'm a seasoned traveler. Strangely, I haven't been to Edmonton very much, which is odd given it's basically Calgary's twin. So much so that I've poo-pooed the sometimes bitter rivalry between the two cities as Red-headed twins arguing over who has the more attractive pattern of freckles.

I think that sameness fuels a lot of the animosity, and it does so because of something akin to the Uncanny Valley. Because they are so similar, yet not identical, we focus on the differences. Our subconscious expectation of familiarity if constantly thwarted by small differences we encounter.

When I'm in another city, the differences are obvious. Vancouver, for example, is an older coastal city in an earthquake zone. The buildings are different, the plants are different, the weather is different, the layout is different, the people act and dress different. Hell, the whole place even smells different. When I'm there, I know I'm not in Calgary.

Edmonton is just like Calgary though. It's of a similar age, in a similar biome, with similar people. When I'm in Edmonton it seems so much like Calgary that I'm constantly surprised by little details; the colour of city buses, or the presence of different fast food franchises. It's also frustrating because I feel like I should be familiar with things when I'm clearly not.

In Vancouver, I know I'm someplace else, so I judge it on it's on merits. When I'm in Edmonton, it seems so much like Calgary that I judge it against Calgary, and not being Calgary, it can't measure up. And yes I'm aware of the corollary - an Edmontonian could make the exact same observation that Calgary is (to their mind) a flawed version of Edmonton.

Ultimately, this will go away as I spend more time there and I'm able to give Edmonton a proper analysis.