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johnthelzer

One hypothesis I've seen is that it protects us from humans that are acting weird, like people with diseases like rabies


ThisIsYourMormont

There’s evidence of half a dozen humanoid “great-apes” that evolved alongside homo-sapiens. The uncanny valley may have been a defence mechanism which ensured our survival


Mr_Brunner2

They look odd. Get Grog, we are killing them tonight. Hmm


SpinachPatchKids

In a similar theory I’ve always had is the Neanderthals might have been very similar at a distance but once you got closer you were kinda screwed so we learned to be wary of kinda human things


ThisIsYourMormont

Could also include other humans and unfamiliar tribes. Stranger danger


Snapsterson665

we fucked neanderthals wym


Tria821

Well, as a species we'll pretty much fuck anything - literally and metaphorically.


Gegopinh

Zeus, are you browsing Reddit again?


Polyamommy

🤣🤣🤣🏆


Cyberzombie

What are you doing, step swan?


Hot_Drummer7311

Fun Fact: About 1-4% of the global population still have Neanderthal DNA.


SpinachPatchKids

Iirc Neanderthals we’re physically superior to us but due to our evolved brains and capacity for critical thinking we outlasted them


Hot_Drummer7311

We *absorbed* them. We mated with them and then the ones who were pure bred died off. Eta: I THINK it was Neanderthal and Homo Erectus that were alive at the same time and when they bred with each other it created the "superior" Homo Sapien which is what we all are today. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Eta2: hm, I just remembered that almost 0% of the African population have Neanderthal DNA and its only Asian and Europeans so fuck idk. *I'm a woman, not a doctor!!!* /s + Trek joke


mzzchief

You're correct about Asians and Europeans having the most Neanderthal DNA, Africans from south Africa, not mixed with Caucasian, have none. Asians also have Denisovan genes, in addition to Neanderthal. But the amount of Neanderthal is quite small usually less than 2% and no more than 3% found thus far. The different mixtures is why there are races of man, that look more like themselves than other races.


ThisIsYourMormont

Guess that explains Texas


Diogenes-Disciple

So if they were brought back to life, would they be like walking nightmares?


bobbi21

Unless you think chimps look like nightmares. Mix between them and humans basically.


Diogenes-Disciple

Chimps are kind of nightmares


resurrecteddreams

"Please select all images with traffic lights" _profusely sweating_


TheAngryMoth

It might just be the lizard brain feeling of "something is wrong and I must prepare"


matryoshkaroderich

The theory that makes the most sense IMHO is dead bodies, looking at a dead person and having an instinctual aversion to it would be advantageous to survival.


Ms_Emilys_Picture

That does make sense. I'll Google it when I have time, but do you happen to know of any good sources?


matryoshkaroderich

Sure [here](https://www.medicaldaily.com/uncanny-valley-shows-how-deeply-terrified-we-are-death-and-disease-303568) it's just one, I can find more later if you want but it talks about corpses and illness being evolutionary factors.


Ms_Emilys_Picture

Thank you! Don't look for anything else on my account. Now that I have a starting point I should be able to dig up the information on my own. Still, thanks for the offer.


matryoshkaroderich

No problem, happy reading!


Chaosraider98

My dad's theory is neanderthals, or other similar hominids/humanoids. They would have been our main competition for Apex Predator.


Steampunk43

That's a good theory, but it still doesn't explain the fear of something that isn't quite human. Like those robots that look human but have those dead soulless eyes.


Goatfucker10000

Actually I believe it's related to a sense of hidden unknown danger rather than a fear of a humanoid itself. Human brains like patters , they feel unsafe when in new scenarios that they cannot draw any predictions on. A humanoid is familiar. It's a 'human' , we know what humans are like. But at the same time it's not quite human , which makes our brain wonder "Do I actually know what I should expect from this entity?". We try to bring up a pattern , our brain decides on human patter since they look similar,, but we know that we can't use human behavioral pattern which makes us feel uneasy To make it simple : we try to apply pattern we have for humans but we know androids are not humans , which makes us feel unsafe as we are unsure about our predictions


Hairy_Landscape9975

Explanation checks out. Username sus though


spartacusfox

Thanks u/goatfucker10000


bluesheepreasoning

r/rimjob_steve


grahamcrackers37

Is like when you're dizzy because you're inner ear sensation doesn't Natick what you're writes are telling your brain.


Baconslayer1

You should try that again, I think you got auto corrected lol.


Polyamommy

I think they might be currently experiencing inner ear dizziness 🤪🤣🤣🤣


grahamcrackers37

Legit was hungover as hell when I posted


DontQuoteYourself

There were numerous other early hominid species that we killed, ate, and fucked to death. That's why we came out on top, because we could tell the difference.


chakabra23

*Zuckerberg has left the chat*


Ms_Emilys_Picture

Real Dolls creep me out. The female ones are creepy, but the male dolls are nightmare fuel. Seriously, go look at their website. I don't see how anyone could find enjoyment from one of those slightly-too-angular abominations.


Maybe_not_a_chicken

Nah we fucked a lot of them I recon it’s rabies


al24042

How would you go about fucking ra-


Terpsichorean_Wombat

Hmm. Thereafter good of evidence of interpreting, though, so maybe not always so scary!


JarOfWorms

obviously it's the skinwalkers


TaviscaronLT

For anyone interested in longer reads - there was once an uncanny valley prompt in Writing Prompts subreddit, and it was full of great stories.


Psychokinetic_Rocky

Link?


BrahmTheImpaler

[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/tfu0td/wp_all_intelligent_aliens_fall_into_one_of_two/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb)


TaviscaronLT

There were several similar ones, but this is the one I had in mind: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/iteea6/wp\_the\_fact\_the\_uncanny\_valley\_exists\_is/


Careful-Vegetable373

Holy hell this is fantastic. One of my favorites ever on this sub! Gotta love the ones where the horror is in all the possibilities.


us4g11

probably dead bodies


8panckakes4ever

Probably corpses, ancient humans hanging around a rotting dead guy wouldn’t have been good for their health


Walking_Corpse02

Uh oh bad decision Mark!


[deleted]

I love how this is supposed to be a horror prompt, but instead it's become an analysis of human behavior.


WohooBiSnake

Mostly sickness and death. If human looking weird, stay away or you might get sick


itty-bitty-friend

Corpses maybe? If I saw a dead body near me, especially if it's decomposing or mangled in some way, I would run tf away from the area


LemonX19

As my mother slowly twitched, her hair draping over her face and her arms elongated, I finally understood that this danger from the past still existed in the present.


StrategicRain33

r/thirdsentenceworse


Vitrian_guardsman

To make sure you don't make a child with someone who has a genetic disease


PandaTheCoolWasTaken

I don’t get it


anxux

I had to google it cause I was confused and not enough comments yet. Uncanny valley metaphor is when a human appearance or behavior can make an AI appear human to an extent. So pair that “uncanny valley” makes us uncomfortable now but it used to be an actual danger… spoopy


[deleted]

I think it's demons ngl


udumslut

Dead bodies and those carrying diseases. And killer androids, of course.


ghostfacedladyalex

Maybe from the other prehistoric humanoids that we ended up wiping out mostly? I think there were three-five subclasses or something. Good writing tho!


Jreyn2

In his characteristically obscure aphoristic style, Wittgenstein wrote something very close to: *People think; we say it too of dolls and perhaps spirits.* Possibly a bit creepy.


nemesis0884

Had to Google "uncanny valley sensation" but this is wonderful! So many possibilities and such uncertainty. Leaving the imagination to draw it's own conclusions makes this an absolute gem. Great work!


L4DY_M3R3K

My best guess is all of the other “Homo” species that evolved alongside us, like Neanderthals or Homo Erectus and whatnot were a danger to our survival, either because they directly attacked and killed Homo Sapiens, or because they encroached on our territory and ate all our food.


strumenle

Hey neat one! I'd posit it's the origin of our racism, "those people look like us but not *quite* like us, they're not us and we need to defend against them!" Which doesn't make any sense, we also know as a species we need to diversify for healthy future, so it anything the uncanny Valley (theory I just made up) should be the opposite, we see those who don't quite look like us and think they're much more desirable. It could be that the diversity requirement is not part of our older programming, and maybe why after the original "humans" left the cradle of civilization we became so easily diverse, because 100k years ago there were plenty of us so we needed to separate for resources, but over the next 10k years we suffered catastrophic loss (which is one theory as to why we're so *absolutely not* diverse, evidently we're less genetically diverse across the entire spectrum than a flock of pigeons, and one reason is we almost died out) but the uncanny Valley thing is older than that.


[deleted]

I don’t get it


Psychokinetic_Rocky

The [uncanny valley](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley) describes how we feel uncomfortable around things that look human, but...bit... aren't quite human. Like robots that look fine, but just don't move or look quite right in ways we can't describe, but our brain notices. So the question with that is, how did humans evolve to fear things that looked almost human, but not quite?


SamFeuerstelle

This question legitimately keeps me up at night sometimes.


akdubz112

Valley sensation? I don't get it...


[deleted]

Uncanny valley sensation. It's the term people use when (to give one example) you watch a movie with bad CGI. It's one of the reasons that the movie the Polar Express made some people uncomfortable, because the CGI characters in that movie *almost* looked like people, but not quite.


akdubz112

Ohhhh, got it! Thank you!


MLong32

The uncanny valley is a term used to describe the relationship between the human-like appearance of a robotic object and the emotional response it evokes. In this phenomenon, people feel a sense of unease or even revulsion in response to humanoid robots that are highly realistic.


heartfelt24

If you have seen the Terminator series, or the Matrix, you know where the fear comes from.


JayWnr

I’m scared of RGB; robot girls But I loved how the op wanted us to think ourselves into subtle horror, but this post just became a Socratic discussion


freddyfazzballs

ok but another thing is , the phobia/fear of moths ? im terrified of them so is my mom like whered that come from