Why We Fear The Uncanny

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Uncanny Valley effect, for those who haven’t it is essentially the sense of fear or unease a person can feel when they see a creature or object that resembles a human; but there is something about the entity that makes it not look right, think mannequins or robots. However, this fear has caused a lot of debate, mainly about why we have it to begin with; most of our main fears and phobias can be traced back to our ancient ancestors; and what they experienced. We learned to be afraid of the darkness because predators could be hiding in it waiting to kill us. We learned to feel unease at low soundwaves, which could spell a cave-in. So why do we fear that which is almost human?

There are many theories of course, one is that the phenomenon is our brain getting confused looking at something we should be able to recognize like a human face, and that confusion leads to the feelings commonly associated with the effect. Another is that hostile encounters with our distant cousins like the Neanderthals or Denisovans taught us to be wary of beings with similar yet different features.

None of these can be proven of course and their credibility is debatable but they give you a good idea of how divisive the subject is. But what if I told you the second one had some truth to it?

Over the years there has been mounting evidence; mainly discovered by underground researchers, for what seems to be another distant cousin of modern humans that has remained unrecognized by the scientific community. The first of which was unearthed in Denmark, in 1961. Because of this unofficial status, no official name for the species exists; but a few commonly used ones have cropped up, the most well-known example being the Not-Humans. Most of the fossil evidence for the Not-Humans has been located in regions like Northern Europe and Southeast Asia, primarily forested sections which has been attributed to their strange characteristics.

As of now no complete skeleton has been found or assembled, so these traits have the potential to be disputed but generally, the Not-Humans have bodies designed for life in wooded areas. Long powerful arms like those of an Orangutan about 192cm in diameter, and legs around 180cm, suggesting a lifestyle similar to a Giant Ground Sloth or other large mammals known for foraging through treetops. These were the only parts of the species we ever came across for the longest time until a fully intact skull was discovered in Laos around 1987.

Despite being much larger, the skull shape was surprisingly close to that of a Homosapien despite what the previously discovered bones would have you believe, there were still some differences mainly in the eyes. The size and width of the sockets which were measured to be around 1.80 to 2.01 inches across, suggested the Not-Humans had large eyes like a Tarsier implying the species was nocturnal, it is generally thought the eyes would have resembled ours adding to their uncanny appearance. The actual bodies are even less certain since no ribs or collar bones have yet been found, but it is assumed their bodies would have been noticeably longer than ours. Other potential features are also widely discussed, like whether these creatures were capable of speech. Their hypothesized status as members of the Homo genus implies, they could speak, likely not to the same degree as us, however.

Their appearance certainly qualifies as uncanny, but how did our ancestors come to fear the Not-Humans? Well after further examination of the skull; pieces of human flesh were found on the teeth, along with fruits and tree nuts, suggesting the species was Omnivorous and considered homo sapiens a source of food. If all this is to be believed it puts forth the idea that our fear of the uncanny was developed in tandem with our fear of darkness.

This leaves one more question, however. How did the Not-Humans go extinct? Like before there are a lot of unverified answers. Perhaps as humanity evolved and got more sophisticated the Not-Humans were all hunted and killed. Perhaps a combination of the shifting climate and environmental changes meant they no longer had the means to survive. Or maybe, just maybe, they haven’t. People often report seeing strange, inhuman things in the woods after all.