Not just humans - I think it's not unusual to see a sick animal, notice that it's "moving wrong", and feel a revulsion that motivates staying away from it. It's a very handy instinct if, for example, that animal might have rabies...
Edit: I agree with you, I'm just expanding on what you said.
Could also have been cannibals, a lot of folklores talk about people who aren't really people that kill and eat people. Some versions of the tale of the wendigo feature whoever encounters them in their human forms noting that they knew they must be wendigo because they looked like normal people but something just felt wrong about how they behaved.
Uncanny valley could be at play in the ick you feel when you can tell for no apparent reason that someone's a psychopath or dangerous in some other way, the unconscious response to the things your brain noticed that you didn't.
...they knew they must be wendigo because they looked like normal people but something just felt wrong about how they behaved.
Humans have a pretty good knack of recognizing things without understanding the cause. Wendigo sounds kind of like a cannibal who got a prion disease, with the unusual physical behaviors.
IIRC Sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans coexisted for some time, so it could be not about things that aren't human, but humans that are different. To this day, xenophobia and ethnocentrism are common attitudes.
Yea but homo sapiens and homo neanderthalensis definitely interbred. A lot. A measurable chunk of modern human DNA is neanderthal in origin. The uncanny valley being there to spot sick and dead people is more likely.
Sir/ma'am, this is a meme subreddit, most people are here to just be silly. And there's also the fact that not everyone has seen every meme and done the work to debunk it, as apparently you have.
Around 2% of your DNA comes from Neanderthals. If we were scared off by them, it wouldn't have been for too long before we decided the sex was worth it.
This gets posted a lot, but nobody ever seems to post what the thing was.
The answer is probably "other hominids". Humans (Homo sapiens specifically) co-existed with them for a long time and competed with them over resources.
Edit: and the genetically deformed (with whom it would be beneficial to not breed, at least from an evolutionary standpoint) and corpses or people with disease
To elaborate more, I think that it's because if humans have an aversion to other hominids and corpses, we wouldn't try to waste resources attempting to breed with them.
Humans as a whole have never had any trouble killing other humans who looked just like them. I don't think such an instinct would have been necessary. And anyway the uncanny valley has more to do with revulsion than aggression.
As the distance between two species widens, viable (ie, not sterile) offspring become rarer and rarer (although not impossible), so there would be a biological incentive not to "waste time" banging something that looks too different from yourself
...or it's just that requiring co-operative society for our survival wired us to pick up on very subtle facial and figurative signals and signs when it comes to human behavior and anything "off" about it sticks out like a sore and creepy thumb.
Not necessarily, it could just be a fear of humans or hominids that weren't the same as your own tribe. In that sense, ingrained racism and uncanny valley would be the same psychological effect.
Being lactose intolerance implies that at some point there was some deadly form of milk and squirting shit out of your arse at 400mph is an appropriate way of dealing with it.
No, but the aversion reaction to the uncanny valley is pretty strong. It's more likely an adapted trait than not and can be easily explained by dead or sick humans and animals.
I mean, at some point humans and neanderthals coexisted and even interbred. I don't think it's a stretch that there could have been other similar species that we didn't get along with even earlier than that.
I still don't understand what the uncanney valley is exactly. I've read the definition but not I don't experience it that way I guess? I don't know what people are talking about when they say something is uncanny valley.
I'm decently familiar with deepfakes and I totally didn't notice Tarkin being off when I saw Rogue One in theaters. I was like, "Wow, that actor has barely aged a day since the original trilogy. Good for him." I later learned about it being special effects and was like "Damn, they did a good job. Totally fooled me."
Like, I can see it when I look at it now, only after being told. But the first time, on the big screen? Didn't notice at all.
I've seen some really neat deepfakes over the years. One of my favorites replaces Jack Nicholson with Jim Carrey in "The Shining", so the creepiness kinda helps, lol
One of the best real life examples was the movie Mars Needs Moms.
It was made with a technology called motion capture, and it's absolutely bizarre and unnerving to watch. Everything just looks wrong in a way that's very difficult to explain.
Humans and neanderthals coexisted for awhile, also sociopathy has likely been present in our entire history, and rabies for at least 4000 years but likely much longer.
Or the uncanny valley is just not a thing. There's a great video breaking it down, but I don't know where to find it rn. Basically, it's just an experimental artifact of flawed methodology.
82 Comments
Telodzrum@lemmy.world · 326 pts · 2y
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works · 149 pts · 2y
Not just humans - I think it's not unusual to see a sick animal, notice that it's "moving wrong", and feel a revulsion that motivates staying away from it. It's a very handy instinct if, for example, that animal might have rabies...
Edit: I agree with you, I'm just expanding on what you said.
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee · 49 pts · 2y
Could also have been cannibals, a lot of folklores talk about people who aren't really people that kill and eat people. Some versions of the tale of the wendigo feature whoever encounters them in their human forms noting that they knew they must be wendigo because they looked like normal people but something just felt wrong about how they behaved.
Uncanny valley could be at play in the ick you feel when you can tell for no apparent reason that someone's a psychopath or dangerous in some other way, the unconscious response to the things your brain noticed that you didn't.
snooggums@midwest.social · 41 pts · 2y
Humans have a pretty good knack of recognizing things without understanding the cause. Wendigo sounds kind of like a cannibal who got a prion disease, with the unusual physical behaviors.
p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
Pfffflt. The wendigo is an alpha ghoul. Good source of screws too.
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it · 3 pts · 2y
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub · 43 pts · 2y
IIRC Sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans coexisted for some time, so it could be not about things that aren't human, but humans that are different. To this day, xenophobia and ethnocentrism are common attitudes.
accideath@lemmy.world · 26 pts · 2y
Yea but homo sapiens and homo neanderthalensis definitely interbred. A lot. A measurable chunk of modern human DNA is neanderthal in origin. The uncanny valley being there to spot sick and dead people is more likely.
NaoPb@eviltoast.org · 1 pts · 2y
Nice. They got laid.
sartalon@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
I just saw this meme, though it was funny. Showed it to my friend and he said almost exactly this.
It makes perfect sense now that I hear it.
Assman@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 2y
- things lizardman shapeshifters say
GBU_28@lemm.ee · -1 pts · 2y
Why can't you believe it
FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world · -20 pts · 2y
Sir/ma'am, this is a meme subreddit, most people are here to just be silly. And there's also the fact that not everyone has seen every meme and done the work to debunk it, as apparently you have.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y
Subcommunity*
IronKrill@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 2y
*Community
EnderWiggin@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y
Did you take a wrong turn somewhere? This isn't Reddit.
FrostyTheDoo@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2y
Oh, I thought this was Reddit!
NaoPb@eviltoast.org · 4 pts · 2y
I thought this was America!
Lux@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 118 pts · 2y
Dead/sick people
curiousaur@reddthat.com · 30 pts · 2y
And mentally ill / under the influence. You could say sick includes those. The danger was real.
androogee@midwest.social · 5 pts · 2y
Mentally ill people are far, far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it.
Just a fact worth pointing out.
Donkter@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y
/thread
NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y
logos@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2y
Neanderthals
IzzyScissor@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y
Around 2% of your DNA comes from Neanderthals. If we were scared off by them, it wouldn't have been for too long before we decided the sex was worth it.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y
The existence of many strange and unique fetishes in humans would imply that Neanderthals were somebody's kink at one time
SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 2y
Only if you are of European or middle eastern descent. If you are from South east Asian descent, you are more likely to have Denisovan DNA.
If you are from more recent African descent, you likely are straight homo sapien.
NateNate60@lemmy.world · 81 pts · 2y
This gets posted a lot, but nobody ever seems to post what the thing was.
The answer is probably "other hominids". Humans (Homo sapiens specifically) co-existed with them for a long time and competed with them over resources.
Edit: and the genetically deformed (with whom it would be beneficial to not breed, at least from an evolutionary standpoint) and corpses or people with disease
Delta_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 80 pts · 2y
Also corpses, I see it debunked pretty much every time it’s posted
Jilanico@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2y
So you're saying zombies used to be real? 😱
Delta_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 29 pts · 2y
And the only reason they’re gone is because we stopped fucking them
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2y
Maybe you stopped
GBU_28@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 2y
Tina no
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Tina yes.
dohpaz42@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
Bruh…. 😳
Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Yeah they tend to make a face like that.
MajorHavoc@programming.dev · 5 pts · 2y
Yeah. "Used to be". Let's go with that. Less paperwork.
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y
It could be a rock formation. Nobody says uncanny valley when its a sexy looking knot on a tree.
NateNate60@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y
To elaborate more, I think that it's because if humans have an aversion to other hominids and corpses, we wouldn't try to waste resources attempting to breed with them.
june@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 19 pts · 2y
We very much did bread with other hominids
NateNate60@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
Well, perhaps not the ones that look uncanny then.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 2y
What kind? Rye? 😆
june@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 2y
That's on a knead to know basis
Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 2y
RealDoll has entered the chat.
Delta_@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 2y
Also corpses can lead to disease
404@lemmy.zip · 20 pts · 2y
See e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbreeding_between_archaic_and_modern_humans
Corpses, illness, "bad genes" (asymmetry etc) seems like a more reasonable explaination in my ears, with interacting/breeding in mind.
ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 2y
Humans as a whole have never had any trouble killing other humans who looked just like them. I don't think such an instinct would have been necessary. And anyway the uncanny valley has more to do with revulsion than aggression.
CodexArcanum@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
Yeah if you don't say that, it's way scarier because then it could be anything! Even... the...
C R E A T U R E
MonkderDritte@feddit.de · 3 pts · 2y
Nah, too much distance between pockets of different pre-humans usually. There weren't a 10 million people on the world most of the time.
intensely_human@lemm.ee · 3 pts · 2y
The thing is psychopaths. They still prey on us to this day.
Enkrod@feddit.org · 2 pts · 2y
But we don't recognize them on sight, so can't be it.
Linkerbaan@lemmy.world · 48 pts · 2y
Everyone thinks it was humans. Why not a remnant from that time Nature started doing deepfakes to kill
https://www.livescience.com/41604-animals-that-mimic-plants-photos.html
MojoMcJojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y
Now we're talking!
crazyminner@lemmy.ml · 32 pts · 2y
There were tons of humanoid species around before we killed them all. Neanderthals, etc. Wonder why they're dead? Could be this.
rockerface@lemm.ee · 28 pts · 2y
We did fuck with Neanderthals too, though. There's still traces of their DNA in modern humans, I think
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it · 13 pts · 2y
Homo Sapiens be like "interbreed/marry/kill"
Spacehooks@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 2y
It's why aliens avoid us. They know how horny we are.
trafficnab@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 2y
As the distance between two species widens, viable (ie, not sterile) offspring become rarer and rarer (although not impossible), so there would be a biological incentive not to "waste time" banging something that looks too different from yourself
Tryptaminev@lemm.ee · 7 pts · 2y
Meanwhile otters and dolphins are raping baby seals for fun.
Lycist@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y
Everyone needs a piece of side action, even early homo sapien sapien.
Maven@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 2y
The original EEE
Praxis@yiffit.net · 23 pts · 2y
Literally rabies
masquenox@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 2y
...or it's just that requiring co-operative society for our survival wired us to pick up on very subtle facial and figurative signals and signs when it comes to human behavior and anything "off" about it sticks out like a sore and creepy thumb.
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today · 20 pts · 2y
Not necessarily, it could just be a fear of humans or hominids that weren't the same as your own tribe. In that sense, ingrained racism and uncanny valley would be the same psychological effect.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 16 pts · 2y
Rabies
kaffiene@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 2y
I dont think that's smart, I think it's just wrong.
victorz@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 2y
I would say there's an evolutionary need to be afraid of things we don't understand. Lots more examples of that as well.
When it looks like something we think we recognize but it looks unfamiliar at the same time, we don't understand it, and we want to stay away from it.
Simple as that, in my mind. 🤷♂️
higgsboson@dubvee.org · 13 pts · 2y
Not every trait has an adaptive significance, FFS
Wanderer@lemm.ee · 10 pts · 2y
Being lactose intolerance implies that at some point there was some deadly form of milk and squirting shit out of your arse at 400mph is an appropriate way of dealing with it.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
Hahaha, have my upvote
Enkrod@feddit.org · 0 pts · 2y
No, but the aversion reaction to the uncanny valley is pretty strong. It's more likely an adapted trait than not and can be easily explained by dead or sick humans and animals.
intensely_human@lemm.ee · -2 pts · 2y
lol what?
Kolanaki@yiffit.net · 12 pts · 2y
I mean, at some point humans and neanderthals coexisted and even interbred. I don't think it's a stretch that there could have been other similar species that we didn't get along with even earlier than that.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 pts · 2y
it could be a mammalian response, doesn't have to be just human
ech@lemm.ee · 6 pts · 2y
No, it doesn't.
JCreazy@midwest.social · 6 pts · 2y
I still don't understand what the uncanney valley is exactly. I've read the definition but not I don't experience it that way I guess? I don't know what people are talking about when they say something is uncanny valley.
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y
rudyharrelson@lemmy.radio · 4 pts · 2y
I'm decently familiar with deepfakes and I totally didn't notice Tarkin being off when I saw Rogue One in theaters. I was like, "Wow, that actor has barely aged a day since the original trilogy. Good for him." I later learned about it being special effects and was like "Damn, they did a good job. Totally fooled me."
Like, I can see it when I look at it now, only after being told. But the first time, on the big screen? Didn't notice at all.
I've seen some really neat deepfakes over the years. One of my favorites replaces Jack Nicholson with Jim Carrey in "The Shining", so the creepiness kinda helps, lol
JCreazy@midwest.social · 4 pts · 2y
Ah see I knew about Tarkin going in and saw the CGI. I just recognized it at that, nothing weird.
Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 2y
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y
One of the best real life examples was the movie Mars Needs Moms.
It was made with a technology called motion capture, and it's absolutely bizarre and unnerving to watch. Everything just looks wrong in a way that's very difficult to explain.
kerrigan778@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y
Humans and neanderthals coexisted for awhile, also sociopathy has likely been present in our entire history, and rabies for at least 4000 years but likely much longer.
lugal@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 2y
Maybe it's just a side effect from recognizing humans. The very fact that it's not supposed to happen is what freaks you out.
spujb@lemmy.cafe · 3 pts · 2y
The Uncanny Valley isn’t real
dogsoahC@lemm.ee · -4 pts · 2y
Or the uncanny valley is just not a thing. There's a great video breaking it down, but I don't know where to find it rn. Basically, it's just an experimental artifact of flawed methodology.
lugal@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 2y
[citation needed]