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The Uncanny Valley at work in the world of the Wastelands

One of the more interesting things I’ve found spending too much time online is the idea of the Uncanny Valley. Basically if something looks kind of human but not human enough, a lot of people will freak out. Although the more likely explanation for the Uncanny Valley is that it’s evolutionarily-advantageous to shun corpses and those afflicted by diseases like rabies, that’s no fun for a fiction writer. Something that appears online a lot — often as memes like these — is the predator theory. Basically there was something humanlike it was evolutionarily-advantageous to hate or fear.

(Some people think that would apply to Neanderthals, but these reconstructions of Neanderthals look more like buff modern humans with big noses and brows. The main difference from my POV is they’ve got longer skulls, but you wouldn’t see this if you saw them head-on. This Reddit thread has a more creative suggestion of a very large insect. Running with that idea, we have the man-sized roach creatures from the Mimic films, but insects that large wouldn’t be able to survive except in the most absolutely hyper-oxygenated periods of Earth history. And those were long before the dinosaurs, let alone hominids. A predator that would set off Uncanny Valley would need to be weirder than Neanderthals but also need to work scientifically.)

This short story “We Never Went Away, We Just Hid Better” combines modern dating anxieties with the idea the Uncanny Valley is based on fears of a near-human predator, while my short story “Run, Hide, Feed” (currently out for submission) combines that with fears of mass shootings. The X-Files had the tragic Rob Roberts, who hid his disturbing appearance with a wig and prosthetic teeth and ears but couldn’t control his appetite for human brains, and the unrepentantly vicious Eugene Victor Tooms. Peter Watts’ novels Blindsight and its sequel Echopraxia depict “vampires,” ancient hominids resurrected by genetic manipulation, unsettling modern humans with their appearance and propensity for lurking (i.e. ambush predation).

(Someone wrote this fanfic about the original vampires in Ice Age Africa that’s really interesting. Watts’ website has a video of a faux corporate presentation on vampires you can watch too, as does YouTube. Watts’ website has some fan-art, including human and vampire skulls side-by-side and depictions of Echopraxia’s vampire Valerie that range from “she’s cute” to “uh oh.” One imagines an unwise man would start with the first one and end up the second.)

What does this have to do with my Wastelands world? Well, if you’ve read my the second novel Serpent Sword, you might remember that the villainous Blood Alchemy Host, an army of freaks and monsters serving the tyrant Grendel, includes at least one soldier who appears normal on first glance but whose unusual eyes — that reflect light at night — attract Andrew’s notice. That this specific detail absolutely grabs Andrew’s attention is a more subtle Uncanny Valley manifestation — it’s an intuition this person is a more subtle type of danger than some muscle-bound four-armed monster quad-wielding revolvers or a hungry weasel that’s six feet long.

So what exactly was this man? Get a premium membership or check out my Patreon to find out more.