It's safe to say that most of us have felt it before.

It's that feeling of unease whenever we look at a robot or a doll, or even some halfway

decent CGI meant to look like a human being, but something doesn't sit right.

Psychologists today call it the uncanny valley.

This emotional response we all have to things that are supposed to look human, but don't

entirely sell the part.

They fail, but just barely, and that leaves our brains trying to solve a very subtle puzzle,

thus that feeling of unease.

But it's also the tip of a larger iceberg.

We, as human beings, are very aware that we are unique on this planet.

No other animal comes close to our intelligence, our use of language, or our adaptability.

And nothing quite looks like us, either.

And that uniqueness is reflected in our folklore.

For as long as we've been telling stories, some of the most frightening tales have been

those about creatures that look a bit too much like us.

The global, little people's stories are just one clear example.

In the search for someone else to blame for our own very human failings, cultures have

invented smaller humans to use as scapegoats.

And it highlights a sort of invisible line, one drawn between the truly human and the

almost.

A line that separates our lived experiences from the unexplainable and provides believable

excuses for events and evidence that our minds don't want to attribute to our friends

...