An ongoing joke about the uncanny valley goes like this: If we have a natural ability to see something nearly human as extremely alien, one must wonder what sort of evolutionary pressures humanity experienced to be really good at recognizing something that 99% looks human is not at all human. The fact our brains have a complicated neurological system refined and specialized purely to weed out phonies is rather curious, no? What sort of monsters did we face in the past to push the development of such a neurological network sitting around in our skulls, ever monitoring for things which look sorta human but are not. To trigger a fear response when we see such things. And it’s really good, isn’t it!? Humans come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and despite the vast diversity of physical forms humanity takes, our uncanny valley neurons don’t fire much at all for them. But show us a nearly-perfect human form, even one that we can say is more attractive than most humans, and it will go off like a warning bell. And also, why don’t we get that for cartoons, but we do get that for some forms of 3d animation? It’s almost like our brains have this whole complicated system designed to detect androids and other maleficent skinsuits.
If you are familiar with human evolution, some have theorized the reason we have this system is because of our interactions with Neanderthals. It’s now known that when Neanderthals and Humans bred, they could only have female children. So some have speculated that humans developed this process to identify and steer clear of them. But I don’t buy it. First, human tribes that never came into contact with Neanderthals also have uncanny valley detectors. Secondly, Neanderthals likely didn’t have much different faces than us.
Another theory goes that Neanderthals may have been rather monster-like, and this system was good at detecting and causing a fear response to a monster. This, too, I don’t really buy. When I look at the faces of Neanderthal reconstructions that are made to look more predatory, I don’t really get the uncanny valley myself. I more-so get the sense that this thing is just an animal. Uncanny valley needs to be more human-like. “Them and Us”, by Danny Vendramini, is a good read none the less:
No, I tend to take an altogether different view: Parasitic.
“Blindsight”, a book by Peter Watts which I highly recommend, explores a future where humanity has begun to resurrect our lost cousins for specialized missions. Neanderthals for hard work, Floresiensis for tiny little tasks, etc etc. But over time, humanity started resurrecting human species from fragment genes within each groups. Trying to fill in the blanks. And in so doing, they accidentally brought back a mythological predator: Homo Vampiris, which he envisions as a specialized human species which relies on the blood of normal humans to make up for a lack of certain proteins in its own blood. In the book, vampires are extremely autistic. Seeing right angles triggers seizures (think crosses), and they require medical treatment to operate in society. Peter has a clever device here: right angles are rare in nature, but common in civilization. Thus, the birth of civilization was the death of the vampire species. Hiding in their right-angle dotted homes, a vampire simply could no longer hunt the human population, other than a handful of vagabonds.
Although Peter never mentions the uncanny valley, he approaches the topic tangentially on a number of ways in which Homo Vampiris doesn’t move or speak like a normal human. The main vampire in the series, Sarasti, clicks in his speech. His motions have a strange cat-like predatory sensitivity. He has a strange nature of stalking the other crewmembers. Even though he is fed a blood supply, he still has certain natures he cannot escape. And his strange eyes that are always looking for targets rather than conversation. Here, he triggers the brain’s uncanny valley receptors not by his looks, but by his motions. Fan art of the little-known series is quite a world to dive into.
(Source)
If you’d like to read the story, Mr Watts has happily published it online for free:
Reading this far, you may be wondering when I will talk about giants rather than vampires. This article was partially by request on the topic of Nephilim in the Bible, but needed the intro on vampires. Because while I cannot say for sure, I strongly suspect giants and vampires have a common origin myth. Both eat men, after all.
The oldest story about Giants is not in the Bible. It’s actually the fable known in the English speaking world as “Jack and the Beanstalk”. You may be surprised to hear that. Most people imagine the story is a medieval folktale. In reality, it’s one of the oldest stories known to man. Jack and the Beanstalk, along with a few others like Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Beauty and the Beast, can actually be found in many other cultures all around the world. One may even read the ladder to heaven in the Bible as possibly one version of this story. Regardless, this would indicate the tale of giants goes back many tens of thousands of years and would indeed overlap with the era of other humanoid species.
Enoch, a source text I often turn to on these arcane topics, also seems to have some overlap with the idea that vampires are giants. Here, in Chapter 7, we can read:
And the women became pregnant and gave birth to great giants whose heights were three hundred cubits.
And they took wives unto themselves, and everyone respectively chose one woman for himself, and they began to go unto them. And they taught them magical medicine, incantations, the cutting of roots, and taught them about plants. These giants consumed the produce of all the people until the people detested feeding them. So the giants turned against the people in order to eat them. And they began to sin against birds, wild beasts, reptiles, and fish. And their flesh was devoured the one by the other, and they drank blood. And then the earth brought an accusation against the oppressors.
Curious, no?
(Fun tidbit, Gilgamesh is said to be a giant in the Book of Giants of Dead Sea Scrolls fame!)
It is common to call the Nephilim giants in scripture. Genesis 6:4 reads:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.
Here, the word Nephilim is translated to giant. This has lead to a misconception that giants, or Nephilim, are the offspring of angels sleeping with women. One can somewhat see that in the Enoch text as well. I am less-so convinced. Also do note, it does not say these offspring were Nephilim. It says the Nephilim were on the Earth in those days when this happened. This is important, because it is common to see arguments the Nephilim are some kind of demon-human baby or something. But that’s simply not in the text. And we ought not force that understanding from Enoch into the Bible if it is. Enoch is not canon.
The thing about angels is that they are not flesh. They can appear as flesh certainly. Satan is the best described angel, and he is said to be a great firey serpent with a hide. Sounds like flesh. But he can also transform his appearance into that of a being of light. Light has no DNA, so I very much doubt angels have DNA with which to breed with. Indeed the whole matter sounds sort of holographic in some sense. But regardless, I find it hard to believe there were angels having sex with humans. Indeed, it’s more likely that such fallen angels possessed men to sleep with women indirectly. This may solve that challenging question. But to the other side of the argument, there are parts of the New Testament which appear to say angels can feel attracted to women, and that is why women ought to dress modestly and keep long hair. But this is a confusing matter and it may simply be that angels do not like thots. Not necessarily that they feel attraction to them.
Both in Enoch and the Bible, we see a story that the Sons of God entered the Daughters of Man and gave birth to great ones. In the Book of Hebrews, it is said that God has never called an angle his son. So the idea that the Sons of God are angels doesn’t fit with scripture for me. Rather, I believe the correct reading here is that the Sons of God are Seth’s civilization. And the Daughters of Men are Cain’s civilization. What is happening here is a sort of mixing of civilizations which God did not ordain. And what would happen to children born half in the world and half in heaven? Well they would have God’s promises through Seth, but God’s protections through Cain. Such a mixed people would be great indeed. But they would spend their entire lives balancing those two separate promises. These would be giants of self worth more so than giants of great height.
Nephilim, often translated as giant, is derived from the Hebrew word “To fall”. I am not sure if the word means “One who causes falling” or “One who falls” but the theme is that of falling. We also get a clue in Numbers 13:33, where it is said the Anak people were descendants of the Nephilim. Anak means long, so we also have concepts of great lengthiness as well. While it’s easy to assume this means tall, the word is not used. Although they do say they felt as if like grasshoppers before them. But then again, that word can also mean locust.
There is here, one option to understand the Nephilim not as giants in height, but in stature. And the notion of length with elevated status calls memories to me of the ancient practice of skull-stretching. Indeed, a six foot plus man with an elongated skull seems much more akin to a Nephilim than not. And one can imagine how such radical shifting of the brain’s form may adjust or change how it works or thinks. One imagines a kind of biological overclocking, or underclocking, with the modified distance for the neurons to send signals by. Little is researched on this topic. So I will leave it to that.
One may even imagine that the shaping of the skull may select for certain mutations. Where certain genes would only work with this form, and fail to work without it. You could hide a hidden human species in such trickery of form and function. Did you know some species of crow lose intelligence for parts of the year? The brain will physically shrivel for part of the year, then re-generate intelligence other parts of the year. Almost like two species of crow occupying the same body for half the year each, with the DNA promoting one species or the other depending on environmental pressures. I’m fascinated in these methods to hide a species. Much to think about. Think of a key to a lock that changes, only accepting the key once a year.
Weather or not the Nephilim were physical giants or social elite with elongated skull grafts, or a hidden vampiric species that could only emerge with certain conditions, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they ruled with tyrannical powers and ultimately gave into sins of cannibalism and drinking the blood of men. They were vampires, as well as giants. And this being a theme in ancient stories seems to reinforce for me what exactly the Nephilim were. What these giants were.
Whoever the Nephilim were, the stories in Enoch are self-contradictory, and the Bible is not clear. In Enoch they are sometimes angels, sometimes men. Sometimes physical giants, sometimes spiritual giants. And the Bible gives no notion other than they were on the Earth once, and their descendants somehow survived the flood. (Some traditions say they held onto Noah’s Ark from the outside, if you’re curious!)
What is clearer, is that they were evil. In Enoch, they are declared bared from shalom, or peace. They drank men’s blood and took taxes from the humans in the form of food sacrifices. In Holy Scripture their “long” descendants were just as tyrannical, with Israel ordered to fully wipe them out of existence. It is unwise to dwell too long on mysteries involving evil, least you conform to the evil by contemplating it too much.
Perhaps their selfish genes still move some wills to this day.