If you’re a gamer, you have likely heard of the uncanny valley. (Heck, it’s even the name of a game.)

It’s that near-humanness that can innately bother us.  I think it’s fascinating.

Here’s a quick video on this.

For more, check out Blade Runner in its entirety, or at least this little clip or some that follow:

If we’re in the mode of defining human, we can see the works of science fiction in a new light, since they are often about this, or about how technology affirms or denies our humanity.

And now you understand why I can never watch more than fifteen seconds of the PBS show Sid the Science Kid. . . !