Strange or mysterious in an unsettling way, especially when something familiar appears subtly wrong or different. Creates a feeling that something is not quite right without being able to identify exactly what.
From Scots 'uncanny' meaning 'dangerous, supernatural.' Freud's concept of 'das Unheimliche' (the unhomely) popularized the psychological understanding of the uncanny as the return of repressed familiar elements in unfamiliar forms.
The uncanny exploits a glitch in our pattern recognition software - when something is almost but not quite familiar, our brains get stuck in an endless loop trying to categorize it. This creates the distinctive unease we feel around mannequins, dolls, or AI that's almost too human.
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