The Ship of Theseus and the Uncanny Valley

Bit by bit it was replaced, slowly but surely.

What was black was now red; what was left was now right. (And what was right had now left.)

It reminded me of the Ship of Theseus: were we still us, with all that had been changed?

Unnoticed at first, something felt… off. But finger on mercury I couldn’t quite get it.

Then one day Uncanny Valley slipped unannounced into my head and stayed.

Yes, yes, I thought, that’s precisely it.

It was not quite enough to be us, and yet not quite enough to be not-us.

The final breath before we expire.