Ethan is a failed attempt to recreate the human species.
He was created by a scientist who used his own DNA to fill in missing parts of the human DNA, thus creating a human-object chimera. The reason why he has such a scary face is because of the mutation. The human species still exists, but objects do not know.
The last of the human species are located on the Andaman Islands, and their tech has advanced a whole lot in the past 4000 years. They have recreated English and other languages, built cities, and know of objects. The objects are actually transhumanist.
Spontaneous Generation is impossible, so I have my own theory. When humans started to go extinct, the humans decided to transfer their minds to objects. They still had the ability to reproduce, and eventually they forgot that they are actually human.