1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:14,319 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,119 Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Seger, 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: and we are back for the fourth Creepy Pasta episode 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,720 Speaker 1: that we've done together. That's a lot of creepy pastas 6 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: it is. I wasn't sure we were gonna we're gonna 7 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: be able to actually squeeze out a fourth one, and 8 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: yet behold, here it is. And honestly, people have asked 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: for this. A lot of people have written in and 10 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: said how much they like the Creepy Pasta episodes that 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: we've done. Now I'm trying to recall this because I've 12 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,920 Speaker 1: done this is my third Halloween on the show. We've 13 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,600 Speaker 1: done one for each Halloween. But I think we did 14 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: one off season maybe as well. I think so. I 15 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,519 Speaker 1: think the first one was off season and then we 16 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: came back or maybe the second one something like that. Yeah, 17 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: so we have If you're unfamiliar with Creepy pastas, we 18 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: will set this all up for you. But this is 19 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: uh And by the way, it being the warth doesn't 20 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:01,960 Speaker 1: mean that you have to go back and listen to 21 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:05,200 Speaker 1: the other three either. Like they're not at all connected. Uh, 22 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:07,520 Speaker 1: this is just like a fun kind of halloween ish 23 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:09,240 Speaker 1: thing that we've been doing on the show for a 24 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:12,119 Speaker 1: while now. Yeah, and it's a it's actually rounding out 25 00:01:12,319 --> 00:01:15,520 Speaker 1: our our Halloween, our month of our month plus of 26 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,720 Speaker 1: Halloween content because this is airing the Thursday following Halloween 27 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen. So if you're sitting there at home 28 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,160 Speaker 1: and you're going, I don't know what a creepy pasta is, 29 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: this is very weird if you keep saying that word. Okay, 30 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:31,240 Speaker 1: here's the real brief. Visit to it again. Uh. Creepy 31 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: pastas are these viral copy and paste texts that are 32 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,200 Speaker 1: in the form of horror stories. They evolved from the 33 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: term copy pasta, which was essentially when people would copy 34 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 1: and paste like like made up letters or fiction to 35 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: each other and send them around in chain emails, right. 36 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: Or Another example of just pure copy pops so that 37 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: I've encountered is is on these various question and answer 38 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:58,800 Speaker 1: websites where someone will say, like this is specific example, 39 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 1: someone's like, oh, I have to get a prostate exam 40 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: tomorrow at the doctor's office. What's going to happen? Should 41 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: I be concerned, and then somebody drops some ultimately like 42 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: hollacious or scandalous story about what happened to them. And 43 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:13,080 Speaker 1: then if you take that that copy and you search 44 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:15,520 Speaker 1: for it, you see, oh, this exists in various places. 45 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:18,239 Speaker 1: This is just like a grab bag bit of text 46 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,160 Speaker 1: that somebody will distribute as needed to freak people out. Exactly. 47 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: That's kind of the fun of it is that they 48 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,640 Speaker 1: take the shape of urban legends. They appear like things 49 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 1: that have actually happened. Right, This is sort of fake 50 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: news before fake news, right, people saying this happened to 51 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:36,600 Speaker 1: me on the Internet and everybody going wait what and 52 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: kind of like circling around back and realizing that it's 53 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:41,919 Speaker 1: just like for fun. It's like, it's like fake news 54 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: that became self aware, because because now you'll have websites 55 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: where where creepy pasta is curated and even composed and 56 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: shared exclusively with the creepypasta community. Yeah, exactly. And so 57 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: the whole idea here is that they're mimicking these first 58 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,920 Speaker 1: person accounts, and the ones that were usually gravitating towards 59 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: are the ones that appear to be scientific ones. Right. 60 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:05,640 Speaker 1: We've usually covered ones in the past that claimed to 61 00:03:05,680 --> 00:03:09,919 Speaker 1: be uh scientific laboratory conditions or something like that. Yeah, 62 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: or ones that at least actually have get their roots into, 63 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:18,960 Speaker 1: you know, cognition or human behavior or I don't know, 64 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:21,720 Speaker 1: go a little deeper than just a pure jump scare 65 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 1: and right. Yeah. In fact, you know, I only just 66 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,560 Speaker 1: now remember this. There's a TV show on sci Fi 67 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: that is taking creepy pastas and adapting them into like 68 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: season length television shows. I think they're like five or 69 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: six episodes. I haven't seen it yet. But in fact, 70 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:39,720 Speaker 1: actually last year you and I were interviewed by Playboy 71 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:44,040 Speaker 1: magazine because they were looking for somebody who knew sort 72 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: of how to talk about creepy pastas beyond like the 73 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 1: websites that they're on. And that was fun too, so 74 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 1: we we had an opportunity to talk about sort of 75 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: just like the mechanics of the creepy pasta. Right now, 76 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: a lot of the pasta, the creepy pasta out there 77 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: is going to be authorless, but you see that changing 78 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:03,880 Speaker 1: more and more with the you know, actual authors contributing 79 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: their pieces. And then likewise they range and greatly in length. 80 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: I tend to like the short ones, and they also 81 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: range from things that are just kind of like, hey, 82 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:17,000 Speaker 1: this thing happened, can you believe it? Or sort of 83 00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: Wikipedia style entries to things that are more clearly attempts 84 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: at a at at at a narrative structure. So the 85 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,279 Speaker 1: most popular one that those of you out there have 86 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: probably heard of before and you might not even realize, oh, 87 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: that's a creepy pasta is slender Man. And we talked 88 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 1: a lot about slender Man in the previous episodes, so 89 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: I'm not going to do a lot of deep dive 90 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: onto that here. But really, the genre of creepy pasta 91 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,039 Speaker 1: seems to have hit its peak somewhere around two thousand 92 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: and ten. It's still chucking along. People are still doing them, 93 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:47,320 Speaker 1: making them. In fact, like when I went to go 94 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:49,680 Speaker 1: research for this episode, I was shocked at how many 95 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: more there still were, you know, but I think like 96 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 1: the height of it being covered in other media has 97 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: maybe passed. Yeah. Plus, I I wonder how it's changing 98 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: to a with the rise of fake news and you know, 99 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: intentionally misleading um bits of content that are out there, 100 00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: as well as things that are maybe not quite tied 101 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 1: to an effort to distort the truth, but are just 102 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,520 Speaker 1: tied to get clicks I'm thinking of those. Yeah, they 103 00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:18,039 Speaker 1: will generally be like a series of four or more, 104 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,359 Speaker 1: depending how crappy the website is. Um little thumbnails at 105 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:22,960 Speaker 1: the bottom of the page, and they generally have like 106 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:27,279 Speaker 1: a picture of like something kind of mysteriously fleshy, and 107 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,919 Speaker 1: and then some sort of you know, clickbait headline. I think, actually, 108 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:33,599 Speaker 1: it's it's fair to point out that sometimes in the 109 00:05:33,680 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 1: history of stuff to blow your mind, you may have 110 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: seen such a thing at the bottom of our website. 111 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: That's beyond our control, right, but those ads are sort 112 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:44,279 Speaker 1: of placed there by like powers beyond our own. I 113 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: wonder if there's a potential for a new genre. I 114 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: guess you could call it creep Uh let's see, it's 115 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,320 Speaker 1: it's clickbaits will be creepy bait. I don't know, creepy 116 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: BAITA like that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You create an entire 117 00:05:58,080 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 1: business around churning out creepy baits with like weird little 118 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: thumbnails that would sit on the bottom of sites, and 119 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,960 Speaker 1: people click on them and think they're reading a story 120 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: that's like you won't believe these five celebrities who aren't 121 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: allowed in Hollywood anymore. And then but like it's actually 122 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: a horror story that is a great idea for a business. 123 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: Let's start that, all right. So in this episode we 124 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,080 Speaker 1: have we have each gone out into the wilds of 125 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,160 Speaker 1: creepy pasta and once more brought back a couple of 126 00:06:25,160 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: topics to tackle tease apart and try and find some 127 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: stuff to blow your own content about. You retrieve too, 128 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:34,480 Speaker 1: from the wilds I retrieved to. Now you probably want 129 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:39,159 Speaker 1: to touch on the source for your two creepy pastas. Yeah, 130 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:43,640 Speaker 1: so our last creepy pasta Creepy Pasta three. If you're 131 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:45,960 Speaker 1: keeping track, these are like horror movies. The way that 132 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: we're calculating them was all about something called SCP, which 133 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:53,920 Speaker 1: was brought to our attention by several listeners. The SCP 134 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:59,040 Speaker 1: foundation is this collection of scientific creepy pastas that's out there, 135 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,720 Speaker 1: and the idea is it's as if there's this warehouse 136 00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: of oddities that are collected and contained somewhere, kind of 137 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: like that TV show warehouse. Their teen um and the 138 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,200 Speaker 1: guidelines are basically that the articles should have an interesting idea, 139 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,040 Speaker 1: reasonable containment procedures for the creepy pasta, and a clear 140 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: description with each entry. They operate on a rating system 141 00:07:18,800 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: so the community actually up votes and down votes based 142 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: on what their favorite ones are. And both of my 143 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,840 Speaker 1: suggestions today come from a listener named Austin who suggested 144 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: a bunch of s cps for us right after Creepy 145 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:34,760 Speaker 1: pasta three, and they have a bunch. It's it's a 146 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: very fun website to just browse through and click on 147 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: things and see just how how absurd and or legitimately 148 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,920 Speaker 1: creepy each entry is because there's a lot of humor 149 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: on that website. Whichever very much. Yeah, yeah, and uh 150 00:07:48,360 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 1: it is You're not wrong, there's like thousands. Now. That 151 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:52,680 Speaker 1: was the thing that kind of overwhelmed me is I 152 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:54,080 Speaker 1: was like, how am I gonna do this? But luckily 153 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: Austin pointed out two great ones that I'm gonna work 154 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: with today. So my first is called s E P 155 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 1: nine six two. That's its designation, but we can call 156 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: it the Tower of Babel for our purpose. And you 157 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 1: have to stress how Babel is spelled here. Yeah b 158 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: A B B L E. Now, uh, I'm gonna just 159 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: summarize this because I think it would take too much 160 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,240 Speaker 1: time to read the whole thing. But I recommend, like, 161 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: if you're into this idea, just go to Google and 162 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:24,480 Speaker 1: type in SCP nine six two and the whole thing 163 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: will pull up. Um. But the gist of the Tower 164 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 1: of Babel in this creepy pasta is that there's this 165 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,680 Speaker 1: large steel tower that has been found by human beings 166 00:08:34,120 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 1: and it produces these animal human hybrid servitors that are 167 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:41,520 Speaker 1: under its control. They basically come out of the bottom 168 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,680 Speaker 1: of this thing and they go within a like a 169 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:49,840 Speaker 1: short radius of the tower to recover local resources, and 170 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:52,480 Speaker 1: it's implied that these resources are brought back to the 171 00:08:52,520 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: tower to help rebuild the tower itself, to do some 172 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,719 Speaker 1: kind of crazy experiments inside of it, and possibly to 173 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: create these servitors as well. Uh. They're described as being 174 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:09,559 Speaker 1: sort of like likened thrope cyborgs, like they're half animal 175 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:13,400 Speaker 1: half human, but they've got cybernetic implants kind of and 176 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:17,960 Speaker 1: they're they also outside of the mining and like gathering materials, 177 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: they also hunt animals, so they'll kill animals and bring 178 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: back their bodies to the tower, but they will not 179 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:28,199 Speaker 1: harm human beings. Is made very clear that that human 180 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 1: beings are in some way uh revered by this tower, 181 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,520 Speaker 1: which may be sentient or there may be something inside 182 00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:38,719 Speaker 1: the tower that's sentient. That's sending all this stuff out. Now, 183 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: what do they do with the animals they bring back, Well, 184 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:45,319 Speaker 1: it's unclear. They maybe make more servitors out of them, 185 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: and that's something I'm going to cover and looking at 186 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:51,199 Speaker 1: the science here. But also, the tower will occasionally release 187 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 1: these balloons, and the balloons will have high quality writings 188 00:09:55,160 --> 00:09:59,959 Speaker 1: attached to them, and the writings sometimes go a little crazy, 189 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:03,560 Speaker 1: like sometimes they're they're like little short stories, sometimes their poems, 190 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: sometimes their rants. And the rants seem to be the 191 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:10,560 Speaker 1: ones that like give us a glimpse at the actual 192 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: personality of the Tower, and it seems to worship humanity 193 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: and it refers to humanity as the great Ones over 194 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:21,120 Speaker 1: and over again. Wow, in your description of all of this, 195 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 1: I am picturing it as an as a Monty Python 196 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: animation by Terry Gilliam. I feel like that's probably the 197 00:10:28,240 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: purest expression that would be great. Actually, yeah, you know what, 198 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:34,120 Speaker 1: it makes me think of Brazil a little bit. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. 199 00:10:34,240 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: So the thing that makes the balloons tied into all 200 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:40,840 Speaker 1: this resource collection is that the balloons are made out 201 00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,160 Speaker 1: of the skin of animals that are recovered. So it's 202 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,720 Speaker 1: very strange. Um, now I want to look at two 203 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:49,960 Speaker 1: things that came out of this for me. The first 204 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:53,200 Speaker 1: is animal human hybrids, which is a favorite topic of 205 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,120 Speaker 1: ours on the show. We've talked about it before on 206 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:58,840 Speaker 1: our X Files episode that Joe and I did two 207 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:02,000 Speaker 1: X Files episodes where we we got into hybrids and chimeras. 208 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:05,360 Speaker 1: This was two years ago maybe. And then Robert, you 209 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: and I did an episode all about the myth of 210 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,640 Speaker 1: the human z the human Chimpanze hybrid. Yeah, well the 211 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:14,880 Speaker 1: myth and then the the actual history there and that. 212 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:17,840 Speaker 1: That was a fun episode and if I remember correctly, 213 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:22,079 Speaker 1: Joe Rogan's favorite episode. Rogan was thrilled about that episode. Yeah. 214 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:24,120 Speaker 1: Uh so, if you haven't heard that, go back and 215 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:25,760 Speaker 1: listen to it. That's a fun one. That's it's one 216 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:29,199 Speaker 1: of my favorites. Actually. Uh Now, I want to start 217 00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:33,320 Speaker 1: actually by reading a quote to you. Okay, and I'm 218 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: gonna I'm not going to tell the audience who this 219 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:38,480 Speaker 1: quote is from before I go ahead and say it. 220 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,120 Speaker 1: So here we go. A hopeful society has institutions of 221 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:46,240 Speaker 1: science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners, and 222 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:51,120 Speaker 1: that recognize the matchless value of every life. Tonight, I 223 00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:55,319 Speaker 1: ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious 224 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:59,360 Speaker 1: abuses of medical research, human cloning in all its forms, 225 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:05,960 Speaker 1: creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human animal hybrids, 226 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is 227 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,080 Speaker 1: a gift from our creator, and that gift should never 228 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:18,960 Speaker 1: be discarded, devalued, or put up for sale. So who 229 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,000 Speaker 1: do you think that was? I am getting I'm gonna 230 00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:23,440 Speaker 1: go make a wild guess and say that that was 231 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:29,559 Speaker 1: Senator Joe squirrel Man because he doesn't want his genetic 232 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:33,120 Speaker 1: data to be sold. It was actually former President George W. 233 00:12:33,280 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: Bush from his State of the Union in two thousand six. 234 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,200 Speaker 1: And as some of our listeners know, I have my 235 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:44,360 Speaker 1: master's degree in presidential rhetoric, and I was watching the 236 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: State of the Union at the time. I love watching 237 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:48,319 Speaker 1: State of the Unions there. It's kind of a weird, 238 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,720 Speaker 1: like they're my super Bowl basically, And uh, I was 239 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: watching it and I went, wait a minute, Like I 240 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:55,480 Speaker 1: did like a double take, and I was like, did 241 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:59,880 Speaker 1: he say human animal hybrids? Like? Has he gone so 242 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:02,640 Speaker 1: far off the deep end that he thinks like werewolves 243 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: are a thing? You know? I was really like where 244 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,680 Speaker 1: did this come from? You know? And it turns out 245 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:10,120 Speaker 1: that this was actually an issue at the time, like 246 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:14,400 Speaker 1: in scientific experimentation that was kind of rearing its head up, 247 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:17,840 Speaker 1: and so I think Bush like from his ethical standpoint, 248 00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,920 Speaker 1: was trying to tackle it. But actually this is when 249 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:25,239 Speaker 1: I became aware that experiments to create human animal chimeras 250 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:29,040 Speaker 1: are ineligible for public funding here in the United States. 251 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,600 Speaker 1: So you you cannot the government will not help pay 252 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 1: for anything that's even semi related to that. Yeah, And now, 253 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: of course it's it's it's worth driving home that that 254 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: the the actual experiments that are not being funded in 255 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,920 Speaker 1: these cases are not experiments to create humans these or 256 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: to create some sort of mutant pig person that will 257 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 1: you know, labor in the minds. Uh, they're far more 258 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:56,320 Speaker 1: realistic and applicable UM areas here. Like one of the 259 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: ones that instantly comes to mind, and I believe we've 260 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,200 Speaker 1: discussed this one in the past on the show is 261 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:04,280 Speaker 1: what if you could use a pig to grow human 262 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,280 Speaker 1: organs within it for organ transplants to humans or any 263 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 1: other kind of like tissue or organ and growth. If 264 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 1: you could grow it in an animal or on an animal, 265 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: that would make the whole process easier, right. Yes, in fact, 266 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,079 Speaker 1: that is exactly what I'm going to talk about here 267 00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 1: today because I imagined one of the Towers servitors as 268 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,000 Speaker 1: being pig like, because in the description of the Creepy Pasta, 269 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:29,760 Speaker 1: it's specifically said that the way that they're sculpted is 270 00:14:29,800 --> 00:14:32,000 Speaker 1: to try to make them look more human even though 271 00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:34,360 Speaker 1: they have animal hybrid features, and it said that like 272 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:36,920 Speaker 1: if it has a snout, which I immediately thought of 273 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 1: a pig, that the snout would be like cut off. 274 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 1: So it's very strange, but so I immediately went to pig, 275 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: and not for any old reason, but pig. Human hybrids 276 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:48,240 Speaker 1: are a thing that have been being worked on for 277 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:51,000 Speaker 1: a while, and in fact this year since our Human 278 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:53,880 Speaker 1: Z episode, actually there's been some further research on this. 279 00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:57,160 Speaker 1: So um just a reminder, I mentioned the Human Z 280 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:01,200 Speaker 1: episode earlier. Specifically, what we talked about there were something 281 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,200 Speaker 1: that we're called the Red Frankenstein experiments, and the guy 282 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 1: to look up there is Ilia Ivanovich. Ivanov. He was 283 00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,480 Speaker 1: the one who was trying to create a human chimpanzee hybrid. 284 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,040 Speaker 1: We go all into it in that episode, but if 285 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: you want to go and look up on your own 286 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: you know, check out his name. I'll make sure I 287 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: linked to that episode on the landing page for this one, 288 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: as well as all previous Creepy Pasta episodes. Yes, so okay. Obviously, 289 00:15:26,680 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 1: outside of George W. Bush's State of the Union speech 290 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,080 Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, there is a lot of 291 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:36,720 Speaker 1: fear and paranoia around the possibility of animal human hybrid right. 292 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:39,120 Speaker 1: It just kind of squeaks people out whenever they even 293 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: think of the idea. It makes it upsets people, which 294 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:43,920 Speaker 1: is probably why it's kind of a common trope and 295 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:50,440 Speaker 1: horror now in developmental biologists. Stuart Newman was at the 296 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,200 Speaker 1: New York Medical College in Valhalla, and this is together 297 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:56,560 Speaker 1: with Jeremy Rifkin, who's the president of the Foundation of 298 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: Economic Trends in d C. And they submitted a path 299 00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:03,680 Speaker 1: and for the chimera of a human Z. And they 300 00:16:03,760 --> 00:16:08,480 Speaker 1: made this from embryonic cells of humans and chimpanzees. Uh So, 301 00:16:08,640 --> 00:16:11,520 Speaker 1: Stewart he vowed to secure the patent so he could 302 00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 1: prevent others from ever making a human Z and exploiting it. 303 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,680 Speaker 1: This is how much it freaks people out, Like they 304 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: they actually tried to patent this so they could make 305 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: sure that no one else could ever try to make 306 00:16:23,840 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: something like this. Uh, and so he was actually denied 307 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:30,280 Speaker 1: this in two thousand four by the Patent and Trademark Office. 308 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:32,560 Speaker 1: Why well, it gets back to something that George W. 309 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:35,480 Speaker 1: Bush was talking about in that speech. It's important to 310 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: remember the U S Patent and Trademark Office actually rejects 311 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: claims of hybrid patents because they would too closely resemble humans. 312 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 1: And you can't patent humanity. You can sell what you 313 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:51,200 Speaker 1: can exploit it, but but just no patent, right. Yeah, 314 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: well it always cracks me up, like when um companies 315 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: refer to like human collateral or like human human resources, 316 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: like they're talking about human beings as if they're objects, right, 317 00:17:03,280 --> 00:17:06,240 Speaker 1: or like like pens that they order from Staples or something. Yeah, 318 00:17:06,280 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: if if any word or phrase sounds like it should 319 00:17:10,119 --> 00:17:12,680 Speaker 1: come from a pig mutant and a giant power, it's 320 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:16,120 Speaker 1: human resources along with all those other wonderful words like 321 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:20,359 Speaker 1: head count reduction and so yeah, exactly right, like the 322 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,840 Speaker 1: basically like the the sanitization of like companies doing quote 323 00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:29,040 Speaker 1: bad things to people. Right. So, actually hybridization is quite 324 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,880 Speaker 1: common in nature, right. We've all heard of zebra variations 325 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,960 Speaker 1: like zebras mixed with any other Equis genus species like 326 00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,199 Speaker 1: zoonkies or Hebrews or donkras right. Like, that was a 327 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:44,760 Speaker 1: huge thing after Napoleon Dynamite, where everybody thought how cute 328 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:47,200 Speaker 1: it was to combine different names of animals. But that's 329 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:49,600 Speaker 1: a real thing, uh. In fact, this is when two 330 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,800 Speaker 1: equine species mate, but because they're compatible enough to breathe, 331 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,920 Speaker 1: they can actually mate, but unfortunately their offspring are usually sterile. 332 00:17:58,040 --> 00:18:00,879 Speaker 1: So this is when we get mules instance. Yeah, and 333 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:04,440 Speaker 1: in the worst cases, for instance, prince to mind African 334 00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:07,280 Speaker 1: and Asian elephants, there have been cases where they have 335 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:11,879 Speaker 1: bread and captivity and the results are if they do 336 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:16,800 Speaker 1: produce offspring is generally quite frail and sickly and doesn't Yeah. Yeah, 337 00:18:16,840 --> 00:18:18,400 Speaker 1: that seems to be the case with some of these 338 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,600 Speaker 1: as well. We also see big cat hybrids that are common. 339 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:26,359 Speaker 1: So you've got tigons, liggers, jag lion, jaggue, pars, the 340 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,520 Speaker 1: all the combinations right in rare cases. Actually, tigons are 341 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:35,680 Speaker 1: different from other hybrid progeny. They can actually produce babies. Uh. 342 00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,959 Speaker 1: And there is a small industry that goes around breeding 343 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:45,040 Speaker 1: domestic cats with wild relatives to produce like weird exotic hybrids. Right, So, like, 344 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:47,639 Speaker 1: I've never seen one of these before, but I'm guessing like, 345 00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: if you're super rich, you're like, I want to breed 346 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:54,320 Speaker 1: my tortoise shell cat with a lynx or something, and 347 00:18:54,400 --> 00:18:58,440 Speaker 1: you get you get like this bizarre cat for your house. 348 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, my world is just when you run 349 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,000 Speaker 1: out of cat, then the cat person, you know, the 350 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:08,320 Speaker 1: cat lady in your social circle. Oh yes, oh yeah, 351 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: they just seem to show up on my doorstep. That's 352 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:14,240 Speaker 1: how it works for me. Uh Also, bottle knows dolphins 353 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: and false killer whales can breed. These are called hole 354 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: fens holfens uh as, and so that's another hybrid that 355 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:26,040 Speaker 1: we can note here. Almost all of these are infertile. Subsequently, 356 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:28,719 Speaker 1: the whole thing, they're doomed to an evolutionary dead end. 357 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 1: They just they can't continue breeding. There's even some speculation 358 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,880 Speaker 1: that human beings once crossbred with neanderthals, so that's worth 359 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:42,320 Speaker 1: remembering as well. So, okay, Robert mentioned the pig hybrid 360 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,879 Speaker 1: and the idea of using them for organ transplantation. This 361 00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:49,880 Speaker 1: first came about in two thousand three when Chinese scientists 362 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,679 Speaker 1: at the Shanghai Second Medical University fused human cells with 363 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: rabbit eggs and this was reportedly the first human animal chimera. 364 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:00,640 Speaker 1: Then in two thousand four, researchers is that the Mayo 365 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 1: Clinic created pigs with human blood flowing in their bodies. 366 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,119 Speaker 1: And this is the stuff that kind of led to 367 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,119 Speaker 1: that George W. Bush section in the State of the Union. Right, 368 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,840 Speaker 1: these research uh moments popping up, but also stem cell 369 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:16,960 Speaker 1: research becoming like a lot bigger and more public. Yeah, 370 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:20,040 Speaker 1: I mean it is weird to imagine that, right, to 371 00:20:20,080 --> 00:20:23,399 Speaker 1: think of this pig that has been engineered to have 372 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,200 Speaker 1: human blood in it for the purposes of blood donation, 373 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,359 Speaker 1: and and you know, the the ramifications are not necessarily 374 00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: attractive there. I mean, if you're if you're against say 375 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:37,040 Speaker 1: the eating of animals, the raising of pigs for food, 376 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 1: then you know, how are you supposed to feel about 377 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,879 Speaker 1: rearing pigs just so you can drain their blood and 378 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:46,360 Speaker 1: sell it. Yeah, it's a for me, it's an ethical 379 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,040 Speaker 1: thing around along the lines of we were just talking 380 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,200 Speaker 1: about in our Optography episode about the experiment where they're 381 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: running album solution through a dog's eyeball while it was 382 00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:58,960 Speaker 1: still alive to see if optography was real, right, Like, 383 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,840 Speaker 1: that is a setting to me. But I'm also a vegetarian, 384 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:05,399 Speaker 1: and that's kind of part of it, just my ethical standpoint, 385 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,200 Speaker 1: right Whereas I can totally understand why some people would 386 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 1: be like and in fact, I've got data here to 387 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,120 Speaker 1: talk about this. Every day, twenty two people die because 388 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,520 Speaker 1: they can't get the organ they need, right, So I 389 00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: can completely understand the concept of saying, well, it's actually 390 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:22,640 Speaker 1: worth it to us to grow these pigs with human 391 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:25,160 Speaker 1: organs inside of them so that we can harvest those 392 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:28,880 Speaker 1: organs and save some of those twenty two people every day. Yeah, Ultimately, 393 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:30,720 Speaker 1: you can look at it as the choice, right, Okay, 394 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:32,919 Speaker 1: either we're gonna go ahead with with pigs that have 395 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,320 Speaker 1: human blood and human organs, or you guys get more 396 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:41,360 Speaker 1: organized and more committed to attending blood drives and donating 397 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,000 Speaker 1: your body when you die and having everything set up 398 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:47,120 Speaker 1: so that that we don't have to rely on the hybrids. Yeah. 399 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:49,440 Speaker 1: Do you remember that movie The Island that came out 400 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,040 Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. Oh, Yeah, this was basically 401 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: the premise there, except for it was even more horrifying 402 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,679 Speaker 1: because they were clones of actual people that were raised 403 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 1: to maturity so that those people would have exact duplicates 404 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:03,560 Speaker 1: of their organs on hand. Yeah, it's essentially a remake 405 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:07,679 Speaker 1: of Clona what no, Yeah, parts the Clonus hor or 406 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:10,600 Speaker 1: is it Clonus the parts are It was then all 407 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:13,919 Speaker 1: the industry science theater film. It had Peter Graves in it. 408 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:16,680 Speaker 1: It was. It's not bad. Actually it's very watchable, but 409 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,840 Speaker 1: it's essentially the same plot. Uh, Never let Me Go. Yes, Also, 410 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:25,159 Speaker 1: that's right, entails a similar plot, but there's a lot 411 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: more intelligence plot. It's a little less um Michael Bay. Yeah, 412 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,680 Speaker 1: there's less explosions and Never Let Me Go. I've read 413 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,560 Speaker 1: the book, I've not seen the movie. Yeah, so okay, 414 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:40,440 Speaker 1: here's the thing. Earlier this year in seventeen, scientists announced 415 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:45,400 Speaker 1: that they had created the first successful animal human hybrid. 416 00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:50,639 Speaker 1: How they merged human cells into pigs. So technically, actually 417 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,240 Speaker 1: what they created was a chimera and not a hybrid, 418 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,800 Speaker 1: but those two terms get conflated, but basically, a chimera 419 00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:00,560 Speaker 1: is an organism that contains cells from two different species. 420 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:02,359 Speaker 1: The reason why they did it was just what we 421 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,240 Speaker 1: were talking about right there, to help grow donor donor organs. 422 00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:07,959 Speaker 1: So this is an international team. It was led by 423 00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:11,680 Speaker 1: the Salk Institute in California, and they reported their findings 424 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,640 Speaker 1: in the journal Cell. Their research was funded by private donors. 425 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: Why well, I'll remind you the United States will not 426 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,399 Speaker 1: provide any public funding for research like this. So how 427 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:24,479 Speaker 1: do you make a chimera? Right? If you've got your 428 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:26,560 Speaker 1: little chemistry set at home and you want to make 429 00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 1: a chimera, you probably can't, but I'll give give you 430 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,520 Speaker 1: a quick description. The first and riskiest way to do 431 00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: so is to literally introduce the organs of one animal 432 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,879 Speaker 1: into another. So it would be like that Christian Slater 433 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,520 Speaker 1: movie where he has a monkey heart? What right? What movies? 434 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:44,680 Speaker 1: I can't remember what that movie is called, but there's 435 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,760 Speaker 1: a movie where, like it's a romantic teen drama and 436 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:50,879 Speaker 1: he has like a huge scar over his chest and 437 00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,600 Speaker 1: he tells everybody that he's got a monkey's heart and 438 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:56,600 Speaker 1: it's okay, Yeah, I vaguely remember the trailer. He's like 439 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: a bad boy too, right, He's always a bad boy, 440 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:03,200 Speaker 1: of course. Yeah. But the host's immune system in this case, 441 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 1: let's let's say it's Christians later will usually reject these 442 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:10,399 Speaker 1: other animal organs, right, Uh, So that idea seems a 443 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: little far fetched, but the second way to make a 444 00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: chimera is to start at the embryonic level and introduce 445 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 1: one animal cells into the embryo of another and then 446 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,040 Speaker 1: let them grow into a hybrid. So this followed another 447 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:28,560 Speaker 1: Salk study that was funded and conducted on mice and rats, 448 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,800 Speaker 1: and what they did. They used the genome editing tool Crisper, 449 00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,119 Speaker 1: which comes up a lot both on our show but 450 00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:38,120 Speaker 1: also just kind of in science communication in general. It's 451 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,160 Speaker 1: a hot topic right now. With Crisper, they were able 452 00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:45,520 Speaker 1: to delete the genes that mice need to grow certain organs, 453 00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,440 Speaker 1: and then they could use those mice as hosts to 454 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: grow healthy pancreatic tissue for rats. Uh. This allowed those 455 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:57,800 Speaker 1: organs to flourish inside the mice bodies. The next step 456 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: is essentially to inject rats stem cells into pigs. Now, 457 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: they did this, but that failed because those animals have 458 00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:07,720 Speaker 1: different gestation times, so rats and mice are kind of 459 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:13,159 Speaker 1: closer together. Pigs are surprisingly closer to humans. Actually this 460 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,000 Speaker 1: surprised me, so their organs are a little more similar, 461 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,040 Speaker 1: so that's why they're working with pigs here. They introduced 462 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: three different types of human cells into pigs, and they 463 00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:24,280 Speaker 1: found that with just the right timing, they could get 464 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:28,520 Speaker 1: those resulting embryos to survive. Once they put these embryos 465 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: in adult pigs, they survived for three to four weeks 466 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,280 Speaker 1: and then the researchers removed them for analysis. So to 467 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,359 Speaker 1: be clear here, there's only actually a low percentage of 468 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:42,400 Speaker 1: these embryos that survived, and the human tissue within seems 469 00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:46,199 Speaker 1: to grow slower than they expected. So any organs that 470 00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: are grown would probably be rejected by humans because they 471 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: have too much pig tissue in them. So the next 472 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:55,240 Speaker 1: step that this research team is looking to figure out 473 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,960 Speaker 1: is if they can increase the number of human cells 474 00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: inside these embryos, and this could take years before they 475 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,000 Speaker 1: get to any kind of point where they're growing functional 476 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,800 Speaker 1: human organs. And in all of this, you have to, 477 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:08,600 Speaker 1: I guess you have to think, like what's the what's 478 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:10,640 Speaker 1: the line, like, at what point is there too much 479 00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,439 Speaker 1: human in there? At what point are you making some 480 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: sort of a humanoid drone creature that maybe has you know, 481 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,440 Speaker 1: has no brain, that just sits there and grows organs, 482 00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,080 Speaker 1: And and how are we supposed to feel about bad? Well? Right, yeah, 483 00:26:23,119 --> 00:26:25,840 Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of ethical implications involved here, and too, 484 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:28,840 Speaker 1: I really want to point out here too, what they're 485 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: doing is not tantamount to making animal human people like 486 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,520 Speaker 1: you will often see if you google animal human hybrid 487 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,920 Speaker 1: and you see legit articles about this pig study. They 488 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:43,680 Speaker 1: will use these crazy photos that have either been photoshopped 489 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:46,960 Speaker 1: or like are some kind of puppets or something that 490 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,120 Speaker 1: are designed to look like horror movie monster half pig, 491 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,920 Speaker 1: half people. Uh. And that's not the case of what's 492 00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:55,360 Speaker 1: going on here. I think a lot about a lot 493 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,679 Speaker 1: of the revulsion that that occurs with this topic is 494 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,640 Speaker 1: it basically comes down into this tie. This this type 495 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,840 Speaker 1: of science forces you to re examine what we are. 496 00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:09,120 Speaker 1: And if you have a if you have a certain 497 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:11,439 Speaker 1: you know, idea of what a human is and what 498 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:13,960 Speaker 1: it means to be human that's maybe a little bit 499 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:18,280 Speaker 1: divorced from like the scientific genetic realities of everything. Uh, 500 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,160 Speaker 1: then yeah, this can be a bit of a shock. 501 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,200 Speaker 1: Whereas the scientists involved would probably just tell you, yeah, yeah, 502 00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: this is what we are, this is what it is 503 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:27,960 Speaker 1: to be a human, and this is what we've lined 504 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,280 Speaker 1: up to help those humans live longer. I think you 505 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:32,600 Speaker 1: could end up seeing it too like break off in 506 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 1: two different ways. Right, they'll be like um, like biological 507 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:38,800 Speaker 1: conservatives who you know, really want to make like like 508 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,520 Speaker 1: those guys who purposely try to file the patent to 509 00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:43,679 Speaker 1: make sure that nobody could ever make it right. But 510 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,880 Speaker 1: then you would have I guess transhumanists, who are people 511 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,560 Speaker 1: who are like, hey, what could we learn from this science? 512 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: How could we augment our bodies? How could we become 513 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:55,720 Speaker 1: the next step in evolution? Right? And and really, honestly, 514 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:57,919 Speaker 1: the first thing there is that they're just looking for 515 00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,320 Speaker 1: a way to help people live, you know, when their 516 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: organs are failing. I don't think anybody yet, well, you know, 517 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 1: I maybe I'm wrong, Maybe the d O D is 518 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:07,399 Speaker 1: up to this and we just don't know. But I 519 00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 1: don't think anybody's like trying to make werewolf soldiers right 520 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,200 Speaker 1: now or anything you know, to do unpredictable. But okay, 521 00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,119 Speaker 1: let's take what we just learned and try to apply 522 00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:17,280 Speaker 1: it to this creepy pasta. Okay, this is remember we're 523 00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,399 Speaker 1: talking about SCP nine six two. The way the creepy 524 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:22,919 Speaker 1: Pasta is written, it's easy to assume that that tower 525 00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,560 Speaker 1: is somehow just Frankensteining together human and animal parts. But 526 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: because its message has this reverence towards human and the 527 00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:34,240 Speaker 1: fact that the servitors don't ever attack people, it actually 528 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,160 Speaker 1: makes me think it's doing something else to create these 529 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,440 Speaker 1: like hybrid monsters. It sounds like they are creating or 530 00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:46,320 Speaker 1: the the tower is creating human animal chimeras from embryos, 531 00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 1: and possibly it's using the cells of the animals that 532 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,040 Speaker 1: are brought back inside to it. Right So, but that 533 00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,320 Speaker 1: begs the question of where is it getting the human 534 00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,360 Speaker 1: cells from? Right So, I don't know quite the answer 535 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,760 Speaker 1: to that, But that's also why this is spooky. You 536 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:05,480 Speaker 1: don't know what's inside that tower. Everybody, Yeah, Okay, One 537 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: more thing I want to cover real quick is how 538 00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,640 Speaker 1: do you think the tower is controlling these servitors? Right? 539 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,480 Speaker 1: Like there's some kind of mind control effect over these 540 00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: like half human half animal cyborgs basically right now, we've 541 00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:23,000 Speaker 1: covered many, many, many times on the show before how 542 00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:28,400 Speaker 1: animals can be mind controlled by other animals, usually by parasites. Right, gosh, 543 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:31,560 Speaker 1: how many do you think? Twenty episodes? Maybe more, probably 544 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:34,959 Speaker 1: because you have because you have different levels. Right. Anytime 545 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,360 Speaker 1: we're talking about some sort of disease or infectious agent, 546 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: it's gonna come up, and then you're gonna have indo parasites. 547 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,520 Speaker 1: Uh so, this is gonna be gonna be like your 548 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: two main categories. And that's not even getting into like 549 00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 1: the some of the more sci fi ideas of computer 550 00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:56,000 Speaker 1: human brain interfaces or just psychological manipulation. Well, I've got 551 00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:59,400 Speaker 1: all that here, so that's exciting. Yeah. Uh so, some 552 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: of these are examples that have been covered before. Others 553 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,120 Speaker 1: I just want to give you like a grab bag 554 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:06,520 Speaker 1: in case you've never heard any of our episodes on 555 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 1: parasite mind control. So parasitic wasp larva. They can control 556 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:15,840 Speaker 1: caterpillars by releasing octopamine into their systems. Oh yeah, The 557 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:20,520 Speaker 1: parasitic wasp world is filled with wonderful examples of various 558 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:23,760 Speaker 1: hosts that are hijacked, not only like bodily but also 559 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 1: their their behavior is hijacked. Yeah. In fact, the jewel 560 00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: wasp is another example. They can control cockroaches. This is nuts. 561 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,120 Speaker 1: They can control cockroaches by stinging their brains and that 562 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,440 Speaker 1: impairs their ability to move, and then they literally guide 563 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,400 Speaker 1: the cockroaches by their antenna back to their nest. The 564 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,800 Speaker 1: wasps nests where the cockroach becomes host to all the 565 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: wasps larvae, so they like ride cockroaches, kind of like 566 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 1: a moa deep rides a sandworm. Oh wow, that that's incredible. 567 00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: I don't think i'd run across the jewel wasp example before. 568 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,640 Speaker 1: There's one with a ladybug. That's amazing because the it 569 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:05,560 Speaker 1: it's basically alien, except if the host remained alive after 570 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,200 Speaker 1: the emergence of the xenomorph and had to partially raise 571 00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 1: it and look after. This is similar. Yeah, this is similar. Uh. 572 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:17,320 Speaker 1: There's also the protozoan Toxoplasma gandhi. They use rats as 573 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:20,440 Speaker 1: vehicles to get into cat and testines. This is because 574 00:31:20,480 --> 00:31:25,520 Speaker 1: their ousists can form in inside cat feces. What we've 575 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:27,440 Speaker 1: talked about this before, but a lot of people probably 576 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: know about this. It causes the rats to lose their 577 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: fear of cat urine, and they may be doing it 578 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: by affecting the neurotransmitters and dopamine levels inside the rat brains. Now, 579 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:44,720 Speaker 1: because toxoplasma can cross the blood brain barrier inside mammals, 580 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:47,880 Speaker 1: they can actually infect us human beings, and they've infected 581 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:53,400 Speaker 1: two billion people worldwide. Three dozen studies have found a 582 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:59,840 Speaker 1: positive link between toxoplasma infection and human neurological disorders like schizophrenia. 583 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,400 Speaker 1: You ever want to feel extra weird about scooping out 584 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:05,400 Speaker 1: the litter box, I highly recommend looking into some of 585 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: the research has been to your point, a number of 586 00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:09,040 Speaker 1: studies over the years. There are a lot of great 587 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:13,000 Speaker 1: articles out there, uh that touch on just to to 588 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: what degree, Uh, this parasite hijacks the brain of its hosts. 589 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: I mean everybody but the cats. Really, the cats remain untouched. 590 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,920 Speaker 1: It's just everything around the cats that end up being manipulated. 591 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:27,680 Speaker 1: It's funny because after I was doing this research, I 592 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,880 Speaker 1: was like, in the bathroom adjacent to my office has 593 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 1: one of our cat litter pans in it, and I 594 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: was like, uh, yeah, I need to go clean that. 595 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 1: But it was like I had to like wrap like 596 00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:39,960 Speaker 1: rags around my face before I did it. Like all 597 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,560 Speaker 1: of a sudden, I was afraid of cleaning the litter box. Uh. 598 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,000 Speaker 1: There's also small crustaceans that are known as gamma rids, 599 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: and these can be infected by a number of different parasites. Apparently, 600 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:53,800 Speaker 1: like they're just they're awesome hosts for parasites, parasites. So 601 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:57,440 Speaker 1: you've got trema toads in their brains. Sometimes worms form 602 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,680 Speaker 1: in their body cavities. Each one of these parasite, it's 603 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:04,680 Speaker 1: just induces different behaviors in these crustaceans. Some make them 604 00:33:04,680 --> 00:33:07,920 Speaker 1: head toward light, others make them head away from deep water. 605 00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,000 Speaker 1: And then this is my favorite, slash most horrifying one. 606 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: Robert did an entire video about this one, and if 607 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,960 Speaker 1: it's on stuff to Blow your Mind dot com, it 608 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,480 Speaker 1: will make your skin crawl. It's super upsetting. This is 609 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:27,040 Speaker 1: the hairworm, and hairworms are known to infect frogs, fish, snails, 610 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 1: and crickets, and in the case of crickets, they need 611 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: to be brought near water so that the hair worms 612 00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:37,080 Speaker 1: larvae can develop. So what they do is these parasites 613 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:42,040 Speaker 1: make proteins that attract the cricket hosts to light, which 614 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,280 Speaker 1: is usually where the water is at night. So these 615 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:47,880 Speaker 1: crickets end up basically committing suicide and dive bombing into 616 00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 1: the water, which they normally wouldn't do, so these hair 617 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 1: worms can reproduce. Yeah, this is I love this particular 618 00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:57,680 Speaker 1: organism um and and really great. Really enjoyed putting that 619 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:01,280 Speaker 1: video together a while back, but uh, my first encounter 620 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:04,480 Speaker 1: with it was in a junior high band class. Right, 621 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,520 Speaker 1: you've seen one, Yeah, and I've encount I've encountered one. 622 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,720 Speaker 1: I've encountered one in a puddle once out in the wild. 623 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,120 Speaker 1: But this was in a junior high band room and 624 00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,280 Speaker 1: there was a cricket hopping around on the floor, and 625 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,719 Speaker 1: the uh, the student next to me decided that she 626 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,080 Speaker 1: was just gonna stop it, you know, which which I 627 00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,239 Speaker 1: don't agree with. Cricket's not hurting anybody. Don't hurt the 628 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:29,160 Speaker 1: cricket um, you know, folklore and superstitions aside. But she 629 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,520 Speaker 1: she but it served her right because the second she 630 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:34,120 Speaker 1: stopped that thing, she you know, it's sitting there dead 631 00:34:34,160 --> 00:34:36,360 Speaker 1: and then the horse hair worm starts crawling out of 632 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 1: the cricket, and it just totally grossed her out. Like 633 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:41,000 Speaker 1: she just she had to I think she had to 634 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,160 Speaker 1: move to a different chair. Yeah, if you've never seen 635 00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:46,200 Speaker 1: one of these things before, it's like something out of 636 00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:49,879 Speaker 1: a body horror movie. There. They look they literally look 637 00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:52,239 Speaker 1: like hair to us because they're so small. But it's like, 638 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:56,040 Speaker 1: imagine if like just this tendril punched in through your 639 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,040 Speaker 1: body and bore into you and started driving you around. 640 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:01,280 Speaker 1: That's kind of what it's like, yeah, yeah, the revulsion 641 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:06,080 Speaker 1: element aside, the degree to which they manipulate the host 642 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 1: behavior is just phenomenal. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's fascinating. 643 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:11,919 Speaker 1: Definitely go check out that video if you're interested in more. 644 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:14,280 Speaker 1: But there are a lot of examples, is my point, 645 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,800 Speaker 1: of parasites hijacking their hosts, and they tend to be neurological, 646 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:22,640 Speaker 1: usually with proteins being expressed inside the brains of the infected. 647 00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:25,239 Speaker 1: So maybe this is a possibility. Maybe there's something going 648 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:28,200 Speaker 1: on in the tower where they're manipulating the proteins of 649 00:35:28,239 --> 00:35:30,640 Speaker 1: the of the brains of these animal human hybrids that 650 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:34,400 Speaker 1: they're creating, or maybe it's electronic, and I think this 651 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:37,799 Speaker 1: is more likely given the description of the creepy pasta. So, 652 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: for instance, in researchers at Harvard University created the first 653 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:47,319 Speaker 1: non invasive brain to brain interface between a human and 654 00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,840 Speaker 1: a rat, and that allowed the human being to control 655 00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:53,600 Speaker 1: the rats tail. The way that this works as a 656 00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:57,320 Speaker 1: human wears an e G device, the mouse is equipped 657 00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:00,279 Speaker 1: with an ultrasound computer to brain interface. And I want 658 00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:02,879 Speaker 1: to make it clear this isn't invasive. None of their 659 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,400 Speaker 1: brains are cut open and with like electrodes inside them 660 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,879 Speaker 1: or anything. You don't have to cut their heads open. 661 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:11,560 Speaker 1: It works when the human looks at a specific pattern 662 00:36:11,600 --> 00:36:16,279 Speaker 1: on a screen and that pattern triggers the ultrasound beam 663 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,960 Speaker 1: into the rats motor cortex in the region that deals 664 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,839 Speaker 1: with its tail movement. In this study, it had accuracy 665 00:36:25,280 --> 00:36:27,239 Speaker 1: just a human being sitting on the other side of 666 00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:30,200 Speaker 1: the room being able to control when a rat moved 667 00:36:30,200 --> 00:36:33,640 Speaker 1: its tail. This does not mean that we can read 668 00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:36,840 Speaker 1: minds or anything like that. We simply we just don't 669 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,760 Speaker 1: know how thoughts are encoded by neurons in the brain, 670 00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:43,239 Speaker 1: but it does allow us to stimulate a region of 671 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:47,040 Speaker 1: the brain that is known to create a particular reaction. 672 00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:50,279 Speaker 1: So another example of this comes from Korea. At the 673 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,440 Speaker 1: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, researchers have developed 674 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,840 Speaker 1: a way to remote controlled turtles. Uh now, this is 675 00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:00,480 Speaker 1: a little bit more what might be going on here 676 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 1: with this creepy pasta similar to the human mouse interface. 677 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,840 Speaker 1: It guides the turtle through what's called a cyborg system 678 00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:11,560 Speaker 1: where the human sends again e g. Signals by thought 679 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:15,360 Speaker 1: command and those activate a device that's on the turtle, 680 00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:19,080 Speaker 1: and the device obstructs the turtle's view. They can essentially 681 00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:23,280 Speaker 1: give it three instructions, turn left, turn right, or be idle. 682 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,920 Speaker 1: And what's interesting about this is they use turtles because 683 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:30,400 Speaker 1: turtles have decent cognitive abilities. They have the ability to 684 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: distinguish different wavelengths of light, and they can recognize a 685 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:38,759 Speaker 1: light source and move toward it. So they're really more 686 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: predictable than other animals when it comes to their movement patterns. Plus, 687 00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:44,439 Speaker 1: they respond well to mutagen We know that. Oh yeah, yeah, 688 00:37:44,440 --> 00:37:46,720 Speaker 1: Well that's the idea here is like, once you perfect 689 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:50,480 Speaker 1: the turtle cyborg, then you can perfect the teenage mutant 690 00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 1: ninja turtle cyber step. Yeah exactly, which is essentially what 691 00:37:55,120 --> 00:37:58,920 Speaker 1: SCP nine six two is doing here right the creepy 692 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,799 Speaker 1: pasta space scifically states the following I'm gonna read this 693 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,920 Speaker 1: to you from the description that these servitors are quote 694 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:10,120 Speaker 1: cybernetically augmented animals. These augmentations usually forced the animals into 695 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:14,720 Speaker 1: a bipedal gait and are often accompanied by crude cosmetic alterations, 696 00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:17,600 Speaker 1: such as the removal of a snout, with the apparent 697 00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:20,799 Speaker 1: goal of making the servitor appear more human like the 698 00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,440 Speaker 1: nervous system of members of SCP nine six two Dash 699 00:38:24,520 --> 00:38:29,160 Speaker 1: one is slave two implanted electrodes which allow them to 700 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:33,400 Speaker 1: be controlled by a central source, and that is assumed 701 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: to be the tower itself, like that the tower is sentient. 702 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,160 Speaker 1: So this definitely sounds to me like these hybrids are 703 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,759 Speaker 1: augmented with cybernetics that allow a B C I to 704 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:46,280 Speaker 1: C B I transfer of some kind of remote control 705 00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:50,239 Speaker 1: through implanted electrodes. So what I want to know is this, 706 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:53,160 Speaker 1: if you captured one of these servitors and then you 707 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,839 Speaker 1: dismantled all the electronics stuff that's like plugged into them, 708 00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,279 Speaker 1: what would happen? Like, how would they behave? Would even 709 00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:03,320 Speaker 1: know how to behave? Would they go out into the 710 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:06,120 Speaker 1: world and fetch a new animal tissue for the construction 711 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:09,080 Speaker 1: of balloons, or would they possibly turn against the tower 712 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,680 Speaker 1: and start attacking humans. So this is an interesting direction 713 00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,680 Speaker 1: to take. I also want to introduce another scary question 714 00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:17,400 Speaker 1: before we take a break and we move on to 715 00:39:17,480 --> 00:39:21,760 Speaker 1: more creepy pastas. So we've established that we are creating hybrids. 716 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,880 Speaker 1: We've also established that there are lots of ways to 717 00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:29,520 Speaker 1: mind control sentient beings. Now, what about if those hybrid 718 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:36,839 Speaker 1: organs could potentially make human beings more vulnerable to parasitic hijacking. So, 719 00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:41,160 Speaker 1: for instance, if I got a pig human organ put 720 00:39:41,200 --> 00:39:44,439 Speaker 1: in my body because I need a new liver, right, 721 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:47,960 Speaker 1: but there's something about that organ obviously, the way that 722 00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:52,000 Speaker 1: those organs are harvested, they're all quote unquote human, But 723 00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:54,319 Speaker 1: could they lead to something else that would make me 724 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:59,400 Speaker 1: more vulnerable to a parasitic mind control thing like a 725 00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:04,360 Speaker 1: wasp or or toxoplasmosis. And then what if the intelligent 726 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:06,440 Speaker 1: parasites are that you have the ones carrying out this 727 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:11,120 Speaker 1: whole scheme? Bingo, Yeah, super scary stuff here. I really 728 00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,760 Speaker 1: like this tower one, so so thanks again for passing 729 00:40:14,760 --> 00:40:16,759 Speaker 1: this along, Alex. All Right, we're gonna take a quick 730 00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 1: break and we come back more creepy pasta. All right, 731 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,360 Speaker 1: we're back. Okay, So the first of the two creepy 732 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:30,160 Speaker 1: pastas that I turned to. This one is kind of 733 00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,640 Speaker 1: pre pasta urban legend in perspects, but it continues to 734 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:39,040 Speaker 1: resonate through the now established world of creepy pasta. It's 735 00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:43,840 Speaker 1: um and I love too how it's There are elements 736 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:48,320 Speaker 1: of intentional um manipulation of an audience here as well. 737 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:54,600 Speaker 1: So this this one is known as polybius and this concerns. Essentially, 738 00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,840 Speaker 1: it's like a haunted video game, uh situation. I imagine 739 00:40:57,840 --> 00:40:59,480 Speaker 1: a number of you out there are familiar with this 740 00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: one already. I think there's a stuff they don't want 741 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:05,120 Speaker 1: you to know video about this urban legend. So the 742 00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:09,000 Speaker 1: idea here is that there was a nine one arcade 743 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:13,160 Speaker 1: game called Polybius, presumably named for the Greek historian who 744 00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:17,160 Speaker 1: championed the importance of historians having a firsthand account of 745 00:41:17,360 --> 00:41:19,640 Speaker 1: what happened. Uh, it's kind of a wink to the 746 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,680 Speaker 1: fact that this is all made up. The version I 747 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:25,560 Speaker 1: read indicated that you had a few machines that were 748 00:41:25,560 --> 00:41:28,160 Speaker 1: produced by a mysterious German company with a kind of 749 00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:33,520 Speaker 1: fake sounding name and installed in Portland area arcades. This 750 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:38,839 Speaker 1: they resulted in a host of player symptoms nightmares, hallucinations, migraines, 751 00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:42,440 Speaker 1: addictive behavior, all of this occurring with any individual who 752 00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,480 Speaker 1: played the game. And then, uh, and while this is 753 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,879 Speaker 1: going on, there like mysterious men in black coming in 754 00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: and checking on the machines, perhaps getting some data out 755 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,840 Speaker 1: of them, and then all of a sudden, the machines 756 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:57,320 Speaker 1: vanish overnight and people were just left to whisper about 757 00:41:57,719 --> 00:42:00,680 Speaker 1: what was the deal with the Polybia machines. Was it 758 00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:05,520 Speaker 1: part of a government program to test, you know, adolescent minds. 759 00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: Was it something more nefarious? Was in an accident than 760 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,920 Speaker 1: then the government got interested in It's a pretty it's 761 00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,240 Speaker 1: a pretty cool idea. It's kind of tron but better 762 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,640 Speaker 1: than like the Tron Legacy, uh sequel. Yeah, it And 763 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:22,200 Speaker 1: as you know, we both love the Tron Legacy sequel. 764 00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:23,640 Speaker 1: We've talked about it on the show before, but this 765 00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:25,399 Speaker 1: sounds like a great hook. Yeah. I mean it also 766 00:42:25,440 --> 00:42:29,279 Speaker 1: reminds one of another film from the tron Ish era, 767 00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,799 Speaker 1: that same sort of genre of of let's make a 768 00:42:31,840 --> 00:42:34,040 Speaker 1: film about a crazy video game, and that being The 769 00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,760 Speaker 1: Last Starfighter. Yeah, that was exactly what I was thinking. 770 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,040 Speaker 1: Where it's been a long time since I've seen it. 771 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,960 Speaker 1: I loved it as a kid. But the Arcade Machine 772 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,040 Speaker 1: is like a recruitment device for an alien civilization if 773 00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: I remember correctly. Like the way it works is if 774 00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,680 Speaker 1: you get the highest scorer on there, then this like 775 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:53,799 Speaker 1: alien armada comes to Earth and recruits you because they're like, oh, 776 00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,040 Speaker 1: you are so good at this video game that you're 777 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,840 Speaker 1: actually going to be like an amazing pilot. Yeah, it 778 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:01,360 Speaker 1: was a fun flick. I may have to check it 779 00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,400 Speaker 1: out again some day. But this urban legend led to 780 00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:09,160 Speaker 1: UH concerning Polybius, led to a string of video games 781 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:12,719 Speaker 1: that adapted the Polybius title, and there was even a 782 00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:16,920 Speaker 1: Simpsons reference. And I believe two thousands six thereabouts now 783 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:23,640 Speaker 1: investigations into the any reality behind Polybius, it tends to 784 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:26,400 Speaker 1: point towards two thousand one is the starting point and 785 00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:29,239 Speaker 1: it was probably created by a guy named by the 786 00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:32,439 Speaker 1: name of Kurt Kohler as an intentional effort to drive 787 00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,960 Speaker 1: traffic to coin opt dot org. UH. This according to 788 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:39,160 Speaker 1: Stuart Brown, the man behind the Ahoy video series. You 789 00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:42,080 Speaker 1: looked into it so. I also read where a skeptic 790 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:46,360 Speaker 1: Brian Dunning believes that the roots of the prepasta pasta 791 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:50,120 Speaker 1: here probably emerged from distortions of real life complications UH 792 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:55,120 Speaker 1: surrounding video games. UH. Particularly apparently when Tempest first came out, 793 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:57,520 Speaker 1: this was the you know, the the Atari game. UH. 794 00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:01,040 Speaker 1: There were some cases of quote un video game related 795 00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,359 Speaker 1: illness is associated with it. UH. And then there were 796 00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:07,680 Speaker 1: some accounts of video game related illnesses that popped up 797 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,839 Speaker 1: in the Portland's area around one and in nine two 798 00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,440 Speaker 1: we had the first video game known to have coincided 799 00:44:15,760 --> 00:44:18,440 Speaker 1: with the death of a player coincided not you know, 800 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,640 Speaker 1: caused the death, but there was the heart attack death 801 00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:26,120 Speaker 1: of eighteen year old Peter Brukowski in Kalmut City, Illinois. 802 00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 1: This reminds me of something we talked about recently on 803 00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:31,480 Speaker 1: the show. I can't remember what episode it came up in, 804 00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:35,880 Speaker 1: but the Pokemon panic in Japan and how that was 805 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,799 Speaker 1: deemed to be like a moment of mass hysteria. So 806 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:42,400 Speaker 1: I wonder if that's possibly what the what caused this legend. 807 00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,480 Speaker 1: It could be because the other side here is you 808 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,840 Speaker 1: have this technology that's suddenly everywhere and it involves the children. 809 00:44:49,840 --> 00:44:53,080 Speaker 1: You have news accounts of some of these uh you know, 810 00:44:53,200 --> 00:44:55,879 Speaker 1: incidents taking place, and then down the line, it's easy 811 00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:59,240 Speaker 1: to wrap this all up in an attractive urban legend, 812 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:03,200 Speaker 1: perhaps in the case of Polybia's taking existing urban legends 813 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:05,480 Speaker 1: and just simply tying them up in a nice boat, 814 00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:07,400 Speaker 1: which is something you see with a lot of actual 815 00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:10,360 Speaker 1: creepy pasta. Because it's easy to see why all of 816 00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,160 Speaker 1: this is compelling, right because video games they do enact 817 00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,680 Speaker 1: to strange power over the players. In many cases, you know, 818 00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:20,160 Speaker 1: they give us this slow state. Uh, you're you're generally 819 00:45:20,239 --> 00:45:23,720 Speaker 1: dropped into a very limited world of fixed and often 820 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:27,400 Speaker 1: black and white objectives. And there's sometimes there's even like 821 00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,080 Speaker 1: the game itself is telling you what to do. Either 822 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:33,400 Speaker 1: either you're on the rails or there's some of the 823 00:45:33,680 --> 00:45:36,160 Speaker 1: cases there's a voice in your head telling you this 824 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:38,719 Speaker 1: is what we're doing, now go do it. Achieve the objective. 825 00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:43,120 Speaker 1: Here's your here's your reward in video game coins. So 826 00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:46,880 Speaker 1: on top of that, of course, I think most of 827 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:49,279 Speaker 1: us are probably familiar with some of the symptoms that 828 00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:52,600 Speaker 1: occasionally pop up from excessive video game playing or video 829 00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:56,520 Speaker 1: game addiction. So it might be say, strange blisters on 830 00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:59,960 Speaker 1: your on your bum from setting in a odd position, 831 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:04,600 Speaker 1: and headache, I strain, neck and back pain, digestive problems, 832 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:09,920 Speaker 1: sweep problems, sadness, drowsiness, even palpitations, and this kind of 833 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:12,520 Speaker 1: thing happens. I've also seen some of these same symptoms 834 00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,560 Speaker 1: line up with just say excessive computer use, uh you know, 835 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:17,920 Speaker 1: too much time setting at a computer for a for 836 00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:21,280 Speaker 1: a job or um you know. I I've known people 837 00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:23,720 Speaker 1: who ended up like screwing up their back a little 838 00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:26,960 Speaker 1: bit from being in the same position while researching, reading 839 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,879 Speaker 1: a book or something. Yeah, no, this is definitely something. Um. 840 00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:33,560 Speaker 1: So I am a recovering World of Warcraft addict. Yeah, 841 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,040 Speaker 1: and so I definitely am familiar with all of these 842 00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:38,960 Speaker 1: symptoms because I would like play for like twelve hours 843 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:42,360 Speaker 1: straight with my friends, like almost all through the night. Uh. 844 00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,000 Speaker 1: And it was not good. Those are not good days 845 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:48,560 Speaker 1: for me. Uh. But But also like sometimes when I'm 846 00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:51,399 Speaker 1: working during the day, for instance, on this episode, I'll 847 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:53,440 Speaker 1: sit there and I'll just be so into the research 848 00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,160 Speaker 1: and typing everything up and reading and reading and typing 849 00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,279 Speaker 1: and typing, and I realized I haven't gotten up for 850 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:00,840 Speaker 1: a while, you know, And so I've actually tried to 851 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:02,799 Speaker 1: make it a point to get up once an hour 852 00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:05,480 Speaker 1: and go outside and like, you know, let my eyes 853 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:08,360 Speaker 1: adjust to like natural height for a minute. You know, 854 00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:10,160 Speaker 1: you don't also do you don't want to get those 855 00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:13,920 Speaker 1: research ankles rese that's gonna be Yeah, when you and 856 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:16,080 Speaker 1: I are old men, they're going to discover like all 857 00:47:16,200 --> 00:47:18,759 Speaker 1: kinds of new ailments of of what happens when you 858 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:21,560 Speaker 1: sit there and do research for too long. Now. I 859 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,239 Speaker 1: think one of the more fascinating interactions though, between computers 860 00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:28,800 Speaker 1: and computer games and human health is one that seems 861 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:32,960 Speaker 1: very key to the polybius creepypasta here, and that is 862 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:38,040 Speaker 1: photosensitive epilepsy. Ah yeah, which is actually also connected to 863 00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:40,400 Speaker 1: that Pokemon example. Yea, I brought up. Okay, go ahead. 864 00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:45,000 Speaker 1: So people with the photosensitive epilepsy, they experience seizures, and seizures, 865 00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,040 Speaker 1: of course, can involve you know, uh, muscles tensing up, 866 00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:51,319 Speaker 1: the loss of consciousness, um loostening of the bladder, and 867 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:55,120 Speaker 1: other other physical conditions, and it can generally be just 868 00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:58,279 Speaker 1: a quite a you know, a stressful and frightening experience. 869 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:02,360 Speaker 1: But people with photo of sensitive epilepsy, they can experience 870 00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,040 Speaker 1: these seizures when exposed to flashing lights or bold contrasting 871 00:48:06,120 --> 00:48:10,920 Speaker 1: visual patterns over exposure to a video game. Um, it's 872 00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:14,000 Speaker 1: a it's a brain disorder that's caused by abnormal electrical 873 00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:17,680 Speaker 1: activity in the brain, perhaps due to irregular neural wiring 874 00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:23,200 Speaker 1: or neurotransmitter imbalance, and it's genetically linked. So about one 875 00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:27,240 Speaker 1: in a hundred U S citizens have epilepsy. Out of those, 876 00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:31,879 Speaker 1: only three to five percent have photosensitive epilepsy. And it's 877 00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:35,400 Speaker 1: also more likely to affect people ages seven through nineteen, 878 00:48:35,880 --> 00:48:39,200 Speaker 1: with males exhibiting a stronger tendency overall, but this meant 879 00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:42,840 Speaker 1: might just be due to the populations in which in 880 00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:45,040 Speaker 1: which they were looking and the time frame in which 881 00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:47,840 Speaker 1: they were looking, in which the males are more likely 882 00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:49,560 Speaker 1: to be playing a bunch of video that I was 883 00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,560 Speaker 1: going to say that is like your target demo for well, 884 00:48:52,640 --> 00:48:55,640 Speaker 1: it used to be your target demo for for video games. Yeah, 885 00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:57,480 Speaker 1: I'm not sure to what extent that has changed, especially 886 00:48:57,520 --> 00:48:59,360 Speaker 1: since I mean used to if you're steering at a 887 00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:01,080 Speaker 1: screen all the time time, you were probably either watching 888 00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:05,520 Speaker 1: TV or playing video games. Obviously, now everyone's looking at 889 00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:08,399 Speaker 1: screens all the time. This is true. Yeah, yeah, it's 890 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,359 Speaker 1: it's funny. I think that to myself often, like after 891 00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:13,080 Speaker 1: a full day or research, I'm like, what do I 892 00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:15,440 Speaker 1: want to do? Well, I could sit down and watch TV, 893 00:49:15,880 --> 00:49:18,080 Speaker 1: or I could play a video game while those are 894 00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,200 Speaker 1: both looking at a screen. Again, and now even like 895 00:49:20,239 --> 00:49:22,080 Speaker 1: if I want to read comics or read a book, 896 00:49:23,200 --> 00:49:25,480 Speaker 1: it's a different that's another screen of Yeah, I have 897 00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:27,080 Speaker 1: so many screens to look at. That's one of the 898 00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,080 Speaker 1: reasons I like the Kindle I have because it's it's yes, 899 00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:32,000 Speaker 1: it's screen, but at least it's that it doesn't have 900 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:34,959 Speaker 1: a glow to it. My kindles the same. Yeah, but occasionally. 901 00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:37,279 Speaker 1: Actually I did this just yesterday. I was like, after 902 00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,080 Speaker 1: a long day of just looking at screens, I was like, 903 00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,840 Speaker 1: I'm gonna just take a magazine into the bathtub. Perfect, 904 00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:46,040 Speaker 1: perfect way to relax. Alright, So, given the triggers of 905 00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:49,799 Speaker 1: pulsating lights here with the photo photo sensitive epilepsy, it's 906 00:49:49,880 --> 00:49:51,920 Speaker 1: easy to think of it as a just a collision 907 00:49:51,920 --> 00:49:55,400 Speaker 1: between human brains in our modern world of discos and 908 00:49:55,520 --> 00:49:59,000 Speaker 1: video games, right, But the earliest possible case, if this 909 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,960 Speaker 1: goes back to ancient Greece where we have reports of 910 00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:04,840 Speaker 1: an epileptic who would go into seizures, is a potter 911 00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:08,360 Speaker 1: wheel was rotated in front of his eyes. Because you 912 00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,279 Speaker 1: don't have to say, have flashing lights, but if you 913 00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:13,080 Speaker 1: have light behind it and you have the pattern occurring, 914 00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:18,520 Speaker 1: it's a it's a pattern of contrasting light. Yeah. Um, 915 00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:20,799 Speaker 1: But even this you have to point out from an 916 00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:23,440 Speaker 1: evolutionary standpoint, it's still kind of an invention of the 917 00:50:23,440 --> 00:50:25,839 Speaker 1: modern world. We're talking about the wheel here, right, It's 918 00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:28,080 Speaker 1: a It's something certainly we've had for a while, but 919 00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:30,600 Speaker 1: have we haven't had it long enough to really impact 920 00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:35,239 Speaker 1: human evolution. And even you'll find encounters where color can 921 00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:39,839 Speaker 1: stimulate photosensitive epilepsy, generally reds and blues, And these are 922 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:43,160 Speaker 1: colors that are not the most common in the natural world. 923 00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:46,120 Speaker 1: I mean, aside from the sky, which many argue is 924 00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,960 Speaker 1: not truly blue. I mean, how much pure blue do 925 00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:53,440 Speaker 1: you encounter in nature? How much pure red? Yeah, that's interesting. 926 00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:56,920 Speaker 1: I mean some flowers for sure, But you're right that 927 00:50:57,040 --> 00:50:59,759 Speaker 1: they would be like a lower percentage, Like if you 928 00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:02,120 Speaker 1: were going to do like a color swatch Pellett of 929 00:51:02,239 --> 00:51:04,680 Speaker 1: like your walk through the woods, they would be far 930 00:51:04,760 --> 00:51:07,719 Speaker 1: smaller than all the greens and browns and earth tones. Yeah, 931 00:51:07,719 --> 00:51:10,520 Speaker 1: and they would ultimately be easy to avoid and would 932 00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:14,319 Speaker 1: not have an impact on evolutionary biology. But I have 933 00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:16,399 Speaker 1: to point out the same thing goes for a lot 934 00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:21,680 Speaker 1: of the stimuli, specific stimuli that people with photosensitive epilepsy encounter, 935 00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:24,839 Speaker 1: Like in many cases it's something specific enough that they 936 00:51:24,880 --> 00:51:27,719 Speaker 1: can readily avoid it, and then on top of that 937 00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,680 Speaker 1: their anti epileptic medications that are taken as well. Uh. 938 00:51:31,719 --> 00:51:34,239 Speaker 1: And then also we mentioned the age range, like as 939 00:51:34,239 --> 00:51:36,279 Speaker 1: people get older, it seems like there are in many 940 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:40,880 Speaker 1: cases less susceptible to this. However, there is a case 941 00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:43,279 Speaker 1: worth mentioning, and we've I believe we've touched on this 942 00:51:43,320 --> 00:51:46,040 Speaker 1: on the podcast before, and that is the recent case 943 00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:51,520 Speaker 1: of Newsweek senior editor Kurt I Convolved, who was attacked 944 00:51:51,640 --> 00:51:56,320 Speaker 1: on Twitter. The incident here is that another Twitter user 945 00:51:56,880 --> 00:52:02,640 Speaker 1: disagreed with some of Kurt's political tweets and and knowing 946 00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:07,480 Speaker 1: that he has had photosensitive epilepsy, tweeted a flashing gift 947 00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:12,440 Speaker 1: at him, which resulted in a seizure. So it's um, 948 00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:17,279 Speaker 1: it's a it's a revolting case, but illuminating in light 949 00:52:17,320 --> 00:52:19,440 Speaker 1: of everything we've talked about and about these triggers and 950 00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:23,960 Speaker 1: the ramifications of these triggers in an increasingly technological world. Okay, 951 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:25,759 Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to go back and listen to our 952 00:52:25,800 --> 00:52:28,600 Speaker 1: episode about why is social media making us crazy? And 953 00:52:28,640 --> 00:52:31,799 Speaker 1: then we'll be right back. Yeah, Okay, I listened to it, right. 954 00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:34,720 Speaker 1: Are you ready to move on? Yeah? Yeah. That's basically 955 00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:38,320 Speaker 1: polybius here, the video game that allegedly drives one insane 956 00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:42,839 Speaker 1: or or causes some sort of health problems. But of course, 957 00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:45,919 Speaker 1: we have plenty of examples of video games that can 958 00:52:46,120 --> 00:52:49,960 Speaker 1: cause at least certain members of the population. Uh, various 959 00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,520 Speaker 1: health health problems. Isn't Polybius also the name of a 960 00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:56,880 Speaker 1: Michael Shay short story. Oh yeah, I believe it is. 961 00:52:57,160 --> 00:52:59,440 Speaker 1: It's a science fiction that's the name of this sciencefic, 962 00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:01,960 Speaker 1: one of a short fiction collection. Yeah. When I first 963 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:03,799 Speaker 1: saw this, I thought that's what it was, because you 964 00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:07,439 Speaker 1: let me borrow that book. Um. Cool, that's a neat 965 00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,480 Speaker 1: little tie in just for fun for us and maybe 966 00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:12,480 Speaker 1: for other people out there who are Michael Shay fans. 967 00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:15,799 Speaker 1: We're big Michael Shay NERD's here. All right, Well, let's 968 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:17,800 Speaker 1: let's hit another one. Then before we take a break. 969 00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:23,760 Speaker 1: You have you you have another specimen from the SCP. Yeah, 970 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:27,520 Speaker 1: this is SCP six eight two, also known as the 971 00:53:27,640 --> 00:53:31,560 Speaker 1: Hard to Destroy Reptile and actually linking it to Michael say, 972 00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:33,279 Speaker 1: this seems like the kind of thing Michael Shay would 973 00:53:33,320 --> 00:53:35,640 Speaker 1: come up within his work. It's like it's a straight 974 00:53:35,719 --> 00:53:39,680 Speaker 1: up monster, but is like the scientifically fascinating monster when 975 00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:44,040 Speaker 1: you kind of apply real world biology to it. Yeah, 976 00:53:44,360 --> 00:53:49,279 Speaker 1: Michael Shay loved biology. I mean it's evident in his work. 977 00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,880 Speaker 1: So many stories involve some sort of unique, uh monster 978 00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:59,200 Speaker 1: biology that's clearly patterned after say parasitic wasps for behavior, spiders, etcetera. Yeah, 979 00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:02,920 Speaker 1: so in this instance, again I'm just summarizing here rather 980 00:54:02,960 --> 00:54:05,520 Speaker 1: than reading you the whole creepy pasta. This is an 981 00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:10,840 Speaker 1: intelligent reptile and it hates all life forms. It goes 982 00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:15,120 Speaker 1: into a rage state anytime it's spoken to, and it 983 00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:19,440 Speaker 1: has the following superpowers. It can regenerate by consuming any 984 00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:24,040 Speaker 1: type of matter, whether inorganic or organic, and its digestion 985 00:54:24,239 --> 00:54:27,359 Speaker 1: seems to be aided by gills that are inside its 986 00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:32,759 Speaker 1: nostrils that can remove any usable matter from a liquid solution. 987 00:54:33,239 --> 00:54:38,240 Speaker 1: So subsequently it can't be killed. It has super high strength, speed, 988 00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:42,480 Speaker 1: and reflexes. I wrote here essentially we're talking about wolverine, 989 00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:45,840 Speaker 1: right like this is this is a classic Hugh Jackman 990 00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:50,480 Speaker 1: logan wolverine type stuff. The lizard here though, it can 991 00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:54,160 Speaker 1: keep moving and speaking even if eight seven percent of 992 00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:57,279 Speaker 1: its body has been destroyed. So this is like this 993 00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:01,120 Speaker 1: fearsome monster and creepy pasta lore. And basically they say, 994 00:55:01,160 --> 00:55:03,200 Speaker 1: like you have to contain this thing in like a 995 00:55:03,239 --> 00:55:06,080 Speaker 1: pool of hydrochloric acid at all times and it'll like 996 00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:08,799 Speaker 1: continually be regenerating, but at least it will be like 997 00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:12,239 Speaker 1: so constantly disabled that you can contain it that way, 998 00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:14,160 Speaker 1: and I love that it's just a rage lizard, that's 999 00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:17,840 Speaker 1: just an enraged lizard that hates you. Man, If you 1000 00:55:17,880 --> 00:55:20,560 Speaker 1: actually go to the Creepy Pasta page for this again, 1001 00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:23,719 Speaker 1: it's s CP six eight two, there's demonstrations of some 1002 00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,680 Speaker 1: of the dialogue with this creature that shows just how 1003 00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,600 Speaker 1: much it hates everything. Uh. Now, of course this made 1004 00:55:30,640 --> 00:55:32,920 Speaker 1: me think of reptile regeneration, and so I wanted to 1005 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:36,440 Speaker 1: look into that and see, like, just how possible would 1006 00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:41,000 Speaker 1: reptile regeneration be at this level. Okay, so we've all 1007 00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:44,880 Speaker 1: heard stories about lizards that regrow limbs or they regrow 1008 00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:49,120 Speaker 1: their tails. In fact, regeneration is mostly common in invertebrates 1009 00:55:49,160 --> 00:55:53,280 Speaker 1: like worms and insects. Crustaceans and insects can actually spontaneously 1010 00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:56,160 Speaker 1: lose and replace their body parts in a process that's 1011 00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:00,200 Speaker 1: called auto tommy. But sponges and starfish well, so no, 1012 00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:03,840 Speaker 1: they can replace and repair their limbs. Starfish can even 1013 00:56:03,880 --> 00:56:08,719 Speaker 1: regenerate into a new animal sometimes, and we've discussed this 1014 00:56:08,760 --> 00:56:10,919 Speaker 1: on the show before. Another one of my favorites. We're 1015 00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:15,080 Speaker 1: revisiting a lot of greatest hits today, The hydra uh 1016 00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:18,120 Speaker 1: is such an amazing little animal. It can tear open 1017 00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:22,080 Speaker 1: its own flesh to create these mouths that they then 1018 00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:26,359 Speaker 1: shove their prey into before they heal back over their flesh. Yeah, 1019 00:56:26,400 --> 00:56:30,120 Speaker 1: the footage of this of this phenomenon is wonderful because 1020 00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:33,320 Speaker 1: it's it's like something that's it's pure lovecraft, because the 1021 00:56:33,719 --> 00:56:36,880 Speaker 1: rip just gets wider and wider until the mouth is 1022 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:39,200 Speaker 1: larger than the hydro west and you feel like it's 1023 00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:43,120 Speaker 1: just gonna swallow your soul through this comp s. It's upsetting. Yeah, 1024 00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,399 Speaker 1: and I would definitely not want to encounter human sized 1025 00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:50,319 Speaker 1: hydro that's for sure. Um mammals we can regenerate a 1026 00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:53,640 Speaker 1: little bit like deer. They can regrow their antlers right, 1027 00:56:53,719 --> 00:56:57,280 Speaker 1: and sometimes humans can regenerate internal organs like the liver, 1028 00:56:57,840 --> 00:57:00,799 Speaker 1: but we mainly we don't regenerate. And the reason why 1029 00:57:00,920 --> 00:57:04,600 Speaker 1: is because our wounds are sealed off with thickened mats 1030 00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:09,439 Speaker 1: of collagen. The scars ward off infection. But they make 1031 00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:13,400 Speaker 1: it really difficult to completely heal because the collagen is 1032 00:57:13,480 --> 00:57:17,400 Speaker 1: severing the nerves and those can't penetrate the barrier to reconnect. 1033 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:21,000 Speaker 1: So it seems like biology is one of two ways 1034 00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:24,400 Speaker 1: you either get to scar or you get to regenerate. Now, scars, 1035 00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:26,680 Speaker 1: when you look at your scars like I've got some 1036 00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:30,000 Speaker 1: scars on my hands and stuff, they're essentially just overgrowth 1037 00:57:30,000 --> 00:57:33,680 Speaker 1: of our normal fibrous scaffolding, the stuff that supports all 1038 00:57:33,720 --> 00:57:37,960 Speaker 1: of our tissues. Right now, all kinds of lizards can regenerate, 1039 00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:41,840 Speaker 1: but not all lizards can. Crocodiles and snakes don't seem 1040 00:57:41,880 --> 00:57:44,560 Speaker 1: to be able to. And in fact, the photo of 1041 00:57:44,600 --> 00:57:50,120 Speaker 1: this scp rage monster lizard, it's essentially a crocodile, that's 1042 00:57:50,120 --> 00:57:54,840 Speaker 1: what it looks like. But iguanas, geckos, salamanders, larval frogs, 1043 00:57:54,840 --> 00:57:57,800 Speaker 1: and toads, they have all demonstrated the ability to regenerate. 1044 00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:02,200 Speaker 1: In many cases, the regrown limb will separate from the muscles, 1045 00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:05,600 Speaker 1: the blood supply, and the nerves. The bones they actually 1046 00:58:05,640 --> 00:58:09,800 Speaker 1: regrow not as bones but as cartilaginous tubes. Uh. And 1047 00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:13,200 Speaker 1: so this isn't instantaneous. It can take, for instance, and 1048 00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:17,280 Speaker 1: annul a lizard sixty days just to regenerate a functional tail, 1049 00:58:17,840 --> 00:58:21,280 Speaker 1: and the process is stressful because the lizard has to 1050 00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:23,520 Speaker 1: use a lot of energy to do this. It can 1051 00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:27,720 Speaker 1: even lower their social status, among other lizards, but the 1052 00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:31,960 Speaker 1: less stress the lizard deals with, the faster the stump 1053 00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,320 Speaker 1: will heal. So, you know, wants to go to a 1054 00:58:34,360 --> 00:58:36,840 Speaker 1: little quiet place, you know, be in the dark and 1055 00:58:36,880 --> 00:58:40,080 Speaker 1: just sit there and regenerate. You know, some lizards can 1056 00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:43,120 Speaker 1: only do this once, while other lizards can shed and 1057 00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:48,280 Speaker 1: regenerate over and over and over again. Now, interestingly, researchers 1058 00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:52,400 Speaker 1: at Arizona State University in furteen were able to pinpoint 1059 00:58:52,440 --> 00:58:57,000 Speaker 1: the genes responsible for annual lizard tail regeneration, and of 1060 00:58:57,040 --> 00:59:01,320 Speaker 1: the twenty three thousand genes, they narrowed it down to 1061 00:59:01,480 --> 00:59:04,720 Speaker 1: three hundred and twenty six that were quote turned on 1062 00:59:04,880 --> 00:59:09,160 Speaker 1: during regeneration. While they expected this to be mostly genes 1063 00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,600 Speaker 1: that were in the tip where the tail was regrowing, 1064 00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:15,840 Speaker 1: they actually found that cells dividing, we're all over the lizard, 1065 00:59:15,840 --> 00:59:19,240 Speaker 1: including in its muscle, its cartilage, it's spinal cord, and 1066 00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:23,200 Speaker 1: its skin. They also found get this, of those three 1067 00:59:23,240 --> 00:59:26,960 Speaker 1: hundred and twenty six genes that were responsible for regeneration, 1068 00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:31,040 Speaker 1: nearly all of them are present in us in human 1069 00:59:31,080 --> 00:59:34,160 Speaker 1: beings as well, So in theory, we should be able 1070 00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:36,960 Speaker 1: to do the same thing. So they're hoping their research 1071 00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:40,960 Speaker 1: will help find a way to help with birth defects, 1072 00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:45,439 Speaker 1: spinal cord injuries, and possibly arthritis. Now, some of these 1073 00:59:45,480 --> 00:59:49,680 Speaker 1: genes seemed to be involved in embryonic development and in 1074 00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:53,600 Speaker 1: wound healing. The genes involved in regeneration all seemed to 1075 00:59:53,640 --> 00:59:56,800 Speaker 1: be part of the w n T pathway. I think 1076 00:59:56,800 --> 00:59:59,880 Speaker 1: that's how you pronounce it. It's just wouldn't it's just 1077 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:05,320 Speaker 1: produced like that in the literature that controls stem cells 1078 01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:07,800 Speaker 1: in organs like our brain, our hair follicles, and all 1079 01:00:07,920 --> 01:00:11,960 Speaker 1: our blood vessels. So researchers they've identified a type of 1080 01:00:12,000 --> 01:00:16,560 Speaker 1: cell that's really important for tissue regeneration. That's the satellite cell. 1081 01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:19,640 Speaker 1: And these satellite cells are also more common and nole 1082 01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:22,040 Speaker 1: a lizards. So all right, let's apply this to our 1083 01:00:22,120 --> 01:00:26,120 Speaker 1: reptile monster here. It sounds like as a reptile, it 1084 01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:29,320 Speaker 1: probably has the same ability that many lizards that we've 1085 01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:32,320 Speaker 1: described have, but this is at a more accelerated rate. 1086 01:00:32,320 --> 01:00:34,840 Speaker 1: It probably doesn't scar at all. And based on that 1087 01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:38,720 Speaker 1: tween genetic discovery, I would guess maybe this reptile has 1088 01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:42,320 Speaker 1: even more genes that quote turn on and allow it 1089 01:00:42,400 --> 01:00:45,800 Speaker 1: cells to divide, and maybe it has more satellite cells too. 1090 01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:49,960 Speaker 1: But it seems like it would need to consume a lot, 1091 01:00:50,600 --> 01:00:52,840 Speaker 1: a lot of energy to keep this up right, So 1092 01:00:53,000 --> 01:00:55,640 Speaker 1: what is it eating? And it's said in the Creepy 1093 01:00:55,680 --> 01:00:58,280 Speaker 1: pasta that you know it can convert any matter into 1094 01:00:58,400 --> 01:01:02,000 Speaker 1: energy essentially, right. Um, it makes me think of this 1095 01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:07,040 Speaker 1: Legion of Superheroes character called matter Eater Lad, So maybe 1096 01:01:07,120 --> 01:01:09,720 Speaker 1: this is a this is like an evil version of that. Okay, 1097 01:01:09,960 --> 01:01:12,880 Speaker 1: what also reminds me, I think there's another stp anentity 1098 01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:16,120 Speaker 1: that's like a living thing without any without an orifice. 1099 01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,760 Speaker 1: So yeah, we talked about that in one of the 1100 01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:22,400 Speaker 1: other ones. So like there's the idea, Well, it must 1101 01:01:22,480 --> 01:01:25,320 Speaker 1: have like an extra dimensional portion of its body that 1102 01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:29,440 Speaker 1: eats in another world. Yeah. Well here I turned to 1103 01:01:29,600 --> 01:01:33,520 Speaker 1: just normal digestion and matter conversion to try to figure 1104 01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:36,480 Speaker 1: this out. So a brief primer on simply how we 1105 01:01:36,600 --> 01:01:40,440 Speaker 1: and most other living things digest. We break down food 1106 01:01:40,480 --> 01:01:42,400 Speaker 1: and I'm putting that in quotes because remember, this thing 1107 01:01:42,400 --> 01:01:45,080 Speaker 1: can eat organic stuff, but we just break them down 1108 01:01:45,080 --> 01:01:49,360 Speaker 1: into smaller substances and then we extract nutrients from them 1109 01:01:49,400 --> 01:01:53,320 Speaker 1: that gives us energy to develop. So there's three micronutrients 1110 01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:57,200 Speaker 1: for this energy, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids. We also make 1111 01:01:57,320 --> 01:02:00,760 Speaker 1: use of vitamins and materials, and then through chemical old digestion, 1112 01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:03,360 Speaker 1: which is after we've chewed our food and our stomach 1113 01:02:03,400 --> 01:02:06,280 Speaker 1: has churned it all down. There's enzymes in our bodies 1114 01:02:06,360 --> 01:02:09,840 Speaker 1: that break the chemical bonds and change the structure of 1115 01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:14,320 Speaker 1: the molecules involved. And the human mechanical process that also 1116 01:02:14,360 --> 01:02:19,120 Speaker 1: involves moistening that starts the actual chemical enzyme breakdown. Right, 1117 01:02:19,120 --> 01:02:21,800 Speaker 1: our saliva is sort of the beginning of that process. 1118 01:02:22,240 --> 01:02:25,520 Speaker 1: So okay, let's turn back to this lizard monster SCP 1119 01:02:25,680 --> 01:02:30,280 Speaker 1: Nine six two. It seems that this reptiles digestion is 1120 01:02:30,360 --> 01:02:34,400 Speaker 1: aided by turning substance into a liquid. Remember it mentioned 1121 01:02:34,400 --> 01:02:37,680 Speaker 1: that it breathes in liquid and then it takes in 1122 01:02:37,720 --> 01:02:42,600 Speaker 1: the substances through gills that then distribute the micronutrients around 1123 01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:45,240 Speaker 1: to be converted into energy. So what I'm wondering, does 1124 01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:48,160 Speaker 1: it choose stuff up and then vomit it back up 1125 01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:52,000 Speaker 1: and then snort it down through its gills somehow it's 1126 01:02:52,040 --> 01:02:56,840 Speaker 1: turning like if it's eating rocks, it's turning those rocks 1127 01:02:56,840 --> 01:03:00,960 Speaker 1: into a liquid somehow, and then it's bringing the liquid 1128 01:03:00,960 --> 01:03:03,720 Speaker 1: in through the gills and its nose it's quite confusing. 1129 01:03:04,000 --> 01:03:06,080 Speaker 1: Or maybe there's just a little hole in between its 1130 01:03:06,120 --> 01:03:09,960 Speaker 1: mouth and its nostrils and that the liquid goes up 1131 01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:11,760 Speaker 1: and filters in through the gills that way. I mean, 1132 01:03:11,760 --> 01:03:13,320 Speaker 1: it's certainly not that far removed from some of the 1133 01:03:13,560 --> 01:03:16,960 Speaker 1: feeding practices of insects. I mean, the famous one being, 1134 01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:19,320 Speaker 1: of course, the fly. And then the other thing here 1135 01:03:19,400 --> 01:03:23,640 Speaker 1: is how powerful must the acidic enzymes in its digestive 1136 01:03:23,640 --> 01:03:26,960 Speaker 1: system be that allow it to break down anything? Right? 1137 01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:29,400 Speaker 1: And that makes me think they keep talking about in 1138 01:03:29,400 --> 01:03:32,160 Speaker 1: this creepy aposta, oh we hydrochloric acid is the only 1139 01:03:32,160 --> 01:03:34,320 Speaker 1: way we can deal with this thing. And I'm thinking, well, 1140 01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:38,200 Speaker 1: maybe the hydrochloric acid is breaking down its external body 1141 01:03:38,240 --> 01:03:41,479 Speaker 1: parts on the outside, but it's probably got some kind 1142 01:03:41,480 --> 01:03:46,240 Speaker 1: of acidic shielding inside its stomach and digestive system. Yeah, 1143 01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:49,560 Speaker 1: I mean, much like humans do exactly. Yeah, So this 1144 01:03:49,640 --> 01:03:54,920 Speaker 1: thing classic example if you just combine reptile regeneration and 1145 01:03:54,960 --> 01:03:58,080 Speaker 1: you kind of accelerate it to fantastic levels, and then 1146 01:03:58,120 --> 01:04:01,360 Speaker 1: you consider just how digest it works, which is pretty 1147 01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:04,800 Speaker 1: fantastic when you think about it. So, okay, we've hit 1148 01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:08,520 Speaker 1: three of them, three creepy pastas. Let's take one more break, 1149 01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:10,840 Speaker 1: we'll come back and we'll get our last one in. 1150 01:04:13,960 --> 01:04:16,880 Speaker 1: All right, we're back. So the final creepy pasta for 1151 01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:20,920 Speaker 1: this episode is one known as The Grifter, and I 1152 01:04:20,960 --> 01:04:23,120 Speaker 1: want to just give everyone a heads up here in 1153 01:04:23,320 --> 01:04:28,000 Speaker 1: this particular portion of the podcast, we're gonna get into 1154 01:04:28,040 --> 01:04:30,919 Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're pretty PG show, but this one 1155 01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:34,080 Speaker 1: is going to involve enough films a little bit. So 1156 01:04:34,240 --> 01:04:37,280 Speaker 1: if you need to check out at this point, we 1157 01:04:37,360 --> 01:04:39,360 Speaker 1: respect that. And if you want to come back in 1158 01:04:39,520 --> 01:04:42,600 Speaker 1: when you're when the listening audience is more appropriate, you 1159 01:04:42,680 --> 01:04:45,680 Speaker 1: may do that as well. Okay, alright, So I keep 1160 01:04:45,800 --> 01:04:48,439 Speaker 1: I kept coming back to this one though, because there's 1161 01:04:48,480 --> 01:04:52,480 Speaker 1: something kind of pure about it, you know, something something uncut. 1162 01:04:53,640 --> 01:04:56,320 Speaker 1: The versions of The Grifter that I kept coming across, 1163 01:04:56,480 --> 01:04:59,200 Speaker 1: they don't even have the embellishments of character story. It's 1164 01:04:59,240 --> 01:05:01,600 Speaker 1: simply the side you that, hey, there's a video out 1165 01:05:01,640 --> 01:05:04,200 Speaker 1: there called The Grifter, and it's sort of a super 1166 01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:08,120 Speaker 1: cut of disturbing images that contain, uh, you know, actual 1167 01:05:08,160 --> 01:05:11,720 Speaker 1: footage of child deaths and creepy puppets, which seems like 1168 01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:15,440 Speaker 1: an object of position because on one hand, child deaths 1169 01:05:15,480 --> 01:05:18,160 Speaker 1: are horrible and they should not be filmed, and they 1170 01:05:18,200 --> 01:05:21,720 Speaker 1: are filmed, and that's probably suspectus. There was almost certainly 1171 01:05:21,760 --> 01:05:24,560 Speaker 1: a crime committed here, right, and creepy. But on the 1172 01:05:24,560 --> 01:05:26,840 Speaker 1: other hand, creepy puppets are just creepy puppets that are 1173 01:05:26,880 --> 01:05:29,760 Speaker 1: just good, wholesome fun. Uh So I don't see why 1174 01:05:29,800 --> 01:05:32,000 Speaker 1: I should react to the creepy puppet in the same 1175 01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:34,240 Speaker 1: way I'm reacting to a film. Just sounds like a 1176 01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:38,240 Speaker 1: like a video goo losh, Yeah, to sort of overwhelm 1177 01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:40,920 Speaker 1: your senses. But this was definitely a theme for a while. 1178 01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:44,240 Speaker 1: It still is, right, I mean, ring and Ringo obviously 1179 01:05:44,320 --> 01:05:47,720 Speaker 1: kicked it off the video drome transmission. Yeah, And there's 1180 01:05:47,720 --> 01:05:49,960 Speaker 1: a lot of literary fiction that I've read lately that's 1181 01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:52,600 Speaker 1: kind of like meta horror analysis. In fact, Joe Hill 1182 01:05:52,680 --> 01:05:56,240 Speaker 1: has one that's like this about like watching horror movies. 1183 01:05:56,320 --> 01:05:59,600 Speaker 1: Actually read this book by Jema Files recently called Experimental Film. 1184 01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:01,960 Speaker 1: It's it's very similar. The whole kind of thing is 1185 01:06:02,000 --> 01:06:05,959 Speaker 1: just like there are these haunted things that you're watching, right, Yeah, Yeah, 1186 01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:09,800 Speaker 1: it's um. It's really interesting because it it seems to emerge. 1187 01:06:09,840 --> 01:06:12,520 Speaker 1: The Grifter in particular, seems to emerge from two areas here, 1188 01:06:13,000 --> 01:06:16,920 Speaker 1: So the endearing urban myth of the snuff film, and 1189 01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:21,280 Speaker 1: of course the ever widening realm of recorded human experience, 1190 01:06:21,360 --> 01:06:24,920 Speaker 1: just the fact that there are there, there are films 1191 01:06:25,040 --> 01:06:27,560 Speaker 1: of human death. There, There is footage of human death 1192 01:06:27,800 --> 01:06:29,240 Speaker 1: out there on the Internet, and you don't even really 1193 01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:31,720 Speaker 1: have to look that hard to find it. Hell no, 1194 01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:34,800 Speaker 1: I mean, when we were growing up, even before there 1195 01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:38,840 Speaker 1: was really an internet, faces of deathless and I'll get 1196 01:06:38,840 --> 01:06:40,640 Speaker 1: to faces. Yeah, I saw face as a death when 1197 01:06:40,640 --> 01:06:42,520 Speaker 1: I was like, oh god, way too young and like 1198 01:06:42,520 --> 01:06:44,640 Speaker 1: a fourteen or fifteen. I don't think I ever saw them, 1199 01:06:44,640 --> 01:06:47,800 Speaker 1: but I remember I remember the VHS tapes, which was enough, 1200 01:06:48,160 --> 01:06:50,120 Speaker 1: you know, just to see the tapes and maybe if 1201 01:06:50,160 --> 01:06:51,600 Speaker 1: I got brave, you know, pick it up and read 1202 01:06:51,640 --> 01:06:54,440 Speaker 1: the back of it. Now. But before we get into 1203 01:06:54,480 --> 01:06:57,919 Speaker 1: either these areas though, it's of course worth remembering that 1204 01:06:58,080 --> 01:07:00,680 Speaker 1: footage of human deaths. Not only do they exists, but 1205 01:07:00,760 --> 01:07:04,280 Speaker 1: they've they've been with us for quite a while. Um. 1206 01:07:04,320 --> 01:07:08,960 Speaker 1: Among the older examples, you'll find botched performances, most famously 1207 01:07:09,360 --> 01:07:15,160 Speaker 1: friends uh Richild's nineteen twelve failed Eiffel Tower parachute jump. 1208 01:07:15,960 --> 01:07:18,400 Speaker 1: Uh And that's out there on YouTube as well, but 1209 01:07:18,480 --> 01:07:20,200 Speaker 1: you know, basically he was going to test out this 1210 01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:22,960 Speaker 1: parachute apparatus. It didn't work, he died, and there's film 1211 01:07:22,960 --> 01:07:25,880 Speaker 1: in footage of it. For non human animals, we have 1212 01:07:25,920 --> 01:07:31,280 Speaker 1: Thomas Edison's three filmed electrocution of Topsy the Elephant Man. 1213 01:07:31,720 --> 01:07:33,400 Speaker 1: You guys have talked about this on the show before, 1214 01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:36,800 Speaker 1: didn't you do like a whole episode on Yeah, Joe 1215 01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:39,480 Speaker 1: and Robert have another episode that's all about like electricity 1216 01:07:39,480 --> 01:07:43,640 Speaker 1: and religiosity. But man Thomas Edison did some really awful 1217 01:07:43,720 --> 01:07:47,640 Speaker 1: stuff basically to try to like promote his brand of electricity, 1218 01:07:47,680 --> 01:07:51,640 Speaker 1: including electrocuting human beings. Yeah, I mean, but as far 1219 01:07:51,680 --> 01:07:53,439 Speaker 1: as just Topsy goes, even though it's not a human 1220 01:07:53,480 --> 01:07:58,479 Speaker 1: like that, it's a pretty it's it's a pretty dark history. Now, 1221 01:07:58,600 --> 01:08:02,080 Speaker 1: if you follow all of this stuff with numerous assassinations, 1222 01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:06,160 Speaker 1: footage of war and violence, various performance or sports sports 1223 01:08:06,200 --> 01:08:09,840 Speaker 1: based fatalities, you end up having just quite a well 1224 01:08:10,480 --> 01:08:14,000 Speaker 1: of a filmed death. And then of course we eventually 1225 01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:17,479 Speaker 1: see filmed murders and suicides that also occur outside the 1226 01:08:17,479 --> 01:08:21,400 Speaker 1: confines of war. So as cameras grow more and more ubiquitous, 1227 01:08:21,479 --> 01:08:26,160 Speaker 1: the act of capturing life means inevitably capturing death as well. 1228 01:08:26,240 --> 01:08:28,880 Speaker 1: And I just mentioned recently on the Optography episode, I've 1229 01:08:28,920 --> 01:08:32,120 Speaker 1: got a whole book full of photos from the nineteenth 1230 01:08:32,120 --> 01:08:34,800 Speaker 1: century of dead bodies. That was because there was this 1231 01:08:34,880 --> 01:08:37,559 Speaker 1: fascination at the time with that would be kind of 1232 01:08:37,600 --> 01:08:39,960 Speaker 1: the best way to remember the person. They thought, right 1233 01:08:39,960 --> 01:08:43,160 Speaker 1: as like right before they were buried, they would get 1234 01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:45,880 Speaker 1: them very well dressed up the corpse and take a 1235 01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:50,160 Speaker 1: photo that the family would keep. You know, now, in 1236 01:08:50,200 --> 01:08:52,880 Speaker 1: all of this, okay, so we know the footage is 1237 01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:55,400 Speaker 1: out there, like some of it's on YouTube, especially the 1238 01:08:55,760 --> 01:09:00,000 Speaker 1: historic bits of footage. Other stuff is more buried away 1239 01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:03,200 Speaker 1: and darker portions of the web. But there is something 1240 01:09:03,200 --> 01:09:05,720 Speaker 1: creepy about just knowing that it's out there, that all 1241 01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:07,439 Speaker 1: of this stuff on the Internet is out there and 1242 01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:10,439 Speaker 1: it's just a few key strokes away if you are 1243 01:09:10,520 --> 01:09:14,840 Speaker 1: willing to glance in its direction. Right now, In all 1244 01:09:14,920 --> 01:09:18,639 Speaker 1: these cases though, we're talking about, you know about footage, 1245 01:09:18,640 --> 01:09:22,760 Speaker 1: footage of something that happened, or in some cases some 1246 01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:25,679 Speaker 1: of the violer examples, Yes it's somebody perpetrating a crime 1247 01:09:25,720 --> 01:09:30,719 Speaker 1: and filming it, but they are not exactly snuff films. 1248 01:09:30,800 --> 01:09:34,760 Speaker 1: It's there, they're not examples of film that contains an 1249 01:09:34,800 --> 01:09:38,519 Speaker 1: actual murder committed as an intentional part of the production 1250 01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:43,600 Speaker 1: for profit. It's not a murder stage for commercial purposes, 1251 01:09:43,680 --> 01:09:48,200 Speaker 1: which is terrifying and yet somehow believable idea. And it's 1252 01:09:48,240 --> 01:09:51,200 Speaker 1: tied directly to this urban legend of the snuff film. 1253 01:09:51,360 --> 01:09:55,839 Speaker 1: So what this makes me think of immediately is nine eleven. 1254 01:09:56,280 --> 01:09:59,519 Speaker 1: So when nine eleven happened, we've all heard the stories 1255 01:09:59,560 --> 01:10:01,880 Speaker 1: about how there were some victims who had to jump 1256 01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:04,679 Speaker 1: off of the building. Right, So the jumper is a famous, 1257 01:10:04,960 --> 01:10:08,960 Speaker 1: uh famous photograph of the individual jumping out of the 1258 01:10:09,000 --> 01:10:12,640 Speaker 1: tower exactly. Now, a lot of that footage did not 1259 01:10:12,760 --> 01:10:17,479 Speaker 1: show up in American media, especially after eleven happened, right 1260 01:10:17,680 --> 01:10:21,240 Speaker 1: we are media was definitely sanitized at that time. That's 1261 01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:24,479 Speaker 1: a whole another episode. But I was actually in Eastern 1262 01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:26,880 Speaker 1: Europe a couple of years after that, and I was 1263 01:10:27,000 --> 01:10:30,760 Speaker 1: in Krakow in Poland, and there was a gallery and 1264 01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:34,800 Speaker 1: it was all photos from nine eleven, including that one, 1265 01:10:34,960 --> 01:10:36,720 Speaker 1: you know, and they had blown it up and it 1266 01:10:36,880 --> 01:10:40,519 Speaker 1: basically the gallery sort of challenging you to look at 1267 01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:44,479 Speaker 1: this moment of horror and real death, but confront it 1268 01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:47,360 Speaker 1: in a way that American news media wasn't willing to. 1269 01:10:47,560 --> 01:10:51,680 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean there are times when the photograph 1270 01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:55,400 Speaker 1: or film footage of actual human death has certainly been 1271 01:10:55,439 --> 01:10:59,720 Speaker 1: a poignant, you know, capture of of what it means 1272 01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:01,400 Speaker 1: to of in our modern world. I mean, I could 1273 01:11:01,520 --> 01:11:03,280 Speaker 1: we could sit here and list the various you know, 1274 01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:06,200 Speaker 1: assassinations or I mean a lot of them. I guess 1275 01:11:06,200 --> 01:11:13,439 Speaker 1: they're targeted political assassinations, political murders, big Vietnam footage. More recently, 1276 01:11:13,479 --> 01:11:16,200 Speaker 1: there was the it was the the the Russian ambassador 1277 01:11:16,280 --> 01:11:19,080 Speaker 1: to Turkey, Is that correct? It was a shot in 1278 01:11:19,120 --> 01:11:21,360 Speaker 1: the gallery and there was a journalist there and captured 1279 01:11:21,400 --> 01:11:23,960 Speaker 1: the whole thing, and they were they were powerful, award 1280 01:11:24,040 --> 01:11:29,639 Speaker 1: winning photographs of this this crime taking place. But again 1281 01:11:29,800 --> 01:11:33,280 Speaker 1: very different from they're not snuff films. Yeah, they're not 1282 01:11:33,360 --> 01:11:36,320 Speaker 1: designed to entice you. So let me let's get into 1283 01:11:36,360 --> 01:11:37,920 Speaker 1: this idea of the snuff film real quick. This is 1284 01:11:37,920 --> 01:11:39,960 Speaker 1: probably the only chance on the show we have to 1285 01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:43,320 Speaker 1: talk about about the the really interesting history of them. 1286 01:11:43,320 --> 01:11:45,639 Speaker 1: And again we're not going to get into explicit details 1287 01:11:45,640 --> 01:11:49,120 Speaker 1: of things here, but the term itself emerged in the 1288 01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:54,280 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. Uh. In fact, ninety one, an allegation was 1289 01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:57,600 Speaker 1: made in Ed Sanders and the book The Family The 1290 01:11:57,640 --> 01:12:00,880 Speaker 1: Story of Charles Manson's Doom Buggy Attack Battalion, that's the 1291 01:12:00,920 --> 01:12:03,920 Speaker 1: actual title. Uh, And he charged that the family was 1292 01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:08,280 Speaker 1: involved in making films of this nature he called in right, yeah. 1293 01:12:08,320 --> 01:12:11,599 Speaker 1: He he charged that they were making quote unquote brutality films, 1294 01:12:11,600 --> 01:12:14,439 Speaker 1: and he later referred to these and coined the term 1295 01:12:14,680 --> 01:12:18,360 Speaker 1: snuff films. Now all he had to go on here, 1296 01:12:18,360 --> 01:12:20,439 Speaker 1: though it was a second hand rumor that he even 1297 01:12:20,640 --> 01:12:24,720 Speaker 1: he himself eventually refuted, but it was It was a 1298 01:12:24,760 --> 01:12:27,920 Speaker 1: fact that the family had stolen an NBC TV truck 1299 01:12:27,960 --> 01:12:29,960 Speaker 1: in the summer of sixty nine and kept one of 1300 01:12:30,000 --> 01:12:32,840 Speaker 1: the cameras around, but the film was all recovered in. 1301 01:12:32,920 --> 01:12:36,080 Speaker 1: Sanders himself later admitted that no footage of murders or 1302 01:12:36,120 --> 01:12:40,040 Speaker 1: of just of dead bodies ever materialized, but the idea 1303 01:12:40,120 --> 01:12:42,320 Speaker 1: was out there and uh. And the rise of adult 1304 01:12:42,400 --> 01:12:46,439 Speaker 1: cinema with actual scenes of sexual activity and horror cinema 1305 01:12:46,600 --> 01:12:49,720 Speaker 1: with an increasingly violent and bloody focus, this seemed to 1306 01:12:49,720 --> 01:12:52,360 Speaker 1: make it all the more possible, right, like, what are 1307 01:12:52,360 --> 01:12:55,559 Speaker 1: these filmmakers going to do next? And then we had 1308 01:12:55,640 --> 01:12:57,760 Speaker 1: one particular film that came along to just sort of 1309 01:12:57,800 --> 01:12:59,760 Speaker 1: push this to the next level. And that was the 1310 01:12:59,840 --> 01:13:05,080 Speaker 1: night eighteen seventy six film Snuff that was promoted and 1311 01:13:05,320 --> 01:13:07,439 Speaker 1: you know, put out there as if it were an 1312 01:13:07,479 --> 01:13:11,040 Speaker 1: actual snuff film. So the taglines for this one are, 1313 01:13:11,080 --> 01:13:13,479 Speaker 1: and you can look up the posters the picture they 1314 01:13:13,520 --> 01:13:16,960 Speaker 1: said could never be shown, the bloodiest thing that has 1315 01:13:16,960 --> 01:13:20,160 Speaker 1: ever happened in front of a camera, the film that 1316 01:13:20,280 --> 01:13:24,400 Speaker 1: could only be made in South America where life is cheap. 1317 01:13:24,600 --> 01:13:27,880 Speaker 1: We just sort of reddid this again recently with that. 1318 01:13:28,200 --> 01:13:32,000 Speaker 1: And you and I are not fans, but Eli rothscreen Inferno, 1319 01:13:32,080 --> 01:13:35,439 Speaker 1: which came out years ago, and it wasn't They didn't 1320 01:13:35,439 --> 01:13:38,040 Speaker 1: market as like this really happened, but there was sort 1321 01:13:38,080 --> 01:13:40,960 Speaker 1: of a like this could have really happened because we 1322 01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:44,479 Speaker 1: were filming actual tribes in South America that have never 1323 01:13:44,520 --> 01:13:47,599 Speaker 1: been filmed before and who knows what they're up to, right, Yeah, Well, 1324 01:13:47,600 --> 01:13:50,920 Speaker 1: he was specifically playing with the legacy of Cannibal Holocaust, 1325 01:13:51,040 --> 01:13:53,519 Speaker 1: which is a film that came out after Snuff. That 1326 01:13:53,720 --> 01:13:56,200 Speaker 1: was all that also had this vibe of is it real? 1327 01:13:56,640 --> 01:13:58,559 Speaker 1: Is it is this a snuff film? Are these real 1328 01:13:58,640 --> 01:14:01,599 Speaker 1: dead bodies? Are real murders? And and it ended up 1329 01:14:01,600 --> 01:14:04,519 Speaker 1: being investigated, and of course there was no there's there's 1330 01:14:04,520 --> 01:14:11,120 Speaker 1: no fact. Yeah. But but snuff is interesting because in 1331 01:14:11,200 --> 01:14:15,400 Speaker 1: reality it was a combination of unreleased nineteen seventy footage. 1332 01:14:15,439 --> 01:14:18,559 Speaker 1: This is a movie called Slaughter that was actually the 1333 01:14:18,560 --> 01:14:22,840 Speaker 1: work of Michael and ROBERTA. Findlay. I don't know if 1334 01:14:22,840 --> 01:14:25,800 Speaker 1: you remember them, but they're a husband and wife exploitation 1335 01:14:25,880 --> 01:14:29,200 Speaker 1: duo that also gave us the nineteen seventy four film 1336 01:14:29,520 --> 01:14:32,479 Speaker 1: Shriek of the Mutilated, which is essentially a bigfoot film 1337 01:14:32,479 --> 01:14:34,720 Speaker 1: that we talked about on Trailer Talk. I don't think 1338 01:14:34,760 --> 01:14:38,000 Speaker 1: I was there, though maybe that was just so. It's 1339 01:14:38,040 --> 01:14:42,439 Speaker 1: the same couple, uh. Their film the film quality and 1340 01:14:42,479 --> 01:14:44,400 Speaker 1: the quality of the acting and production tends to be 1341 01:14:44,479 --> 01:14:48,360 Speaker 1: rather low in their work. But really but but but there, 1342 01:14:48,360 --> 01:14:51,120 Speaker 1: I think they were deceptively bright, at least enough from 1343 01:14:51,120 --> 01:14:53,240 Speaker 1: a marketing standpoint, and I think even to a limited 1344 01:14:53,240 --> 01:14:55,559 Speaker 1: extent from a storytelling standpoint. In Shriek of the Mutilate, 1345 01:14:55,560 --> 01:14:59,519 Speaker 1: it has a fabulous twist. But Slaughter just this movie 1346 01:14:59,560 --> 01:15:03,080 Speaker 1: dealt with a Manson inspired cult, had scenes of bloody death, 1347 01:15:03,600 --> 01:15:06,160 Speaker 1: and then when they repackaged it, they just added an 1348 01:15:06,320 --> 01:15:10,000 Speaker 1: end ending to it in which the woman seems to 1349 01:15:10,040 --> 01:15:12,559 Speaker 1: be murdered by the film crew. So it's kind of 1350 01:15:12,600 --> 01:15:14,960 Speaker 1: like a Holy Mountain moment where they break the fourth 1351 01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:17,559 Speaker 1: wall and it's like, oh, this was this isn't a 1352 01:15:17,600 --> 01:15:20,639 Speaker 1: movie at all, and the filmmakers are the real murderers here. 1353 01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:24,040 Speaker 1: So this like one of the things that I like 1354 01:15:24,240 --> 01:15:27,760 Speaker 1: about seventies horror cinema is that it was trying new 1355 01:15:27,840 --> 01:15:30,200 Speaker 1: things in ways that like a lot of other decades 1356 01:15:30,240 --> 01:15:32,280 Speaker 1: of horror cinema seemed to have been a little bit 1357 01:15:32,320 --> 01:15:35,040 Speaker 1: more conservative, but this was one of them, right. It 1358 01:15:35,120 --> 01:15:38,280 Speaker 1: was like the filmmakers were trying to see how far 1359 01:15:38,360 --> 01:15:43,240 Speaker 1: they could push the envelope and how that affected the audience, right. 1360 01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:45,840 Speaker 1: And I mean, I think the best example, the one 1361 01:15:45,880 --> 01:15:48,160 Speaker 1: that both you and I love, is Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 1362 01:15:48,520 --> 01:15:52,640 Speaker 1: which is clearly not real, right, but it's filmed in 1363 01:15:52,680 --> 01:15:55,280 Speaker 1: that nineteen seventies way. I wish there was like a 1364 01:15:55,320 --> 01:15:59,080 Speaker 1: way to encapsulate this with like the style of actual 1365 01:15:59,240 --> 01:16:01,920 Speaker 1: film that it's shot on and how the audio is recorded, 1366 01:16:01,960 --> 01:16:05,840 Speaker 1: but it's so organic and analog and raw. It has 1367 01:16:05,880 --> 01:16:08,360 Speaker 1: almost kind of a documentary vibe to it. Yet Yeah, 1368 01:16:08,600 --> 01:16:10,519 Speaker 1: and it came along at just the right time and 1369 01:16:10,560 --> 01:16:12,759 Speaker 1: in the wake of, or in the same time period 1370 01:16:12,800 --> 01:16:15,120 Speaker 1: of some of these uh these films that we're discussing 1371 01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:20,120 Speaker 1: here now. When Snuff came out, it was almost immediately 1372 01:16:21,040 --> 01:16:23,519 Speaker 1: out as a as a hoax, both that year in 1373 01:16:23,640 --> 01:16:26,240 Speaker 1: Variety magazine and also due to an L A p 1374 01:16:26,360 --> 01:16:30,479 Speaker 1: D investigation. It just simply doesn't hold up to close scrutiny. Yeah, 1375 01:16:30,479 --> 01:16:32,640 Speaker 1: you you watch it and you realize, yeah, this is 1376 01:16:32,680 --> 01:16:34,800 Speaker 1: fake blood, this is this is a horror movie, and 1377 01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:38,880 Speaker 1: not a particularly good one, but the reputation stuck with 1378 01:16:39,000 --> 01:16:42,599 Speaker 1: Snuff for a long time, and as argued by uh 1379 01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:47,120 Speaker 1: Ethene Johnson and Eric Schaefer Uh in uh their piece 1380 01:16:47,200 --> 01:16:50,200 Speaker 1: Software Hardcore Snuff as a Crisis in Meaning, which came 1381 01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:54,760 Speaker 1: out in the Journal of Film and Video, they said 1382 01:16:54,760 --> 01:16:57,360 Speaker 1: that this uh part of this film's success was that 1383 01:16:57,400 --> 01:16:59,680 Speaker 1: there was just a lot of genre confusion. It was 1384 01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:02,679 Speaker 1: hard to classify it as anything else because it wasn't 1385 01:17:02,920 --> 01:17:05,639 Speaker 1: really that explicit, not as explicit as other horror movies 1386 01:17:05,720 --> 01:17:09,000 Speaker 1: were coming out at that time. It certainly wasn't pornographic, 1387 01:17:09,160 --> 01:17:13,680 Speaker 1: so it didn't have that sheen to it, but it 1388 01:17:14,439 --> 01:17:16,800 Speaker 1: just confused people. And then there was this idea that 1389 01:17:16,880 --> 01:17:19,800 Speaker 1: it was real. Um, which I think is one of 1390 01:17:19,800 --> 01:17:22,920 Speaker 1: the elements with a lot of footage of actual violence 1391 01:17:22,920 --> 01:17:26,960 Speaker 1: and actual death, is the disconnect between what these acts 1392 01:17:27,000 --> 01:17:29,400 Speaker 1: look like in reality versus what they look like in 1393 01:17:29,520 --> 01:17:33,080 Speaker 1: cinematic portrayals. So in a way, by if you're not 1394 01:17:33,160 --> 01:17:34,960 Speaker 1: that great of a filmmaker, you don't have a great 1395 01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:38,200 Speaker 1: effects team, you're able to perhaps hit that area of 1396 01:17:38,320 --> 01:17:41,080 Speaker 1: uncertainty where people are like, oh my goodness, that really 1397 01:17:41,080 --> 01:17:43,879 Speaker 1: didn't look like a shooting. Maybe that was a shooting 1398 01:17:44,000 --> 01:17:46,800 Speaker 1: because real shootings don't look like movie shootings. Yeah, that's 1399 01:17:46,880 --> 01:17:49,640 Speaker 1: that's an interesting point too, and maybe why the seventies 1400 01:17:49,680 --> 01:17:52,160 Speaker 1: was such a like culmination of this kind of stuff, 1401 01:17:52,479 --> 01:17:54,559 Speaker 1: but also just that like we were getting into a 1402 01:17:54,560 --> 01:17:57,840 Speaker 1: phase where effects were getting better, film quality was getting better, 1403 01:17:57,960 --> 01:18:00,760 Speaker 1: and then obviously like the production of such kind of 1404 01:18:00,800 --> 01:18:05,519 Speaker 1: things was was going into like bigger studio investments, right, 1405 01:18:05,640 --> 01:18:08,720 Speaker 1: So all the more money that was put into it 1406 01:18:08,840 --> 01:18:12,160 Speaker 1: made it look less real. Yeah, but of course it was. 1407 01:18:12,280 --> 01:18:15,840 Speaker 1: It was all it was all production. This also makes 1408 01:18:15,840 --> 01:18:18,719 Speaker 1: me think I'm obsessed with the show right now, mind Hunter, 1409 01:18:18,880 --> 01:18:21,160 Speaker 1: which is on Netflix. Yeah, this is the yeah, the 1410 01:18:21,360 --> 01:18:25,280 Speaker 1: serial killer show. Yeah, it's all about how the FBI 1411 01:18:25,479 --> 01:18:28,720 Speaker 1: is in the early seventies, is trying to figure out 1412 01:18:28,800 --> 01:18:32,719 Speaker 1: how to come up with like a working behavioral science 1413 01:18:33,360 --> 01:18:36,840 Speaker 1: understanding of serial and that period of time was also 1414 01:18:36,920 --> 01:18:39,280 Speaker 1: like that, right, like all this stuff, and Manson has 1415 01:18:39,320 --> 01:18:41,679 Speaker 1: mentioned right in the first episode of that, where they're 1416 01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:47,000 Speaker 1: just trying to understand these horrific psychopathic acts, right, and 1417 01:18:47,040 --> 01:18:48,960 Speaker 1: they can't wrap their heads around because they don't want 1418 01:18:48,960 --> 01:18:51,960 Speaker 1: a language to you. And I think pop culture was 1419 01:18:52,000 --> 01:18:54,800 Speaker 1: trying to do it in this way, while maybe the 1420 01:18:54,880 --> 01:18:57,040 Speaker 1: FBI was trying to do it in their own way, 1421 01:18:57,080 --> 01:18:59,280 Speaker 1: you know. And it's interesting. One of the things that's 1422 01:18:59,320 --> 01:19:02,440 Speaker 1: interesting about why mind Hunter is now from our perspective 1423 01:19:02,439 --> 01:19:05,680 Speaker 1: of like forty plus years of police procedurals where we 1424 01:19:05,760 --> 01:19:10,960 Speaker 1: all sort of know the nomenclature of serial killers that like, 1425 01:19:11,000 --> 01:19:13,879 Speaker 1: when you're watching it, you're like, oh, yeah, it's so obvious, 1426 01:19:13,960 --> 01:19:17,240 Speaker 1: but they don't quite get it yet because they're they're 1427 01:19:17,320 --> 01:19:19,880 Speaker 1: literally unfamiliar with any of this. Yeah, it was a 1428 01:19:19,920 --> 01:19:22,400 Speaker 1: new day, and what was happening seemed to be defying 1429 01:19:22,760 --> 01:19:26,599 Speaker 1: typical patterns, typical lack classifications, and you see solving in reality, 1430 01:19:26,600 --> 01:19:28,920 Speaker 1: and you saw it in art as well. Yeah. Now 1431 01:19:29,720 --> 01:19:31,479 Speaker 1: this of course leads you just this legacy of the 1432 01:19:31,520 --> 01:19:34,800 Speaker 1: idea there's snuff films somewhere out there, someone's making snuff films. 1433 01:19:35,120 --> 01:19:38,920 Speaker 1: But it's important to note that there there are no 1434 01:19:39,200 --> 01:19:42,080 Speaker 1: true snuff films. There are no films in which someone 1435 01:19:42,280 --> 01:19:46,240 Speaker 1: is intentionally murdered as part of a commercial exercise. There 1436 01:19:46,320 --> 01:19:49,120 Speaker 1: and this has been investigated by journalists, this has been 1437 01:19:49,160 --> 01:19:53,280 Speaker 1: investigated by law enforcement agency. I believe it was investigative 1438 01:19:53,280 --> 01:19:56,280 Speaker 1: by Nicholas Cage in that movie eight Millimeter, Yes, which 1439 01:19:56,320 --> 01:19:58,280 Speaker 1: I remember enjoying back in the day. It as a 1440 01:19:58,920 --> 01:20:02,599 Speaker 1: oh it had what's his name? The the European actor 1441 01:20:02,640 --> 01:20:06,440 Speaker 1: who played ever seen Oh God, it's it's actually tremendously 1442 01:20:06,520 --> 01:20:11,240 Speaker 1: fun because you have Peter stormare one of my favorites. Yeah, 1443 01:20:11,280 --> 01:20:13,880 Speaker 1: I think his name is like something Velvet or something. 1444 01:20:14,600 --> 01:20:17,720 Speaker 1: And he's the guy that's making these snuff films and 1445 01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:20,640 Speaker 1: he's he's just acting over the top. And at the 1446 01:20:20,960 --> 01:20:23,679 Speaker 1: at the end spoiler for eight Millimeter, he he's shot. 1447 01:20:24,200 --> 01:20:26,920 Speaker 1: And I remember this because he's like, oh I'm bleeding, 1448 01:20:26,920 --> 01:20:29,240 Speaker 1: I'm dying. It's not supposed to happen like this. I 1449 01:20:29,280 --> 01:20:33,439 Speaker 1: wanted something more cinematic and then he says machine killed him, 1450 01:20:33,560 --> 01:20:35,519 Speaker 1: killed him. All he's talking to this sort of the 1451 01:20:35,520 --> 01:20:39,120 Speaker 1: the gimp murder character and the we should just have 1452 01:20:39,160 --> 01:20:42,439 Speaker 1: a whole Peter stormayor trailer talk episode. He's the best. 1453 01:20:42,479 --> 01:20:46,280 Speaker 1: He's fabulous, Like the movie Constantine. I've Constantine everything except 1454 01:20:46,320 --> 01:20:48,799 Speaker 1: for his saying he's only in it for five minutes. 1455 01:20:48,800 --> 01:20:51,280 Speaker 1: But my wife and I still to this day will 1456 01:20:51,479 --> 01:20:55,799 Speaker 1: quote him as Satan in Constantine. Yeah he's so good, alright, 1457 01:20:55,880 --> 01:20:58,960 Speaker 1: so so yeah. Again, there are no snuff films people 1458 01:20:58,960 --> 01:21:02,080 Speaker 1: have looked into it, but that. But I think the idea, 1459 01:21:02,200 --> 01:21:05,160 Speaker 1: the reason that that the snuff films or even stuff 1460 01:21:05,200 --> 01:21:07,960 Speaker 1: like The Grifter, the reason it resonates is because we 1461 01:21:08,040 --> 01:21:11,559 Speaker 1: are inclined to glance at the horror to rubber neck 1462 01:21:11,600 --> 01:21:14,200 Speaker 1: on the highway and you maybe just clink on some 1463 01:21:14,280 --> 01:21:17,240 Speaker 1: sort of suspect link um. And for some people who 1464 01:21:17,240 --> 01:21:19,760 Speaker 1: goes further. There's a two thousand twelve Verge article that 1465 01:21:19,840 --> 01:21:22,960 Speaker 1: explore the topic of gore fans and and it summarized 1466 01:21:23,000 --> 01:21:26,400 Speaker 1: that such individuals share quote, a compulsive curiosity about human 1467 01:21:26,479 --> 01:21:29,880 Speaker 1: nature and frailty, and a firm belief that the mainstream 1468 01:21:29,920 --> 01:21:34,439 Speaker 1: media does a disservice by censoring quote what's really going on? 1469 01:21:35,240 --> 01:21:37,120 Speaker 1: And uh and and I think there's some truth to that, 1470 01:21:37,160 --> 01:21:40,000 Speaker 1: because for the most part, we are removed from the 1471 01:21:40,040 --> 01:21:42,599 Speaker 1: physical reality of death. We do that through the way 1472 01:21:42,640 --> 01:21:45,840 Speaker 1: that we treat the dead and how we compartmentalize them 1473 01:21:45,840 --> 01:21:50,400 Speaker 1: within the funeral industry. And like we said earlier, death 1474 01:21:50,680 --> 01:21:54,800 Speaker 1: in film and TV is not necessarily something that's gonna 1475 01:21:54,840 --> 01:21:58,839 Speaker 1: line up with the real experience of murder and violence 1476 01:21:58,840 --> 01:22:01,920 Speaker 1: and death. Man. I know, I know we don't really 1477 01:22:01,960 --> 01:22:04,040 Speaker 1: have the opportunity to do this, but I kind of 1478 01:22:04,080 --> 01:22:06,800 Speaker 1: want to do like a whole podcast, not just an episode, 1479 01:22:07,160 --> 01:22:11,000 Speaker 1: like a podcast series, all about what we've talked about 1480 01:22:11,000 --> 01:22:12,960 Speaker 1: it with just this last Creepy Pasta, because I think 1481 01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:17,360 Speaker 1: there's a lot to unpack there, like humans, uh, both 1482 01:22:17,439 --> 01:22:22,480 Speaker 1: uncomfortable y and fascination with visions of death. It's undeniable, 1483 01:22:22,640 --> 01:22:25,120 Speaker 1: all right. So there you have it. A fourth Creepy 1484 01:22:25,160 --> 01:22:29,040 Speaker 1: Pasta is now in the books, it's boxed up, ready 1485 01:22:29,040 --> 01:22:31,679 Speaker 1: for the vault. And uh and hopefully it'll help everyone 1486 01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:35,040 Speaker 1: out there, uh, you know, cap off their their Halloween 1487 01:22:35,160 --> 01:22:38,439 Speaker 1: seasonal listening as well. Yeah. And in fact, I think 1488 01:22:38,560 --> 01:22:42,080 Speaker 1: this is going to publish actually right after Halloween, so 1489 01:22:42,120 --> 01:22:44,400 Speaker 1: we're giving you a special treaty. We went, we went 1490 01:22:44,479 --> 01:22:47,800 Speaker 1: one over. Well, it's still ourselves. I feel like that 1491 01:22:47,880 --> 01:22:52,160 Speaker 1: week between, you know it encompasses Halloween and All Saints Day. 1492 01:22:52,280 --> 01:22:56,600 Speaker 1: It's still Halloween, keeping Thanksgiving weeks weeks out for me, 1493 01:22:56,680 --> 01:22:59,760 Speaker 1: what is it a well, pish not that's in a 1494 01:23:00,160 --> 01:23:04,879 Speaker 1: may actually, but you know it's the Witches week. Anyways, Hey, 1495 01:23:05,040 --> 01:23:07,280 Speaker 1: all of those other creepy Posta episodes that we've been 1496 01:23:07,280 --> 01:23:09,880 Speaker 1: mentioning throughout this if you liked this one, you'll probably 1497 01:23:09,920 --> 01:23:13,200 Speaker 1: like those two creepy Pasta one, two, and three. They're 1498 01:23:13,280 --> 01:23:15,519 Speaker 1: all on stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. They 1499 01:23:15,560 --> 01:23:18,160 Speaker 1: will be in the show notes for this episode. But hey, 1500 01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:20,479 Speaker 1: this is the website. Everything's on there that we've been 1501 01:23:20,479 --> 01:23:23,439 Speaker 1: talking about this episode, the podcast that we've done, all 1502 01:23:23,439 --> 01:23:26,200 Speaker 1: those videos, including the horse hair video we talked about, 1503 01:23:26,840 --> 01:23:31,759 Speaker 1: and then also Roberts blog posts, which are the hidden 1504 01:23:32,080 --> 01:23:34,559 Speaker 1: gem secrets of stuff to blow your mind. If you're 1505 01:23:35,000 --> 01:23:37,040 Speaker 1: a real stuff to Blow your Mind fan, you're gonna 1506 01:23:37,040 --> 01:23:39,240 Speaker 1: want to check those out. And if you just want 1507 01:23:39,240 --> 01:23:41,000 Speaker 1: to get in touch with this directly, if you want 1508 01:23:41,040 --> 01:23:44,200 Speaker 1: to chat with us about creepy pastas, recommend creepy pastas, 1509 01:23:44,360 --> 01:23:46,120 Speaker 1: or you know your give your thoughts on some of 1510 01:23:46,160 --> 01:23:49,080 Speaker 1: the movies we've mentioned here. You can simply email us 1511 01:23:49,080 --> 01:24:01,360 Speaker 1: that blow the mind and how stuff works dot com 1512 01:24:01,400 --> 01:24:03,840 Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics. Does 1513 01:24:03,880 --> 01:24:27,920 Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot com