1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:06,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,360 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is the Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:15,720 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:24,440 Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. Today, 5 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,080 Speaker 2: I want to cover one of the weirder Marvel Comics 6 00:00:27,200 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 2: characters to jump out of the pages the Official Handbook 7 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,880 Speaker 2: of the Marvel Universe Master Edition. I have a used 8 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:36,559 Speaker 2: copy of this book from the nineteen nineties and it 9 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 2: contains all of your more popular X Men and Avengers, 10 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 2: along with some real weirdos like today's selection. The Quasi 11 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 2: Motivational destruct Organism also known as Quasimoto. Yes, this supervillain, 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 2: who first appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four 13 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 2: back in nineteen sixty six, is essentially a super science 14 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 2: take on Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame from the 15 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 2: eighteen thirty one Victor Hugo novel, though the character's appearance 16 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 2: seems mostly based to my eye on the version played 17 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:14,520 Speaker 2: by Charles Lawton in the nineteen thirties film adaptation. In 18 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:19,039 Speaker 2: Hugo's tale, Quasimoto is a cathedral bell ringer suffering from 19 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:24,039 Speaker 2: severe cayphosis an excessive convex curvature of the spine. The 20 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 2: Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism's nature, however, is a bit more convoluted. 21 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 2: As Marvel dot Com tells it, he was originally a 22 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 2: sentient computer developed by the supervillain the Mad Thinker. This 23 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 2: sentient computer desire to human form, but its creator cruelly 24 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 2: refused it. Eventually, the Silver Surfer steps in, takes pity 25 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 2: on the suffering computer, and uses his power cosmic to 26 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 2: grant the computer's wishes. However, the Quasi Motivational Destruct Organism 27 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:58,560 Speaker 2: would prove the twisted vulcan to the Silver Surfer's physical perfection. 28 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 2: He looks like a stereotypical hunchback of Notre Dame, but 29 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 2: with a metallic skin or a metal suit. You know, 30 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,079 Speaker 2: sort of the Silver Surfer body, except it is the 31 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 2: hunchback of Notre Dame's body. We're told he is a 32 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 2: pseudo organic android possessed of immense physical smashing power, but 33 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:20,520 Speaker 2: due to his computer origin, his brain is also able 34 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,560 Speaker 2: to process information and make calculations with vastly improved speed 35 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:29,520 Speaker 2: and accuracy. Yet, despite this, he's not your standard super strong, 36 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 2: super smart Gimi god cosmic bad guy. We get a 37 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 2: lot of those in comic book stories from this era. No, 38 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 2: we're told his actual intelligence is more that of a 39 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 2: baseline human intelligence, and that his biggest weakness is his 40 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,560 Speaker 2: lack of creativity. Now, I don't think stan Lee and 41 00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 2: Jack Kirby were necessarily trying to be all that prophetic 42 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:55,919 Speaker 2: with this particular supervillain. What you see is kind of 43 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:59,239 Speaker 2: what you get with the quasi motivational destruct organism. Yet 44 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:03,080 Speaker 2: at the same time time, beyond the space quasimotive gimmick, 45 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,680 Speaker 2: there is a reasonable amount of Miltonian depth here to 46 00:03:06,760 --> 00:03:09,960 Speaker 2: the plight between the created and the creator. And then 47 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 2: there's this interesting detail about computer enhancement. His calculations are 48 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 2: lightning fast, but his intelligence is actually more again human baseline, 49 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:22,400 Speaker 2: and there is something lacking in his ability to think 50 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 2: with true creativity. It's interesting to ponder this given our 51 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 2: current state of AI and computer enhancement. We can observe 52 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 2: the computer form we're building around ourselves, thinking for us, 53 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 2: writing for us, expressing ourselves and representing our souls to 54 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 2: each other through the artifice of large language models and 55 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 2: so forth, silver fleshed on the outside. But perhaps somewhat 56 00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 2: compressed on the inside, bent under the weight of the 57 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 2: machine and undergoing atrification. And what's more, there's this fear 58 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:00,279 Speaker 2: that I've seen expressed that our actual ability to express ourselves, 59 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 2: and indeed our actual self isn't good enough without the 60 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 2: trappings of the machine, a kind of self fulfilling prophecy, 61 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:13,120 Speaker 2: as the interface between human and AI has largely fallen 62 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:17,839 Speaker 2: short of the creative partnership we were promised. Way to go, 63 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 2: Matt Thinkers, tune in for additional episode of The Monster 64 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,480 Speaker 2: Fact that the artifact or animalist to Pendium each week. 65 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff 66 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:37,880 Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind dot com. 67 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 68 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,880 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 69 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:46,760 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.