WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Alien, Part 2 - The Black Goo

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamman. This is The Monster Fact,

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<v Speaker 2>a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

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<v Speaker 2>focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. In

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<v Speaker 2>the previous episode of The Monster Fact, we began our

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<v Speaker 2>alien series with a look at the mysterious Engineers. Today

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<v Speaker 2>we'll turn to this Elder race's most dangerous creation, a

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<v Speaker 2>highly volatile genetic accelerant classified by human researchers as Agent

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<v Speaker 2>A zero thirty nine fifty nine x point ninety one

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<v Speaker 2>dash fifteen. In its purest form, this so called black

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<v Speaker 2>goo does in fact resemble a viscous tar like material

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<v Speaker 2>or liquid. Human explorers first discovered the substance amid the

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<v Speaker 2>ruins of an engineer outpost on the planet designated LV

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<v Speaker 2>two twenty three. They found the gou and core TETs

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<v Speaker 2>of glass like vials secured in steatide ampules or urns.

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<v Speaker 2>The engineers had secured it there like a precious treasure,

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<v Speaker 2>like the remains of the dead, like a devastating bioweapon,

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<v Speaker 2>the pinnacle of the engineer's advanced biotechnology. We can even

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<v Speaker 2>think of Agent A zero thirty nine to fifty nine

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<v Speaker 2>x point ninety one slash fifteen as a kind of

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<v Speaker 2>biological AI that reprograms everything it touches, perhaps following specific instructions,

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<v Speaker 2>general directions, or left entirely to its own generative impulses.

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<v Speaker 2>As revealed in the film's Prometheus and Alien Covenant, and

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<v Speaker 2>as discussed in Freely Publishing's Alien RPG, the black Goo

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<v Speaker 2>aggressively recodes DNA, rapidly transforming individual organisms, species, and entire ecosystems.

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<v Speaker 2>When exposed to the atmosphere, it atomizes and spreads as

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<v Speaker 2>an aeros but may also be further manipulated in liquid

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<v Speaker 2>form if handled with proper expertise. High level exposure to

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<v Speaker 2>the substance generally spells instant death for organic beings. Select

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<v Speaker 2>engineers are thought to have ritualistically ingested the substance in

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<v Speaker 2>its pure concentrated liquid form to seed new worlds, allowing

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<v Speaker 2>the black Good to rapidly break down their bodies and

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<v Speaker 2>spin new life forms out of the genetic pieces. Likewise,

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<v Speaker 2>when weaponized, aerial bombardments of the steatide ampules quickly lay

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<v Speaker 2>waste to entire populations, finally twisting the life forms at

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<v Speaker 2>the peripheries of the attack into dangerous new creatures. At

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<v Speaker 2>lower exposure levels, the black Goose steadily mutates human beings

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<v Speaker 2>into zombie like forms known as abominations, noted for their

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<v Speaker 2>increasingly aggressive behavior, enhance strength, elongated limbs, and swelling craniums.

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<v Speaker 2>They are also able to pass on their rampage in

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<v Speaker 2>genetics through different infection routes, as will explore in the

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<v Speaker 2>next episode. It's impossible to know exactly how the engineers

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<v Speaker 2>regarded the black Goo, but we might best understand it,

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<v Speaker 2>like many forms of technology, as having tremendous potential to

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<v Speaker 2>destroy or create. It can enable the seating of whole

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<v Speaker 2>new worlds with the divergent genes of a single donor.

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<v Speaker 2>But it can also be a weapon of terrifying power,

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<v Speaker 2>wiping out most life on a world and reprogramming the

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<v Speaker 2>surviving biome into aggressive monstrosities that steadily grind all life

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<v Speaker 2>to its end. But let's set aside metaphors and interpretations

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<v Speaker 2>and consider a few additional takes on black goo. With

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<v Speaker 2>all of these extraterrestrial horrors now running through your brain,

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<v Speaker 2>you might find it a bit unnerving to realize that

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<v Speaker 2>here on Earth, outside of the sci fi horrors of

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<v Speaker 2>the alien franchise. We actually do have to contend with

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<v Speaker 2>strange black goo within the buried creations of ancient civilizations.

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<v Speaker 2>As Kate Fulcher reported for the British Museum back in

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<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty, the goo in question here would have been

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<v Speaker 2>poured warm into the caskets of mummified individuals, effectively cementing

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<v Speaker 2>their linen wrapped mummy cases into the encasing casket. Museum

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<v Speaker 2>scientists analyzed more than one hundred samples of the now

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<v Speaker 2>long dried gou and determined that while the exact ingredients varied,

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<v Speaker 2>the main components tended to be plant oil, animal fat,

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<v Speaker 2>tree resin, beeswax, and bitumen, a viscous or solid form

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<v Speaker 2>of petroleum. Egyptian black gou was reserved for royalty and

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<v Speaker 2>those rich enough to afford the very best in their

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<v Speaker 2>funerary preparations. We've even found the stuff on the golden

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<v Speaker 2>mask of Tutin Common. According to Fulcher, its pitch black

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<v Speaker 2>color was associated with mythic osiris and concepts of rebirth

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<v Speaker 2>and regeneration. It's clear that a certain amount of Egyptomania

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<v Speaker 2>went into conceptions of the engineers. It even goes all

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<v Speaker 2>the way back to artist hr Giger's late seventies concept

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<v Speaker 2>art for Alien, which includes a hieroglyphic inspired alien life

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<v Speaker 2>cy called Tableau. Look it up, and it makes sense

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<v Speaker 2>in later ruminations of the franchise that filmmakers might have

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<v Speaker 2>found inspiration in the real life black Goo of Egyptology.

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<v Speaker 2>It's rather fitting, after all, given that the ancient Egyptians

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<v Speaker 2>seemed to have viewed the journey into the next life

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<v Speaker 2>as something cosmic and transformative. There's sarcophagus in many ways

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<v Speaker 2>like a cryo chamber, and monstrous entities like Ahmet awaiting

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<v Speaker 2>the passage of the dead. Black Goo has, of course,

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<v Speaker 2>another larger life in sci fi in general, sometimes as

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<v Speaker 2>a catch all name for just black inky evil, or

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<v Speaker 2>other times more specifically as a self replicating meta material

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<v Speaker 2>graphene oxide. Jason Kahey profiled the notion in a twenty

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<v Speaker 2>twenty two article for Wired Magazine, drawing on sci fi

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<v Speaker 2>usages of the stuff on TV's Westworld and TV's Severance,

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<v Speaker 2>and if we go wider than that, he points out,

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<v Speaker 2>we see dangerous black goos in the original X File,

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<v Speaker 2>as well as in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Elsewhere, we've watched

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<v Speaker 2>it drip onto Gary Olben's head in the Fifth Element

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<v Speaker 2>and Yes, the low budget nineteen eighty five alien knockoff

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<v Speaker 2>Creature features a scene in which the stuff leaks from

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<v Speaker 2>an alien tube shortly before a monster breaks out of it.

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<v Speaker 2>What is Marvel's venom but a slightly more stylish black goo,

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<v Speaker 2>and the Sorcerer egg Shin in Big Trouble and Little

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<v Speaker 2>China warned us, matter of factly, not of oil, but

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<v Speaker 2>of the black blood of the Earth. The examples are endless,

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<v Speaker 2>though they often betray a Western prevalence for the negative

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<v Speaker 2>connotations of the color black, which dates back through the

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<v Speaker 2>Middle Ages and into humoral theory with its black bile.

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<v Speaker 2>But black also represented power in secrecy during this time

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<v Speaker 2>period as well. Colors are in the end multipurpose, culturally

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<v Speaker 2>dependent and based on context. The color black may be

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<v Speaker 2>invoked to convey everything from darkness and mystery to beauty

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<v Speaker 2>and power, and when we combine all of that with gooiness, well,

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<v Speaker 2>visually there just seems to be something otherworldly about black goo,

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<v Speaker 2>and so it's the perfect visual manifestation of the underlying

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<v Speaker 2>power in the alien universe, a kind of anti blood

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<v Speaker 2>and anti seed. As dark as the spaces between the stars.

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<v Speaker 2>Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact each week,

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<v Speaker 2>especially as we roll through the various creatures of the

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<v Speaker 2>alien Universe. More episodes of the Artifact and Animalias Stupendium

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<v Speaker 2>will return on Wednesdays after that. Thanks to the excellent

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<v Speaker 2>JJ Possway for producing this episode, and as always, you

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<v Speaker 2>can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your

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<v Speaker 2>Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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