Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
Speaker 2: This week, I finally began assembling the plastic O Mu
Speaker 2: model kit that I purchased last year at Japan's Ghibli Park.
Speaker 2: I admit that the sheer number of legs in the
Speaker 2: kit scared me away from the task for almost exactly
Speaker 2: a year, but they are now glued in place, and
Speaker 2: with this fantastic creature on my mind, I thought, what
Speaker 2: better time than now to discuss its biology on the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact. If you've ever watched Yomiazaki's nineteen eighty four
Speaker 2: masterpiece NAUSICAA of the Valley of the Wind, and perhaps
Speaker 2: even listen to our Weird House Cinema episode about the film,
Speaker 2: then you already know a great deal about these fantastic creatures.
Speaker 2: The olmun, whose name suggests the Japanese for king of insects,
Speaker 2: are indeed gigantic, multi legged arthropods, protected by a thick
Speaker 2: exoskeleton and prone to destructive stampedes. Yet they also have
Speaker 2: a gentle side, and are able to extend glowing tendrils
Speaker 2: that can heal wounds and enable telepathic communication with other organisms.
Speaker 2: They also benefit from a hive mind. They are a
Speaker 2: vital part of the post apocalyptic ecosystem of the Nausica world,
Speaker 2: thriving in the toxic jungle or sea of decay and
Speaker 2: spreading its boundaries via spores when they die. Their form
Speaker 2: behavior and fraught relationship with human beings brings to mind
Speaker 2: such organisms as marine whales and terrestrial bison, with conflict
Speaker 2: between humans and au mu operating as a self reinforcing
Speaker 2: cycle of violence. Their insect world inspirations clearly include various beetles, caterpillars,
Speaker 2: and perhaps the larva of cicadas, but their creator Heyomyazaki
Speaker 2: has long credited the common pill bug as the key inspiration.
Speaker 2: Pillbugs have many common names, including the rolly polyly That's
Speaker 2: what I grew up calling them, and they have long
Speaker 2: been a point of fascination for children around the world.
Speaker 2: In Japan, they are often called dango mushi or ball bugs,
Speaker 2: and this too, of course refers to their famous ability
Speaker 2: to roll their bodies up so that their exoskeletal plates
Speaker 2: encase them like a ball or wheel. Giant pill bugs
Speaker 2: often factor into fantastic wheeled vehicles in various franchises, including
Speaker 2: the worlds of both Dungeons and Dragons and the Dark Crystal.
Speaker 2: The process of rolling into a ball is called conglobation,
Speaker 2: and it's not actually for rolling away from danger. Rather,
Speaker 2: it's protective. It helps conserve moisture and in other organisms,
Speaker 2: serve a thermoregulatory purpose as well. There are many species
Speaker 2: of pill bugs, and they're not actually insects. They are
Speaker 2: isopod woodlice of the Armadilla day family, making them terrestrial crustaceans.
Speaker 2: They generally feed on decaying plant materials, but can serve
Speaker 2: as pests for human agriculture under certain environmental conditions. While
Speaker 2: they don't benefit from a hive mind or swarm intelligence.
Speaker 2: Japanese researcher Toru Moriyama has published multiple papers examining their
Speaker 2: apparent capacity for problem solving and autonomous behavior, studied for
Speaker 2: potential applications in machine learning. As is often the case
Speaker 2: with non human animals, the mental abilities of the common
Speaker 2: pill bug should perhaps not be completely dismissed. Tune in
Speaker 2: for additional episodes of the monster fact the artifact or
Speaker 2: Animelius to Pendium each week. As always, you can email
Speaker 2: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.
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