WEBVTT - Another Enigmatic Underwater Image 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:06.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.319 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:15.960 is Robert. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.400 Lamb, and I'm Joe McCormick. And hey, we're back to 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.439 anomalous imagery. In the previous episode of Stuff to Blow 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:28.320 Your Mind, we were looking at some photographs that people 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.519 have wanted to sort into the proof of Aliens Confirmed column, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.640 and we ended up talking about reasons why that's not 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:41.680 necessarily a wise or well informed move, and we thought 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.720 we might come back to talk about more images of 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.479 this sort. And you know what, here we. 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.440 Are, Yeah, in the last episode, And this is this 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.519 is a situation where it's probably helpful if you listen 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:53.720 to that last episode, but it's not necessarily a part 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:55.960 one in part two. So I don't know what you 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.800 do what you will regarding these episodes. But in the 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:02.240 last episode, we discussed the so called El Tannan antenna, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.839 a deep sea photograph of something taken in nineteen sixty 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.240 four that ultimately led to a positive identification of a 0:01:10.280 --> 0:01:14.319 specific species of deep sea sponge, but also fed a 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:19.320 great deal of paranormal and ufology speculation about alien technology 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:24.000 and global energy grids and the like. We discussed how 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.199 images and data like this that dwell in a kind 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.559 of low res realm of evidence often play into arguments 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:37.119 for supernatural or other worldly explanations instead of mundane natural 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:38.160 world explanations. 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:41.319 That's right. So we were developing an idea somewhat jumping 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.520 off of some offhand terminology use in comments I've heard 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.400 in interviews with a science writer and skeptical UFO researcher 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:53.320 named Mick West, and I think the phrase I had 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.880 heard him use at some point was the low information zone. 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:58.920 But we were also talking about the idea of the 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:03.680 low resolution zone. And so the idea we were developing 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:08.839 was that it's in cases of evidence containing less information 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:13.800 or existing in a space of lower resolution, that supernatural 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:18.359 or alien explanations tend to retain the aura of viability. 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:20.840 They seem to some people like this might be a 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:25.000 good explanation. And it's in cases of high resolution or 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.240 high information where the photo, if it's a photo where 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.000 it's like really sharp and taken from multiple angles, and 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:32.920 we have a good idea exactly where and when it 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.600 was taken, maybe other people can go check up on it. 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.440 People with relevant knowledge have had a look at it. 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:42.120 These are the cases that end up very very often 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:46.160 having pretty clear explanations from within the known range of 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.080 natural causes. In other words, there seems to be a 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:54.480 pattern where a fuzzy photo creates way more mythology than 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:58.040 a sharp one. And I think this is applical applicable 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.560 in the broader sense, not just in your resolution of photos, 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.760 but in the general sense of information. Like evidence, This 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.399 kind of vague and fuzzy and not well situated within 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.840 an informational context seems oh yeah, maybe that is aliens. 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.040 And the further you turn up the resolution, the more 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:19.480 accurate information and context you have, the more often it 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.359 seems like, oh, yeah, that's a plastic bag, or that's 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.160 an airplane, or that's a constellation of stars. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.040 Yeah. And as we discussed in the last episode, and 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:30.880 we'll continue to discuss here, to whatever extent, you can 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:36.000 also cut out the context for the image, or ignore 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:41.800 the context and or ignore the expertise in a given 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.480 field that could be vital to understanding what you're looking 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:46.840 at exactly. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.720 Yeah. So the background knowledge of the observer can also 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:52.720 be one of the information states, and that can be 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:54.000 high information or low. 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.800 Yeah, And it's not necessarily a situation either where someone 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:01.520 is like willfully, I refuse to listen to the experts 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.520 because because you know, I know what I see, you know, 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.800 sometimes it's maybe a little more nuanced than that. So 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.960 I do want to acknowledge that, But just throwing that 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:12.880 out there as well. We'll come back to the idea 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:13.720 as we roll farward. 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.640 Now. Another one of the ideas we talked about in 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:22.240 the last episode was how popular it seems underwater images 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:27.039 in particular are in the UFO, slash UAP and general 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:32.039 fringe explanation idea space. Of course, the Eltannan object was 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.440 an underwater photo, and I mentioned in the last episode 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:41.719 the idea that apparently anomalous underwater images are especially useful 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.599 nucleation points for these types of narratives because they're sort 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.320 of inherently low resolution or low information. The details are 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.640 often obscured. Images of things underwater often look weird, but 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.440 you can't tell exactly what they are, which means you 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.320 can start making up whatever I explanation you find the 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:05.000 most exciting. And I was thinking about how underwater imagery 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:10.159 often qualifies as low information evidence in multiple dimensions at once, 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.839 so like the original image is usually grainy and indistinct 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.600 if it's taken in visible light, Like if it's a 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:21.040 photograph taken invisible light, light conditions are usually low, and 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.560 sometimes there is, you know, something obscuring the image in 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.440 the water. Maybe the water is cloudy, maybe not. Sometimes 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:31.920 the image is not even based on visible light. Maybe 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.279 we're looking at a sonar image or something like that, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.120 which further complicates your ability to identify what it is 0:05:38.120 --> 0:05:41.560 you're looking at. And sometimes things are even obscured in 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.000 other ways, like partially buried or have things on top 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:47.160 of them. Beyond all this, objects and formations that may 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.400 be common underwater do not seem common to people who 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.839 spend their lives on land and on the surface. Think 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.120 of the sponge we talked about last time. If you 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.160 lived on the ocean floor, you'd probably recognize that. You 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.599 would be like a tree. You know, you've seen lots 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.640 of these before, but not living on the ocean floor. 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.200 That's that's totally weird. You've never seen anything like it. 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:08.560 You have no idea what it could be. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.920 Yeah, as we touched on in that one, the so 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:18.520 called antenna occurred as a singular object without any fellow 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:23.880 antenna around it. In this one photograph, but previous dredges 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.320 in the deep ocean had revealed places where they seem 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:27.240 to be quite numerous. 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:29.600 That's right. Sometimes they're kind of a forest, but in 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:31.760 this case it wasn't. It was just one standing alone 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:33.400 in the image, so that I don't know, that mean 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.520 it seemed more monolithic and kind of strange and dangerous 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:44.400 and inviting of calling out for some kind of otherworldly explanation. Finally, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:46.680 I was thinking about one more thing about the low 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.120 information nature of underwater images, especially in the case of 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:55.640 deep sea objects. It's difficult, expensive, and sometimes impossible for 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.240 other people to check the object for themselves because it's 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.160 on the bottom of the other So you are unlikely 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.279 to get somebody else imaging the same thing with different 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.680 equipment in different conditions to get more context and clarity. 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.040 Unless it's like a like a really famous and valuable 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.000 thing and you've you know, published coordinates of exactly where 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:17.480 it is, there's like huge interest in it. Maybe, but 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:19.280 like for the most part, if you're talking about something 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.800 on the bottom of the ocean, whatever imagery you release 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.360 of it, that you initially produce, it's that you know 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.040 that that's going to be all there is. 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.880 Yeah, yeah, because I mean, ultimately, whether your idea is 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:35.320 based in just pure scientific inquiry or if it's based 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.520 in some sort of paranormal interest or some sort of 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.120 fringe theory, you're still going to have to somehow get 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.200 that funding together to pay for an expedition to an 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.080 extreme environment. And you know, are the numbers going to 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.120 add up at the end of the day. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:52.600 And in some cases, I think it might be more 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.440 financially lucrative for an object to remain in the low 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.640 information zone than it would be to increase the information 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.160 because that might well dispel the mystique surrounding it. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.720 Exactly. Yes, because, as we touched on in the first episode, 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.960 you know, these images become kind of articles of faith 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:17.720 within a given belief system, within a given worldview. And yeah, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.600 you go down there, there's you've got to admit, okay, 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:22.840 you know, lining up with your hopes and dreams, maybe 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.880 you'll get that high res image of this thing and 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:29.880 it will literally change the way we think about ourselves 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.400 and we think about the world. But what are the 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.360 chances that you'll just it'll be that face on Mars scenario, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:38.480 you know where oh well, you realize that once you 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:42.160 have some different imagery, some different information to go on, 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:44.720 the face is not there at all, and then how 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:45.520 are you going to feel? 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.600 So this brings us to the particular underwater image that 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:50.760 you dug up, Rob that we're going to talk about today. 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.800 This image is the so called Baltic Sea anomaly. Would 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:56.800 you like to introduce it? 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.960 Sure? Yeah, I found this way probably I think a 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.079 lot of people find it is that you find these 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:08.480 various lists of strange, unexplained things beneath the ocean, and 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:13.680 they're generally they're generally a weird array of objects and 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:19.040 alleged objects, some of which are verified realities, some are blurry, 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:24.400 low res images. But yeah. This sonar image was taken 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.320 by Swedish Ocean X on the floor of the Northern 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:32.920 Baltic Sea at the center of the Gulf of Bothnia 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.640 in June twenty eleven during a hunt for I believe 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.840 possible sunken treasure. So they were on the lookout with 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.360 their imagery for you know, things that might be ships, 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.959 things that might be man made objects on the bottom. Now, 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.120 the image that came out of all of this, the 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:54.880 sonar image, has captured the imagination of ufologists because it 0:09:55.040 --> 0:10:00.160 does look roundish and many illustrations, and I want to 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.760 stress that illustrations based on this imagery readily, and these 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.520 will readily come up and search for you. Don't worry. 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:08.480 You don't have to look hard for them. In fact, 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.920 it's harder to sort of wean them out and just 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:14.240 focus on the sonar data they lean into. This kind 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:19.560 of interpretation of this roundish object is perhaps a millennium 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:24.000 falcon s spaceship, or perhaps something akin to the ship 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.920 that the engineers have in the Alien franchise. 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.440 I was thinking something that, yeah, from Prometheus. It looks 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.240 like that technology style. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:37.960 Yeah, which is an iconic derelict spaceship that has mysteries 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:42.000 aboard that we absolutely should on Earth. We actually absolutely 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:44.640 should get in there and get some of that right. 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.280 But I guess for now we're just going to focus 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:49.040 on this original sonar image that was released to the 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.160 media back in the summer of twenty eleven by again 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.160 Ocean X, which is this Swedish treasure hunting and salvage 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:58.040 diving operation. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:04.040 Yeahual image here is definitely in the low information zone, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.040 and various critics have pointed this out as a reason 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.080 that not much can be made out of it, aside 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.280 from the consensus that we're almost certainly looking at a 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:19.000 geologic formation here and not a spaceship, not part of 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:22.040 a lost city on the bottom of the ocean, some 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.040 part of a lot of civilization. Their whole articles speculating 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.400 that as well, And you know, it's worth driving home 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.720 like these ideas, just as pure ideas are very exciting, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.240 Like who wouldn't want to learn more about a possible 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:36.280 alien spaceship on the bottom of the ocean. Who would 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.800 want to hear more about a lost city that was 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.840 Atlantis style that was swallowed up by the waves in 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.640 ancient times. But more likely than anything, this is just 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.600 geology down there, and if you're into geology, it's pretty exciting. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.520 But I guess we have to sort of look at 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.560 the at the end of the day, perhaps geology doesn't 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.240 have necessary as much of an excitement value in the 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:07.600 mainstream or certainly in the in the fringe. So if 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.559 you're if you're given two possibilities, even though one is 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.080 far more likely, some people are just going to go 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:16.400 for the the sexier answer, And of course the answer 0:12:16.480 --> 0:12:23.000 that confirms or seems to confirm some ideas and aspirations 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:23.800 one has for. 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.240 The universe interpretations I've come across in addition to saying 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:30.240 this is an alien spacecraft. Oh and by the way, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.160 I should say, early articles about this from around the 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.559 time it was first released often like would draw outlines 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:43.400 around parts of this sonar image, like asking you to 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:48.199 lean into certain shape interpretations, And one of the outlines 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.880 that was often drawn was essentially the millennium falcon. So 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.160 there there's a weird kind of space where they can 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:58.680 almost like if you're a journalist doing an article and 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:00.679 drawing an outline like that, you can be like, oh, 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.240 it's just funny. You know, it's a funny joke. But 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:07.360 also you probably know that you are getting some traffic 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.120 from like playing into the hand of UFO interpretations. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:14.160 Yeah, I've also seen somewhere they're like, okay, these are 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.800 stairs and then this is you know, pointing out like 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:22.920 architectural supposed architectural details on this object. And you know, again, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.480 you're you're you're a lot of people if they're seeing 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.120 this image for the first time, you're giving them all 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.080 the interpretation and given them the full script for interpreting 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:31.360 this low res image. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:33.800 Right, But anyway to come back to. So there are 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:35.280 a lot of people who say, yeah, this is a 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:42.040 crashed alien flying saucer, or crashed alien spacecraft or crashed 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:45.959 ancient human spacecraft from lost you know, lost technology from 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.640 an ancient civilization. There are also people who say it 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:52.480 was a monument built by the Atlantean civilization, So they 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.439 say Atlantis built this, it was like a temple U. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:59.520 There are various flavors of secret Nazi interpretations. It's a 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.360 it's a U boat model we've never seen before, some 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:04.280 kind of underwater Nazi bunker. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.199 Oh yeah, yeah, obviously there's a great deal of Nazi 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:13.080 stuff once you get into the paranormal in fringe movements. 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.360 But what does it actually look like? I mean, if 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.920 you take away the outlines and everything, what we can 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.720 see in this image is that it is a kind 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:25.960 of roughly circular looking texture on the ocean floor that 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.360 has some parallel lines kind of running across it that 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.080 you know, you could well want to interpret as I 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.160 don't know, something they're like grooves or tracks or walkways, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.120 but also they could just be like layers of rock. 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.840 You know. One of these images you included where it's 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:46.360 been traced, it looks kind of like I'm gonna I'm 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.560 gonna throw this out there. It looks kind of like 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.040 one of the helmets of the giant warriors from Nasaka, 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:54.880 the Valley of the Wind, like on its side. So 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.920 perhaps this is a remnant from that time before the 0:14:59.160 --> 0:14:59.960 Seven Days of five. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.400 Oh well, we certainly wouldn't want to awake it then, 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:09.280 but meddlesome men and their war machines they want to anyway. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:13.040 So other claims about this image, So they say the 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.240 people who discovered it say that the disc part of 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:19.160 the object is roughly sixty meters wide or about two 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.920 hundred feet wide in diameter. It was found on the 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.840 ocean floor at a depth of about ninety meters or 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:29.400 three hundred feet Okay, so actually not that deep when 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.880 it comes to ocean or seafloor. And again this is 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.800 in the Gulf of Bothnia, which is the northern part 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:40.240 of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland. Peter Lindberg, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.000 one of the explorers behind the original image, claimed that 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:48.920 the object was perfectly round, and there is a sort 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.680 of light colored area on the seafloor extending away from 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.680 the disc shaped object that people say could be a 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:00.840 runway or a streak cut in the seafloor from a 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.160 crash landing. And then the next thing, this one starts 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.200 to being a real red flag for me. At some point, 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:10.880 ocean X started saying that they tried to return to 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:15.640 the object and get more information about it and imagery 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.920 of it, and they said that proximity to the object 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.000 was causing all of their electronic equipment to malfunction, and 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.080 they couldn't come within I think they said two hundred 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:30.280 meters of the object without all of their electronics failing. 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:31.120 Hmm. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.240 I'm a little doubtful of that kind of story. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:38.360 You know, given that this is near Finland. I would 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.440 be shocked if no one has suggested that it might 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:45.480 be the lost Sampo, which of course is this object 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:50.360 from Finnish mythology that was essentially like it brought riches 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:56.040 and good fortune and treasures. It was this font of wealth, 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.120 and if memory serves like the myth is that it 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:03.320 was lost at sea during a battle. So I don't know, 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.000 it sounds like it could be the Sampo. If I'm 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.760 going to lean into mythology for my interpretations, do. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.240 They say what the Sampo looks like? 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.480 I've seen some illustrations where it is actually kind of 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.040 kind of round. Yeah, but I think maybe smaller. I 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:18.399 don't know. 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.520 Okay, Wiki at least mentions a bunch of different ways 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.040 it's been depicted, and they are wide ranging, so I 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.359 would guess in the original they don't say the shape 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.240 it takes, but it says here it could be anything 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.720 from a world pillar to a compass or astrolabe, or 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.800 a bunch of other things, a coinde, a shield. So 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.000 why not a giant disk at the bottom of the ocean. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:42.920 Yeah. 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.480 Now, one of the reasons that people say this must 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.000 be a spaceship or some other piece of out of 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:52.679 place technology is I think essentially an intuitive reaction to 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.320 certain patterns of geometry. When you look at this sonar image, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:02.520 it appears to be a large circular disc. In some versions, 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.120 the circular disc appears to be made out of smaller 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:11.919 rectangles or squares, and a circle filled in with rectangles 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.800 or squares. That doesn't sound like any natural object I've 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.840 ever seen, so it just looks like it could not 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:20.920 be natural. It had to be made. Now, regarding these 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:26.360 square tiles or rectangular tiles appearance in this particular sonar 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.840 image the one we've been looking at here. There are 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:30.920 different versions of it you can find on the internet. 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.400 But even the fact that it appears to be made 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.160 of the rectangular blocks or tiles, I think is actually 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.280 somewhat influenced by the fact that the image has some 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.159 sort of digital artifact lines running parallel from top to 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:51.040 bottom across the image. And these parallel bars crossing the 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.200 image are not just on the object, but they're covering 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.360 the whole bitmap, and thus they are obviously a byproduct 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.800 of the imaging process, not a reflection of the object itself. 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:04.840 The image is also lined up so that these parallel 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:10.280 lines are exactly perpendicular to some ridges or lines that 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.160 seem to actually be on the object whatever it is 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:15.919 that seem to sort of run parallel across it. So 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.880 I think these digital imaging artifacts create a false impression 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.280 of a kind of right angled brickwork pattern that is 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.359 not actually present on the object itself. That's just a 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:31.560 byproduct of the way the image looks with these lines 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:33.840 running up and down on it. On the images we see. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.439 Second thing is rob you already mentioned this, but the 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.560 illustrations this is another case just like we talked about 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.359 last time of what was originally a low resolution or 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:49.119 low information piece of evidence being subject to mythologizing in 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:53.800 grandiose elaborations in artworks. So if you Google image search 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:58.000 this object, results containing the actual sonar image will be 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:02.800 vastly outnumbered by on fictional illustrations. I've included a few 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:05.000 for you to look at here, rob folks at home, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:07.919 You can look them up yourself, just type in Baltic 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.800 cea anomaly. To be clear, these are not photos of 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.520 the actual object. They are imaginative artworks. All of the 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:19.360 interesting and provocative sharp detail shown in them is made up. 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:23.880 But articles and videos about the object seem to use 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.080 things like this. Nonetheless, it's kind of like, look, here's 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.560 one way of imagining what this could look like up close, 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:34.560 if you could see it sharply. And for some people 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:37.840 this seems to suggest it's legitimate to assume that's the 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:39.159 way it actually is. 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:42.439 Yeah, and be clear, this can also take place at 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:47.840 kind of a subliminal consumer level, where you just you 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:50.200 pull up a bunch of images of this thing, and yeah, 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.280 most of the ones on your page are going to 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.040 be perhaps leaning into some sort of fantastic illustration, and 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.440 the illustrations are cool, Like you can't help but look 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:00.640 at this and feel the kind of way. 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.120 Yeah, I don't want to knock the artists, but I mean, 0:21:03.280 --> 0:21:06.480 just like to emphasize these are not images of a 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:11.359 thing in the world. These are essentially fictional artworks that 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.400 are based on a grainy, indistinct original image. 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.160 Now I want to throw out another wild speculation. What 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.240 if this is a tetromino or a Tetris block, and really, 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:26.840 instead of trying to get down there to it, what 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:31.920 we need to do is construct a tetramino to interlock 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.520 with it and drop it down and make sure that 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.480 we have lined it up appropriately so that it will 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:39.840 fill in the space next to it. 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:42.520 Well that's a great point, but it would have to 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:47.320 be a kind of hybrid game piece, because like one 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.240 half of it seems to be a Tetronimo, it's got 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.439 the blocky parts that seem like they could interlock, and 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:56.119 then the other half is rounded like a Connect four piece. 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.359 So maybe it is for a hybrid type game something 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:00.440 we haven't seen and yet. 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:03.639 I mean, this does touch on the rea. It's like 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.200 it's not square enough, It's not it doesn't have enough 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:13.200 right angles that it really shouts unnatural object as loudly 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:17.280 as some would perhaps insist that it does. It's also 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.560 not round enough, it doesn't have the end. That would 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.000 not in either case would necessarily mean that it is 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.840 not of this world. But certainly like those are the 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.040 sorts of shapes one would want to see in their spaceship. 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:32.879 You would want to see a more perfect circle, You 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:35.919 would want to see a lot of angles that that 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.280 we usually don't think of as occurring naturally in nature. 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:51.159 We will come back to in a minute commentary on 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:53.639 the sonar image itself and what kind of conclusions we 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.720 should draw from it. But let's say that this did 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.520 actually depict an object to the bottom of the that 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:03.440 some that looked like it had sort of some blocks 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:06.399 or some rectangular bricks in it. In the spirit of 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:10.600 the previous episodes, let's talk about sponges that look like technology. 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:13.280 I think it's time for let's talk about natural rock 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.920 formations that look like architecture. There are lots of them. 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:20.440