For those unfamiliar with A. J. Gentile, he’s the guy behind The Why Files, where he and sidekick Hecklefish examine various paranormal subjects, spooky stories, legends, fringe science theories, etc. A bunch of stuff that could have been covered by Art Bell or Fortean Times. I used him as fodder for previous Halloween posts here and here.
Turns out that Joe Rogan is a fan, too, and he did a nearly three hour interview with him:
Topics covered include UFOs, aliens, floods, the weirdness of the moon, military technology (that might have come from aliens), etc.
Remember: Alternate reality theories are for entertainment purposes only…
People find all sorts of interesting things in Google Earth, some of which are more unsettling than others.
These include:
A glitch that made everything in New Baltimore, New York look weird, distorted and ghostly.
A car that showed up submerged in a suburban Florida retention. Turned out there was dead guy in it that had gone missing 22 years before.
A plane deep in the Cambodian jungle that might be flight MH370. (You would think someone would have investigated the site by now, even if only with a drone. And the intact wing shape seems unlikely in a jungle crash situation.)
A gathering of people in clown masks that might have been members of a drug cartel.
Rocko’s Basilisk is a thought experiment that would be terribly frightening if it weren’t so fundamentally stupid.
To quote Wikipedia, the source of all vaguely accurate knowledge: “Roko’s basilisk is a thought experiment which states that there could be an artificial superintelligence in the future that, while otherwise benevolent, would punish anyone who knew of its potential existence but did not directly contribute to its advancement or development, in order to incentivize that advancement.”
The really crazy part is that those who actually believe in the theory think Rocko’s Basilisk would become so all-powerful that it can retroactively punish those in the past, including subjecting them to eternal torment for failing to help the basilisk, while rewarding those who do. So instead of an interesting thought experiment, it’s just a funhouse inversion of Christian theology on salvation and damnation.
“I hit the MTC/those self transforming elves/they’re just AI entities/future versions of ourselves.”
“Reality is a construct, and your mind’s all you need.”
“We’re beautiful and mentally stable creatures/Living in a world with perfect features/No more therapy, no more meds/Cuz the future’s dancing in our heads.”
Shades of Philip K. Dick!
But surely no one is foolish enough to be fooled that this half-assed through experiment actually reflects reality, right? Wrong. “In the 2020s, the philosophy of the Zizians was heavily influenced by the Roko’s basilisk thought experiment. Ziz LaSota, the leader of the cult, believes the basilisk to be real and wrote on her* blog: “Eventually I came to believe that if I persisted in trying to save the world, I would be tortured until the end of the universe by a coalition of all unfriendly A.I.s.” If you haven’t heard of the Zizians, they’re a radical vegan transgender cult that’s also anti-AI. At least six people have died due to their actions…
Let’s continue yesterday’s giant spider horror theme with a look at some recent video games.
First up: Cassiculus, a game where you face giant spiders underground.
Next up: Daz Games plays Jawbone Hollow, where you face… a giant spider underground.
Finally, Daz also tackles giant spiders in Huntsman, where you face a giant spider…in an office building! This one may have the most realistic spider of all of them.
The J’ba FoFi, also known as the Congolese Giant Spiders, are a type of large arachnid cryptid which is said to inhabit the forests of the Congo, possibly representing a new species of Arachnida.
Most of the many anecdotal tales describe the spiders digging a shallow tunnel under tree roots and camouflaging it with a large screen of leaves. Then they create an almost invisible web between their burrow and a nearby tree, stringing the whole area with a network of trip lines. Some oblivious animal, that’s likely soon to end up on the creature’s menu, will trip the line alerting the spider. The victim will then be chased into the web. This type of predatory behavior is similar to that of several species of trap-door spider.
Natives claim the J’ba FoFi eggs are a pale yellow-white and shaped like peanuts, and the hatchlings are bright yellow with a purple abdomen. Their coloration becomes darker and brown as they mature. Some of the peoples indigenous to the regions in the Congo where the J’ba FoFi has been seen assert that the spider was once quite common, but has since become very rare. Possibly indicating the species has become endangered due to deforestation.
The fullest account by Westerners appears in a cryptozoological book by George Eberhart. On page 204, Eberhart relates the terrifying experience of an English couple traveling through a region of jungle in what is now called the Congo: “R.K. Lloyd and his wife were motoring in the Belgian Congo in 1938 when they saw a large object crossing the trail in front of them. At first, they thought it was a cat or a monkey, but they soon realized it was a spider with legs nearly 3 feet.”
Cryptozoologist William J. Gibbons has hunted for what some think may be a living Congolese dinosaur called Mokele-mbembe. On his third expedition in search of the creature he came upon natives who related their experiences with giant spiders. He shared his experience with readers upon his return to Canada:
“On this third expedition to Equatorial Africa, I took the opportunity to inquire if the pygmies knew of such a giant spider, and indeed they did! They speak of the J’ba FoFi, which is a “giant” or “great spider.” They described a spider that is generally brown in color with a purple mark on the abdomen. They grow to quite an enormous size with a leg span of at least five feet. The giant arachnids weave together a lair made of leaves similar in shape to a traditional pygmy hut, and spin a circular web (said to be very strong) between two trees with a strand stretched across a game trail.”
“These giant ground-dwelling spiders prey on the diminutive forest antelope, birds, and other small game, and are said to be extremely dangerous, not to mention highly venomous,” Gibbons states. “The spiders are said to lay white, peanut-sized eggs in a cluster, and the pygmies give them a wide berth when encountered, but have killed them in the past. The giant spiders were once very common but are now a rare sight.”
Supposedly someone captured footage of a J’ba Fofi in Mozambique in 2014. Look to the right side of this video:
Amazingly vague footage, is it not?
I think a spider of that size unlikely, but more likely than Mokele-mbembe.
But I don’t think I’ll be vacationing in the Congolese jungle any time soon…
The 50th Anniversary edition of the Genesis prog rock masterpiece The Lamb lies Down on Broadwayjust dropped. Were I not between jobs for an unreasonably long period of time, I would no doubt plop down my $120 or so bucks.
Here’s the remastered title track.
And here’s Classic Album Review for What It All Means:
