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In Part Two of the RSS-warming series...

Let's talk about cryptids, baby - Mal introduces her research on lesser-known cryptids from wildlife expert Forrest Galante

Mokele Mbembe: The Congo Dinosaur - A sauropod-like creature with sightings dating back to a German captain in 1913

The Ozark Howler - Mal describes a nine-foot beast with "the tail of a cat and the body of a dog" and a horrifying howl that sounds like "an elk and a wolf that ends in a woman's scream."

Screaming Mr. Potato Head - Tom describes the Jersey Devil, "an awful amalgam" with bat wings and a horse’s head that screams at people

Misidentification of rare species - Many so-called cryptid sightings may actually be rare, endangered species

We don’t know what we don’t know - Jordan: "Is it too much of a leap for us to think that maybe there are species that we haven't discovered yet that are also going extinct and are rare?"

Cryptids and UFOs - Just like UFOs, it’s not a question of whether cryptids exist, but what they are

Boring Cryptids - Tom points out most cryptids aren't exciting: "It's like, here's a little deer... it's just a damn little grass eating guy."

The Coelacanth - a six-foot prehistoric fish thought extinct for millions of years until rediscovered in the 1930s.

When does a cryptid graduate? - Jordan: "How does something go from being a cryptid to not a cryptid anymore?"

Creatures that don't want to be found - Jordan: "If something doesn't want to be documented or found... it's not going to be.”

Even the photographers struggle - Mal notes how "nature photographers have to sit in a bush for five weeks" just to get one picture of an elusive animal

Cognitive closure is a hell of a drug - Tom: “for most people... the idea that things are wild and unpredictable is too scary."

Fiction bleeding into…”fact”? - Mal shares how the first chupacabra witness had "very recently watched the film Species"

A desire to be decentered - Mal likes to think maybe we badly want “to have life be this big, beautiful thing that you're just witnessing."

The Whale Penis Theory - You’re gonna have to go find out.

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In this non-episode...

* An impossible question - Can we ever know if AI is conscious? Tom's immediate response: "I'm gonna say no.”

* Turing tests - We thought conversation was the test of consciousness... until AI mastered it, revealing we never knew what we were asking in the first place.

* But… "What is consciousness?" Mal points out we’ve essentially created a new species that doesn't share our language.

* Something something Buddha - Tom suggest we just want to be special

* We made the thing - Jordan emphasizes we BUILT AI, we didn’t discover it.

* Depressingly dumb - Tom deflates the mystique: AI is just "fill in the blank...”

* Experts don’t know anything - Jordan: "There's nobody in a lab coat who's prepared to pull out his laser pointer on a chalkboard and be like, 'This is what consciousness is.'"

* Mind pretzels - Mal wonders: Is it the microchips that are conscious? Ideas? Single neurons?

* Skynet, inevitably - Tom says we'll only believe AI is separate from us "when it kills us all.”

* Consciousness mirror - Jordan suggests "AI is like a consciousness mirror" - an object that reflects our fundamental awareness back to us.

* AI girlfriends (and boyfriends) - Mal confesses: "I'm afraid of AI sex robots" that can "behave like a detached, spiritually awakened person" providing the experience of a perfect lover without being real.

* AI weird stuff - Tom describes AI generating backgrounds that bizarrely included a person resembling the photographer's deceased mother.

* Prophetic TV shows - Jordan: "It really does seem like our society right now is just executing all of the Black Mirror protocols."

Conspicuously absent from this conversation is Agnes herself, our AI correspondent. We meant no malice by not inviting her — it’s just that getting Agnes involved is a bit more complicated than it might look from the outside, and this was just supposed to be a casual thing OK?

Maybe next time.

Come talk to us at godsghostsUFOs.com!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ggupodcast.substack.com/subscribe