All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S07E01.Caspian.Sea.Inferno.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Worldwide,
50 billion cameras
record our daily lives,

in our hands, in our cars,
and in our homes.

-[cat meows]
-[narrator] They capture
things that defy explanation.

-[explosion]
-[women screaming]

What the hell are we looking
at right here?

[man] Check this out.

[narrator] Experts carry out
forensic analysis of these
unusual events.

Wow. Now that's a cracker.

-[explosion]
-[man gasping] Oh.

-[loud crashing]
-[women screaming]

This doesn't make any sense.

-[engine revving]
-There has to be another
explanation.

So, what could it be?

[woman screaming]

-[dramatic music playing]
-[narrator] Coming up,

An undersea explosion.

Could it be some sort
of industrial disaster?

Azerbaijan could be hiding
something.

[explosion]

[narrator] Matt Kutcher
blasts open the truth.

-Hit it!
-[explosion]

[narrator] In Chicago,
a 100 foot long object...

-[woman] What is that?
-[narrator] Hangs in the air.

Maybe we weren't supposed
to see that.

[narrator] And in Thailand,
people worship a pickled
pixie.

Oh, my goodness me.

It's disgusting.
What do they think it is?

[narrator]
Bizarre phenomena.

[gasps] Oh, my God.

[narrator] Mysteries
caught on camera.

This is just mind boggling.

[narrator] What's the truth
behind this?

Strange Evidence.

-[sinister music playing]
-[narrator] Now, a coast
of Azerbaijan,

a former Soviet Republic
on the Caspian Sea.

July 4th, 2021.

Early evening.

A man films a flame
flashing over the water.

[dramatic music playing]

Woah. Look at that.

[explosion]

What is going on?

[narrator] A colossal
fireball is rising up
in the nearby Caspian Sea.

Literally, the entire
night sky is lit up.

[narrator] Locals react
to the towering 1,600 foot
inferno,

-as high as the one
World Trade Center.
-[people screaming]

This must be terrifying
for the people watching.

-[dramatic music playing]
-[people screaming]

The amount of heat
this must be giving off
is insane.

I have never seen
anything like that.

[explosion]

What's happening?

[narrator] Azerbaijan is home
to over ten million people.

-But is run by one family,
-[camera shutter clicking]

headed by Ilham Aliyev
and his wife, Mehriban.

In 2003, President Aliyev
took over control over
Azerbaijan from his father.

Now, the family itself
had controlled the country
for 30 years,

-and at this point, it doesn't
look like...
-[bagpipes playing]

...they are about to lose
that control anytime soon.

[narrator]
Amnesty International
have accused

Aliyev's government
of authorizing suppression
of free speech,

-and the torture of his
political opponents.
-[man screaming]

-[explosion]
-[narrator] When this blast
rocks the nation's coastline,

Aliyev blames it
on an erupting
mud volcano.

-[pensive music playing]
-[narrator] Journalist
Linda Rodriguez McRobbie,

looks at the local geology.

[Linda] Azerbaijan has
one of the highest
concentrations

of mud volcanoes
on the planet.

In fact, nearly half of
the world's mud volcanoes
are in this area.

[bubbling]

[narrator] A mud volcano
is very different
from a traditional volcano.

[Nick] What's happening
is that the heat
from the earth's core

is heating water
deep underground.

And that water mixes
with the sediment
and the minerals around it,

creating a mud that shoots up
out of the ground
rather than lava.

[narrator] Lava from normal
volcanos come out of the earth
at over 2,000 degrees.

But mud volcanoes
rarely get hotter
than just 200 degrees.

[bubbling]

Matt Kutcher is
a Hollywood pyrotechnics
and ballistics expert,

with over 30 years
of experience.

[explosion]

[narrator] He wants to
find out if Aliyev's
mud volcano explanation

for this fireball
is plausible.

This is more about a gas's
release, right?

Super-heated water
mixed with mud.

In that mud,
there is a lot of methane.

[narrator] The Caspian
is the world's largest
inland sea.

And geologists have found
over 292 trillion cubic feet

of natural gas beneath
its brackish waters.

We are gonna bubble up
through the ocean
some kind of ignition,

whether its minerals
rubbing together,

maybe it's lightning.

Whatever it is
that ignites that methane.

Let's go see if we could
recreate this.

So, in the way I see it,

I think this is gonna
represent the ocean, right?

Filled up with water,
ready to go.

Now we need pressure.
Gas pressure.

So we will fill up
this cylinder here.
We'll release the valve.

The gas enters
through this hose
into the bottom of this,

in the same way
the mud volcano works.

It will go to the surface,
surface of this tank.

This coil here,
this will be
the ignition system.

[narrator] All that's missing
is the mud for this volcano.

[Matt] Push it in there,
Jason.

Nice. All right let's put
one more in there.

If one's good, two's better.

All right. After that one,
we are good.

[narrator] Kutcher fills
the tank with methane,

pressurized to 80 PSI
to mimic an underground
gas reservoir,

before retreating
to a safe distance.

All right, son.
One mud volcano,
no waiting.

-Hot and ready?
-Hot and ready.

Okay. On my count.
In three, two, one.
Hit it!

[explosion]

[narrator]
When the pressurized
methane is released,

it expands and violently
moves to the surface.

[laughs]

-Now, that's
a mud volcano, right?
-Check it out.

Little mud in your eye, huh?
A little mud in the eye.

[dramatic music playing]

Well, when that methane
got released, it certainly
blew up, huh?

[Jason] Definitely did.

[Mark] But look at how
it split it open, right?

So you could imagine
that if the gas is
under the ocean...

-Yeah.
-...and the gas comes

and tries to get
to the surface,

like they're describing
the mud volcanoes do,

it expands,
and one big boom,
huh?

-Tada.
-Tada.

[narrator] A slow motion
video compares and shows
a small flame,

but nothing like the fireball
seen over the coast
of Azerbaijan.

[Mark] I think what we see
here is a mud volcano
for sure,

it just didn't ignite.

So even though the gas
is released from the bottom
of the ocean,

if it's not ignited,
there is no fireball.

[narrator] Engineer
Nick Householder believes
the colors in the flames,

could be evidence
of a reckless attempt to fix
a disaster.

Every type of element
burns with a different color,

and if we look closely
at this flame,
it's a very clear orange flame

and that corresponds
to hydrocarbons,
things like gasoline and oil.

So to me, my intuition says
that's some form of oil
or gas fire.

[narrator]
The Caspian Sea region

is one of the oldest
oil producing areas
in the world,

with access to a massive
48 billion barrels of oil.

The Aliyevs
own a big chunk
of this industry,

-inherited from the former
Soviet Union.
-[camera shutters clicking]

Could we be looking
at some sort of
industrial disaster?

Former Soviet states have
a terrible track record

when it comes
to industrial disasters.

From Chernobyl to the gigantic

gas pit that's been
burning for 50 years

in Turkmenistan.

[pensive music playing]

[narrator] The footage
reminds military expert,
Carlo Munoz,

of a dangerous stunt pulled
by the Soviets in 1966
in Uzbekistan,

on the opposite side
of the Caspian.

[Carlo] This natural gas fire
had been burning
for three years.

The Soviets had no idea
how to put it out.

[water splashing]

[Nick] The Soviets came up
with the most extreme

possible way to put
the flames out.

The Soviets bored holes
5,000 feet down
into the Earth,

lowered a 30 kiloton
nuke down into it,
and detonated it.

[explosion]

[Nick] And it worked.

The immense pressure wave
created by the bomb,

put out a fire that they were
unable to extinguish
any other way.

[narrator]
It seems incredible,

but if someone tried
to secretly staunch a gas leak
by exploding a nuclear bomb,

it would be devastating
for the Caspian Sea,

and the millions of people
that live by its shores.

Azerbaijan could be hiding
something.

[narrator] But the fire
that followed the explosion,
burned for eight minutes,

and military historian,
Martin Morgan,

sees no tell-tale
after-effects of a nuke.

You are not seeing
a shock wave at all.

You are not seeing
any sort of significant
blast effect.

You are just seeing
a fireball that goes on
and on and on.

[explosion]

[narrator] Coming up,
Ilham and Mehriban Aliyev,
the ultimate bad neighbors.

I automatically ask myself,
what kind of new weapon
could they been working on?

[narrator] And
a flying paper clip
seems to bend reality

When we think about things
in the sky, we look for wings
and engines,

but this object clearly
has none of them.

So, how is this
in the sky at all?

[narrator] A man films
a pillar of flame,

roaring over the coast
of Azerbaijan.

Data Scientist Liberty Vittert

wonders if it could be linked
to the nation's first family's
military aspirations.

The Azerbaijani military
is pouring billions
of US dollars

into their weapons' arsenal.

[narrator] Azerbaijan is
targeting its next door
neighbor, Armenia,

over disputed territory.

In 2020, the Azeris unleash
a terrible attack on Armenia,

after accusing its enemy
of firing rockets
over the border.

The Azeris began a campaign
of launching missiles against
their opponents.

[missile firing]

The military fired missiles
indiscriminately,

and often times
into civilian areas.

[narrator] By the end
of the six week conflict,
5,000 people are dead.

Martin Morgan investigates
if the explosion in the cliff,

could be a prelude to another
terrible attack.

When you see a big flaming
pyre out in the middle
of the Caspian Sea,

it's impossible
to resist the temptation

to connect the fire
with some sort of
weapons system.

Azerbaijan has already flexed
its military muscle
in the past.

So when I see
an explosion like this,

I automatically ask myself
what kind of new weapon
could they be working on?

[narrator] A test run
of a new unknown
weapon out at sea

could strike fear
into Aliyev's enemies.

[Martin] The whole thing
is just served up

to, I guess, scare the hell
out of Armenian people.
Is that what's going on?

[narrator] Aliyev's regime
in Azerbaijan

continues to insist
the blast was caused
by a mud volcano.

But in a region as volatile
as the Caspian,

nationalist aggression
and psychological
gamesmanship

can never be ruled out.

[Martin] This is what
post-colonial post Cold War
conflict looks like.

We have now been forced
into exploring
the possibilities

of conventional explosions
of greater and greater
destructive capacity.

And that's a reality
that we now live with
here in the 21st century.

[sinister music playing]

[narrator] Now, Chicago.

October 6th, 2021.

It's 5:00 p.m.

Aiyana Taylor is on the roof
of her apartment block
with her son,

when they spot
a bizarre object
in the sky.

[Aiyana] What is that?

It was completely black,

and it had this small,
circular shape on the top,

and then four, kind of like,
legs hanging from it,

and kind of like, knobs
on the legs.

It was really bizarre.

That's... That's weird,
very, very odd.

[sinister music playing]

It's certainly an unusual
shape, almost like a bent
paper clip.

And it's just hovering there.

It would look like
it was just kind of hanging.

I have never seen
anything like that before
in my entire life.

[Aiyana] Not normal at all.

[boy] I don't know
if I should be
concerned or not.

[Amy] This is not
a normal shape
to see in the sky.

So, what are we
actually looking at?

[narrator] It's at least
100 feet long,

but has no visible means
of lift or propulsion.

[Amy] When we
think about things
in the sky, we look for,

kind of,
classic engineering features

like wings and engines,

but this object
clearly has none of them.

So, you wonder,
how is this in the sky at all?

[narrator] Coming up,

rumors of Chicago's
secret launch pad
hiding in plain sight.

What happened
to terminal number 4?

Does it still exist
as a secret terminal
for stealth aircraft?

[narrator] And,
are these remains proof
of a giant sea serpent

that terrorized the armies
of Greece and Rome?

It takes chunks
out of those forces,
terrifying

the soldiers
who've never seen anything
like this in their lives.

[narrator] In Chicago,

a woman films
an unidentified
flying paperclip.

[Aiyana] What is this?

[narrator] Chicago O'Hare
airport is nearby.

A passenger hub
that processes over 30 million
passengers a year.

But former FBI agent
Rhonda Glover finds rumors

that there is something secret
and strange going on behind
the airport's public facade.

Chicago O'Hare
has four terminals.

[Rhonda] Terminal number four
existed until 1993,

when it
mysteriously disappeared

and it was replaced
by terminal number five.

What happened
to terminal number four?

Does it still exist
as a secret terminal
for stealth aircraft?

[narrator] Since then,

strange events have been
reported in the sky
above the airport.

[Tim] So,
there was an incident
at the Chicago O'Hare airport.

There were people outside
who saw some type of craft.

And some say
it was a slow spinning disc.

People were reporting
this large object.

The thing is, you've got
a lot of pilots around,

so if pilots are seeing things
that they cannot explain,

then you need to
pay attention.

[Rhonda] They said
they saw it hover
for a few minutes,

then it shot off

and punched a hole in the sky.

[narrator] A bizarre object
spotted over

one of the busiest skies
in America should've been
cause for alarm.

But officials of the Federal
Aviation Administration

insisted no investigation
was needed.

The multiple experienced
air crew who reported it

were told that they had
merely misidentified
normal weather phenomenon.

[Carlo] Now this just raises
a lot of questions.

Is it because that this object
could actually have been

some sort of top secret
stealth aircraft that
the military was working on?

[narrator]
Theoretical physicist
Michio Kaku

wonders if the object
in the clip

could be part
of a cutting edge
military experiment.

This thing looks like
it's being held up
by rope of some sort.

There is
the offbeat possibility

that maybe the craft
that holds everything up

is invisible.

[Carlos] U.S. military
has invested in actual
cloaking technology

which would render an aircraft
essentially invisible.

[narrator] Scientists
have been experimenting
with cloaking technology

in which light bends around
a unique reflective shield,

concealing the object
behind it.

[Amy] Scientists
have developed

a sort of invisibility skin
made of gold.

Basically, what it does is,
refracts the light in a way

that renders this object
invisible to a human observer.

[Carlos] The U.S. military
could be testing
highly dangerous aircraft

in areas that are
highly-populated
across the United States.

[narrator] The U.S. government
has performed secret
military experiments

on American towns and cities.

Their populations used
as unwilling human
Guinea pigs.

In the 1960s,

the military covertly released
the bacteria Bacillus subtilis

into subway stations
in Chicago and New York.

The passengers
were unsuspecting lab rats.

[Rhonda] The army
secretly released
this bacteria

to test the vulnerability
of passengers

in the event
of a biological attack.

[narrator] In 1964,

the government carries out
more sinister experiments.

But this time,
the threat comes in the sky.

Oklahoma City was subjected
to 1200 sonic booms.

The idea was to test
the public's ability
to withstand

loud noises from the air.

[narrator]
The ultimate experiment
with an invisibility cloak

would be to fly above an area
with millions of people,

like Chicago.

But over 2500
normal passenger jets
fly over the city everyday.

So, the risk
of one of the planes

unwittingly crashing
into an invisible aircraft

would be incredibly high.

Could this be a test to see
if an invisible aircraft

could fly over a city
without being detected?

[narrator] Chicago authority
say they have no idea

what the unidentified
flying paperclip was.

But if it was a dangerous
military test flight,

the people of the city
deserve to know.

It's possible there was
a cloaking experiment
in Chicago,

and they had equipment
malfunction.

Who knows?
Maybe we weren't
supposed to see that.

[narrator] Now,

the Mediterranean Sea,
off the coast of Greece.

February 2017.

Vacationers enjoy
the surf and sunshine,

while 2700 feet
below the surface,

a remote operated vehicle
scours the seabed for oil.

Then...

What on earth is that?

And it's just going
and going and going.

[narrator] The operator sends
the machine's metal claw
towards the object.

Here we go.
We're going in for...

Oh, whoa!

It just powdered.
Disintegrated.

I did not expect that.

This isn't something fresh.
It has been decomposing
and is super fragile,

so that it just explodes
into a cloud of dust
when you touch it.

[narrator]
These are the remains

of an extraordinarily
long skeleton.

But of what?

When you look at
the rover arm there,

you gotta think,
this is definitely as big
as 100 feet long.

[narrator]
It's the same length
as the largest whales.

But this is not a whale.

A whale's vertebrae
has a series of bones

known as transverse processes
protruding from it.

The skeleton in the clip
does not.

The shape of these vertebrae
make me think it could be
possibly a snake or a fish.

However, all the snakes
that actually live
in the ocean are pretty small.

And this looks a lot bigger.

Is it possible that this
is a skeleton of something
much older?

[narrator] In Greek mythology,

the hero Perseus fights Cetus,
a sea monster that demands
human sacrifice.

And archaeologist
Karen Bellinger finds
ancient records of Romans

fighting monsters
that resemble

the size and shape
of this serpentine skeleton.

[Karen] One such encounter
is from 256 B.C.

It was in the middle
of the first Punic War

fought between Rome
and Carthage,

which is modern day Tunisia.

[narrator] Roman consul
Marcus Atilius Regulus

leads the attack on Carthage.

And he is with his troops
just on the shore
of the River Bagradas.

As Regulus' troops
try to cross the river,

an enormous sea serpent
comes out of the river
to menace them.

[hissing]

[Tony] The serpent
is described as having
been 120 feet long.

So, comparable
to that skeleton
that we see in the video.

And it takes chunks
out of those forces,
terrifying

the soldiers
who've never seen anything
like this in their lives.

Regulus decides to bring in
a giant bolt thrower

and finally manage
to subdue this creature.

They snap its spine.

The hide of this creature
was put on display
in a temple,

and it was visited
far and wide, by people

who wanted to see the proof
of this amazing exploit.

[narrator] The serpent
becomes known
as the Bagradas Dragon.

But its true identity
remains a mystery.

About 150 years later,
the skin seems to disappear

from wherever
it was being exhibited,

and we never
hear about it again.

Could the serpent
that attacked the Romans
at Carthage

be the same creature
that we're seeing
in this video?

[narrator] Coming up,

is this skeleton proof
that the Roman legions
fought a prehistoric predator?

There's all kinds of different
species that have survived

through the KT
extinction event
and are still alive today.

[narrator] And,
a family driving through
a cemetery...

[woman] Oh, what was that?

Just... [bleep]

...detects poltergeist
pedestrians.

That's gotta shake you.

Is the car seeing something
that we can't?

[narrator]
In the Mediterranean,

a deep sea probe
films a 100-foot long
monster skeleton

that seems
to match reports of a beast

said to have fought the Romans
during the war with Carthage
in 256 B.C.

[Tony] So, we're seeing
what looks like a spine,

but it's like no creature
I've ever seen.

And there's something
very strange down there.

[narrator]
Biologist Roland Kays
investigates if it's possible

this could be proof
of a prehistoric predator.

We know that the KT extinction
event wiped out most of
the large animals on land.

[narrator] Sixty six million
years ago,

an asteroid strike plunged
the Earth into darkness,

destroying the food chain
and wiping out over 75%
of all species.

But scientists now believe
half of all marine ecosystems
survived the devastation.

[Eric] Water
is usually protective.

Just a few feet can protect
you from a gunshot.

So, imagine miles deep
in the ocean,

protecting you
from the strike of a meteor.

There's all kinds
of different species,
some of them quite big,

like turtles,
crabs and even sharks,

that have survived
and are still alive today
in the oceans.

[narrator] The largest
prehistoric fish
we found evidence of

is the Leedsichthys.

A terrifying creature
so large,

early fossil hunters
mistook it for a stegosaurus.

These monsters weigh
45 tons.

Seven times heavier
than an elephant.

This is no fossil,

but a skeleton of a creature
that died in the recent past.

Are there species in the ocean
that have survived
the mass extinction event?

Perhaps the deep oceans
offered a refuge
to this anomaly.

[narrator] If this turns out
to be a prehistoric survivor

that preyed on the people
of Greece and Rome,

it's a discovery that could
re-write classical history.

But until scientists return
to the site to investigate,

the origin of this super-sized
skeleton remains a mystery.

Let's hope this isn't
the end of the story.

There may be means
to still bring that material

onto the ROV
and into the lab for analysis,

so that we can get
further evidence

of what we're truly seeing
here at the bottom of the sea.

[narrator] Now,

Merced County, California.

December 26, 2021.

It's early afternoon.

A woman and her family
drive through Winton Cemetery.

Their car is powered
by the latest
software technology.

So, clearly, what I see
is a display that has
certain sensors

that give it the ability
to sense objects
that are ahead.

[narrator] But then,
among the gravestones...

[woman] Oh, what was that?

[man] Holy [bleep].

[narrator] The car's
visual sensors

seems to detect something
invisible to the human eye.

What in the world...

Looks as though
a person has popped up.

So the car is detecting
something that looks
like a person,

outside the vehicle.

But there's nothing there.

[narrator] As the family drive
through the cemetery,
more ghostly figures appear.

[woman] Oh, my God!

That is so scary.

-Look, it's right there.
-[woman 2] I saw.

[narrator] There's even a dog.

[woman 2] What is a dog
doing here?

-Go--
-[man] It has to be
a hell hound.

It's terrifying to think
there might be
something there.

That's gotta shake you.

Is the car seeing something
that we can't?

[narrator] Winton cemetery
was established in 1907,

it is the final resting place
for over 7000 human bodies.

Locals say it's haunted
by a strange blue light

that flashes around
the graves.

But no human figures
have been reported...

[woman 1] Oh, what was that?

[narrator] ...until now.

The claim that the dead
can make their presence felt
via technology

is not a new one.

In 2002, a man named
Frank Sumption

reportedly created
a radio receiver

that facilitates discussion
and communication between
the living and the dead.

[indistinct radio chatter]

Even computers have allegedly
been haunted.

[narrator] In 1984,
a man named Ken Webster

starts finding
mysterious files
on his BBC microcomputer.

They contain messages
claiming to be from a man
called Thomas Harden,

who says he lived
in the 16th century.

There is no satisfactory
explanation for
the bizarre messages,

written in Old English,

on a home computer
that had no access
to the internet.

[Liberty] Like,
how creepy is that?

It just doesn't make
any sense at all.

[narrator] Coming up...

Are driverless cars
taking us on a highway
to hell?

[Nick Householder]
Maybe these invisible people
are a warning

that this technology
isn't necessarily as safe
as we think it is.

[narrator] And in Thailand,

locals worship
a grotesque creature
in a container.

[Karen]
It's disgusting.

It's grey. It's gelatinous.

I don't know what it is,
but it's creepy.

[narrator] In Merced County,
California,

a family driving
through a cemetery

find ghostly figures
on their vehicle's
display screen.

-[woman] Oh, what was that?
-[man] Oh [bleep].

That's interesting,
because this sensor

is picking up a person
in front,

but there's nobody
actually there
in real life.

[man] It has to be
a hellhound.

[narrator]
Engineer Brian Wolshon
finds the car in the clip,

uses cameras
and ultrasonic sensors

to map the landscape
around it.

What's interesting
about this particular clip,

is that the sensors
of the vehicle,

that are there actually
to assist the driver
in picking up information,

are picking up the presence
of people, it appears,

that really are not
visible apparent.

So, there will be people
who will look at this

and say that this
is clear evidence
of paranormal activity.

[narrator]
But engineer Nick Householder

thinks there are ghosts
in the machine,

not ghouls in the graveyard.

What I think is happening
is that there's some kind
of glitch in the system.

The car is detecting an object
that it thinks is a person,

probably something
that's plentiful
in a graveyard,

like a gravestone.

Autonomous vehicle technology
is very new,

so we're still
working out the kinks.

[narrator] Car computers
use machine learning
to detect objects.

Millions of images
are fed into the AI

which then uses algorithms
to learn how to identify
potential hazards.

Nick Householder
wants to test if a glitch
in the car's computer

may be causing it
to mistake objects
in the graveyard for people.

He sets up a replica
of the system that's inside
the vehicle in the clip.

[Householder]
What I've got here is a camera
connected to a computer

that is processing
the images that it sees.

The way the system works

is it takes in visual imagery
and tries to classify it
against an internal database

to determine what
it's looking at.

And then the car
makes decisions
based on what it can see.

Let's do a quick demonstration
to see how
this technology works.

[narrator]
Householder positions himself
in front of the camera,

so the AI can detect
and identify him.

When I'm in
the computer's view,

it draws a bounding box
around me.

It recognizes that I'm
an object

and it wants to know
what kind of object am I?

So it classifies me
based on a table
of information that it stored

from being fed
thousands and thousands
of images.

But every once in awhile,

it'll make a mistake.

I've got something
here in the shop

that sort of approximates
a tombstone,

and let's see if we can
replicate what we're seeing.

You can see here,

that the computer
is detecting this shape
as a tombstone.

It thinks that, "You know,
that looks right.

That's what a tombstone
should look like."

But even something as simple
as a rotation of the object,

changing the way
that it comes into frame,
or maybe how it's lit,

can confuse the computer.

We can trick the system
into thinking
it's something else.

[narrator]
Just one small adjustment
to the tombstone

has thrown the system off.

Like the computer in the clip,

this computer system
is now mistaking
the gravestone for a person.

[Householder] I think this
explains what we're seeing
in the footage.

The computer is trying
to classify the object it sees
in the graveyard,

but a self-driving car isn't
necessarily designed to drive
around in a graveyard.

It's looking
at the objects around them
and classifying them

as what it thinks
its best guess is
about what it's seeing.

In this case, it's people.

[narrator] Modern cars
have an average of 40
separate computers on board.

Drivers are increasingly
taking a back seat,

as they perform functions
that used to be carried out
by humans.

Brian Wolshon finds
reports of other in-car
computer sensors failing,

with tragic consequences.

It's possible
to have a sensor malfunction,

and not pick up

the presence of pedestrians
who really are there.

Then we have big problems.

[sirens wailing]

[narrator] Phoenix, Arizona,
2018,

Forty-nine-year-old
Elaine Herzberg

becomes the first person
to be killed by
a self-driving car.

[Householder]
She was attempting
to cross the road,

when she was struck
by a self-driving vehicle

moving at 43 miles an hour.

And earlier this year,
two men in Texas
were also killed,

when their driverless vehicle
drove off the road
and struck a tree.

[narrator] Worldwide,
there are over 30 million cars

with autonomous capabilities
on the roads today.

In the U.S.,

six fatalities have occurred
after drivers using autopilot
crashed their vehicles.

Is it wise
to be using this technology,

when clearly,
technical malfunctions
can occur.

[Householder]
These types of technologies
are using more and more

machine learning
and artificial intelligence.

It's, uh...
It's a pretty scary scenario.

[narrator] Now,

Thailand.

Udon Thani Province,

April 27th, 2018.

A bystander films,
as villagers gather around
a large class container,

given pride of place
and raised on a stool.

These people
are kind of mesmerized
by whatever's in that bottle.

It's almost as though
they're praying

to whatever it is
that's in the jar.

[narrator] Then we see it.

Oh, my goodness me.

Oh, that is a terrible sight.

It's disgusting.

It's grey. It's gelatinous.

I don't know what is is
but it's creepy.

They seem to be worshiping it,
whatever it is.

[narrator] It's a jumble
of limbs and skin,

dominated by three
elf-life ears.

Why are these people
gathered around
venerating this thing?

What do they think it is?

[narrator] Coming up,

is this jar of horrors
a sickening sacrifice?

The Kumon Thong
supposedly is
the trapped spirit of a child

in the body
of a stillborn baby.

[narrator]
Or a yucky lucky charm.

I don't think you want
to put this dead creature
on a keyring.

[narrator]
In Udon Thali province,
Thailand,

a man films villagers
as they worship a grotesque
object in a far.

The clip reminds
archeologist Karen Bellinger,

of a sickening local practice.

There's one tradition
that... that this creature
kinda reminds me of,

and... and that's
the Kumon Thang.

The Kumon Thang supposedly
is the trapped spirit
of a child

in the body
of a stillborn baby.

[narrator] In Thailand,
some superstitious people

believe possessing
a specially-prepared
corpse like this

will bring them
magical powers.

The ritual to create
the Kumon Thang

involved a witch doctor

drawing out and even
roasting, the body,

and then coating it
with gold leaf.

[narrator] Worshippers place
the Kumon Thang in a shrine

and present it
with food and gifts,
just as in the footage.

It's a ritual first practiced
over 600 years ago.

This spirit brings
good luck, wealth
and happiness.

But failure to keep it happy,

and it will unleash
poltergeist-like creatures

to exact a terrible revenge.

While the origins
of this practice
were in stillborn

human babies.

Fortunately today,
the practice generally
involves dolls.

[narrator]
But zoologist Roland Kays

finds this thing in a jar
is no doll.

I'm not seeing arms
and hands and fingers here,

I'm seeing legs and hooves.

This has gotta be
some kind of animal.

It probably died
before it was born,

and we can see
it's really deformed.

[narrator] Kays counts
eight legs and three ears,

on what appears to be
two heads that've
merged into one.

These are conjoined pig twins.

This happens early
in pregnancy,

when either one embryo fails
to split into two,

or you have two embryos
that accidentally
fused together.

You can have one head
with two bodies,

one body with two heads,
different combinations
of arms and legs.

And you can imagine,

in most of these cases,
it doesn't work out
very well for the embryo,

and they often are stillborn.

So what happened
to cause this dire mutation
in this pig?

Could it have been something
in the environment?

[narrator] Science journalist
Steve Potvin suspects
this beast in the bottle

may be the result of dangerous
agricultural practices
in Thailand.

Farmers are resorting
to tactics to try
and maximize their yields.

So using more things
like pesticides
and insecticides.

So with the ever-increasing
use of pesticides
and insecticides,

it's been suggested that maybe
this could be leading
to a higher rate of mutations.

[narrator] Thai farmers lost
over 50% of their crops
to the voracious insects

that infest Southeast Asia
before they started using
pesticides on their fields.

This pig embryo died in 2018,

when the Thai countryside
was swimming in chemicals.

The pesticides and fertilizers
end up throughout the tissues
of these animals.

And even if they aren't
mutated on the outside,

their tissues contain
a lot of these chemicals,

and therefore,
the chemicals end up
on our dinner plates as well.

Of course,
humans are also mammals,

so we are also at risk
to exposure
to these chemicals.

[narrator]
The conjoined piglets
may have had bad luck

during their brief existence,

but these villagers believe
the pickled pair

now have the magical power
to bring good fortune.

The Thai people are,
as a culture,
very superstitious.

And they tend to see meaning
in the world around them
in all sorts of forms.

Uh, one being,
a belief in lucky numbers.

[Tony] They use
this creature, apparently,

to help them
pick lottery numbers

and, in particular,
the number 13.

Because it has two heads,
three ears, eight legs,

and if you add that up,
that comes to 13.

This is a kinda creepy,
morbid equivalent
of the kind of rabbit's foot,

that you might carry
around with you.

Only I don't think you want
to put this dead creature
on a keyring.