Where the Key Was Found

Where the Key Was Found - digital assemblage - 2015, DS

"I experience synchronicity on a near-daily basis. I've come to view it as a sort of intelligence; I don't know if this is intrinsic to the phenomenon itself or an unrecognized aspect of myself. At the same time, it can seem quite mechanistic, like gravity or thermodynamics. I'm reluctant to commit to any grandiose uber-theories, as they all sound self-centered if not downright solipsistic.

Then again, maybe I really do play a central role in the universe. Maybe you do, too, but your universe is ever-so-slightly different than mine yet still sufficiently similar that we can agree on a common "reality" -- at least most of the time."

- Mac Tonnies via the Posthuman Blues post: Synchronicity: The Key of Destiny, Wednesday, March 02, 2005.


"I don't agree with everything Strieber says -- particularly his views on crop circles. But his inclusion of von Neumann's contribution is most interesting, if only because von Neumann was identified by Robert Sarbacher as a member of a classified UFO working group. In short, von Neumann's ideas underscore the probability that the UFO problem is vastly stranger than "mere" visitors from other planets; I think we're dealing with a process that promises to redefine our understanding of consciousness as well as challenge our sense of cosmic isolation."

- Mac Tonnies via an untitled Posthuman Blues post, Thursday, June 09, 2005.


"The domain of so-called "junk" DNA is also a good place to look for messages encoded by extraterrestrials. I think the chances of finding a biomolecular signal within our own genome are at least as good as detecting an intelligible radio transmission from an ET civilization."

- Mac Tonnies via the Posthuman Blues post: Rodent Social Behavior Encoded in Junk DNA, Sunday, July 10, 2005.


"It's true -- creativity isn't synonymous with depression. I'm probably guilty of helping perpetuate this myth. After all, I'm frequently angry and given to bouts of unbridled misanthropy. But it's not because of my creative life; if anything, the prospect of losing myself in a creative project (whether writing or reading a book -- and I consider the very act of reading an important co-creative endeavor) makes life bearable. It's not without its share of frustrations, but what isn't?

It's true, incidentally, that society isn't especially kind or forgiving when it comes to artists and intellectuals. This is indeed alienating, even daunting -- but somehow never as daunting as facing a blank sheet of paper (or, more often than not, the eggshell glow of a blank Microsoft Word template)."

- Mac Tonnies via an untitled Posthuman Blues post, Friday, May 05, 2006.


"I personally think our brains are extremely limited organic quantum machines, in which case there's no obvious reason they can't be improved upon. But if we're to become "hyperconscious," our definition of technology itself must mutate to encompass notions such as "quantum tantra" and related neurological states. If we can make this ontological shift, I predict our understanding of the "paranormal" will blossom, and that the curtain between consensus reality and liminal phenomena such as apparent alien visitation will fall."

- Mac Tonnies via the Posthuman Blues post: Consciousness and Advancing Technology, Thursday, August 25, 2005.


"The notion that we can hack reality with the assistance of mere organic chemicals -- known to shamans of "primitive" cultures for thousands of years -- is both staggering and empowering. If true contact occurs, I predict it will be most unlike that envisioned by exponents of "exopolitics" and "UFO disclosure"; dialogue with the "other" will be far more robust, infinitely more rewarding . . . and even more difficult to integrate with consensus reality than the sudden, irrefutable appearance of extraterrestrial spacecraft in our skies."

- Mac Tonnies via the Posthuman Blues post: Drugs, art and the aliens who lit our way to civilization, Thursday, January 05, 2006.


"I almost hate to propose it, but could we be dealing with "hyperdimensional physics"?"

- Mac Tonnies via the Posthuman Blues post: The key to the Pioneer anomaly?,  Monday, August 21, 2006.

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It seems to me that so many of the ideas regarding UFOs and the "paranormal" - which are being proposed and/or rehashed today - are ideas Mac was tossing out there ten years ago. I just happened to find these quotes on Posthuman Blues when I typed in the search words "the key". (Note: links to come... eventually.) (Then again, the easiest way to have Mac's words of wisdom easily at hand - from the years 2005-2006, at any rate - is to buy the book!)

But (you ask), why "the key"? Well, while brainstorming for my notices regarding my departure from The Land of Blog, I began toying around with an image of a key; not just any key, but a rather enigmatic key. Alas, after designing it to my satisfaction, a remarkable thing occurred: the Key took on a life of its own! Naturally, I was compelled to do a couple of little graphics (the other can be found here), all the while intuiting that this strange iron key seemed to have a few mysterious tales to tell...

Okay, maybe it's just me. No matter.


Originally, I had a "Blade Runner" theme in mind, and I was going to do a post about the present whereabouts of Sean Young. Now there's a woman who's been heavily influenced by her various roles in Science Fiction films (she also starred in David Lynch's "Dune")! Mac was pretty mad about her, so, I wonder what he'd think of her these days. This is from a 2007 PHB post:

"Way back in junior high I watched "Circuitry Man," a mostly forgettable cyberpunk movie that took its principle cues from "Mad Max" and "Blade Runner." One of the characters, an android, is haunted by a lost love and spends much of the movie ruminating on ways to win her back. In "Blade Runner" fashion, it's revealed that there is no lost love: the woman of his dreams is just that -- an implanted fiction designed (if I remember correctly) to instill a sense of hope in an otherwise intolerable world. (In "Blade Runner," Sean Young's character harbors tenuous memories of a childhood she never actually experienced; her realization that she's a genetically engineered "replicant" fated to a four-year lifespan is one of the film's most striking moments.)"

Well, so, although this post is no longer devoted to her, I'll still post a few links you might check out, if you feel so inclined: a YouTube video of an interview with Sean by Stewart Swerdlow, a Kickstarter venture for Roguelands, a fan-funded television series, Star Trek Renegades, her role in Welcome to Purgatory, a recent award, and a recent Guardian article.

That being said, I may as well cut to the chase.

I will be taking an extended hiatus from the virtual world - as of now - and, as I won't be posting again till the end of October (or later), nor doing a traditional October 18th post this year, consider this post my "visitation stone" for that day.

But, before I go, I just wanted to address some elements I deleted from the sidebar... namely PMB's "Followers" section, the pageview-count widget, and the "Search" widget... and my most favorite element: the little Mac slideshow. My reason for doing so is that all of the widgets seem to have had problems loading for weeks now - on my computer, at any rate - so, I finally gave up, and took them down. These mysterious "glitches" seem to appear and disappear with no warning, but, it's important to me the followers of PMB know that this is no reflection on them - I am, most definitely, grateful for each and every one of you - and I will check the widgets periodically to determine if they're operational and, hopefully, restore them.

At the end of October, it'll be six years, gang, since Mac went on his way. With time behaving the way it does lately, I can't tell if this is meaningful or not. Still miss him though... that is, when he's not looking over my shoulder. ;-)

Adios, amigos... over and out.