A Post-Birthday Greeting from Tralfamadore

 (Now on Trans-D: A Country at War (Part 1a) - The Art of Slaughterhouse 5)

"Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don't see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millipedes with babies' legs at one end and old people's legs at the other." (Chapter 5)

"If what Billy Pilgrim learned from the Tralfamadorians is true, that we will all live forever, no matter how dead we may sometimes seem to be, I am not overjoyed. Still--if I am going to spend eternity visiting this moment and that, I'm grateful that so many of those moments are nice." (Chapter 10)

- Excerpts from Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 classic Slaughterhouse-Five, (or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death). In the quote Vonnegut addresses his mythical realm of Tralfamadore, an exoplanet many light-years away from Earth which first appeared in Sirens of Titan and, later, in Timequake.*

It is to this planet Billy Pilgrim, the central character of Slaughterhouse 5, is taken after his abduction and where he is held as an entertaining specimen in a Tralfamadorian zoo. (Inset left is a digital image by Janmesh Shah.)

The unique thing about the novel is that Slaughterhouse 5 is not considered a science fiction tale. It is hailed as the primo 20th century anti-war novel, while, at the same time, the thinly disguised memoir of a former WW2 soldier who literally marched through a living hell but somehow survived to tell the harrowing tale.

"Kurt Vonnegut's fiction is often explicitly science fiction, yet Vonnegut recoils at the use of the term -- scared off, I suppose, by the books written by Kilgore Trout, his fictional alter-ego. So you won't find Vonnegut in the science fiction department either, even though "The Sirens of Titan" is about flying saucers, "Player Piano" is about the effects of  in a near-future society, and "Cat's Cradle" is about a lab-created crystal with the capacity to plunge Earth into a permanent Ice Age. These are science fiction themes, whether Vonnegut wishes to admit it or not. And since his books are so readily available, I won't complain. At least I know where to go in the bookstore to find his books..."

- Mac Tonnies via Posthuman Blues, Sunday, March 14, 2004. Mac was a huge fan of Vonnegut. For him, Vonnegut was right up there with Kafka, Kerouac, Ballard, Bradbury, Burroughs, Gibson and P.K. Dick. His favorite Vonnegut novel was Breakfast of Champions (1973). It was one of the books he'd want on hand if he was stranded on a deserted island.

That being said, Mac's bewilderment regarding Vonnegut's attitude towards the sci-fi genre was not unique. Critics still debate this topic today in spite of Vonnegut's own essay on the topic, On Writing Science Fiction:

"Years ago I was working in Schenectady for General Electric, completely surrounded by machines and ideas for machines, so I wrote a novel about people and machines, and machines frequently got the best of it, as machines will. (It was called Player Piano, and it's coming out in hard covers again next spring.) And I learned from the reviewers that I was a science-fiction writer.

I didn't know that. I supposed that I was writing a novel about life, about things I could not avoid seeing and hearing in Schenectady, a very real town, awkwardly set in the gruesome now. I have been a sore-headed occupant of a file-drawer labeled ''science- fiction'' ever since, and I would like out, particularly since so many serious critics regularly mistake the drawer for a tall white fixture in a comfort station."

In the case of the planet Tralfamadore and Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut was writing about alien abductions during a decade when alien abductions and UAP sightings were just beginning to trickle into the public domain via local mainstream news sources. The phenomenon emerged in the early 1950s but,75 years later, we are still none the wiser and have little understanding of the abduction experience.

As it was, via an article entitled The Laughing Time Traveller, we learn:

"...that Vonnegut invented Tralfamodore as a child when he was stargazing with his extended family on a jetty at their summer home on Lake Maxinkuckee in north-western Indiana."

Hmmm... How many ways can we translate that line? Memories are such slippery things.

Inset right is Kurt Vonnegut in 1940 when he was a lad of 18.  Two years later he enlisted in the army (joining the Children's Crusade).**

Tragically, soon afterwards his mother committed suicide (on Mother's Day, no less).

Maybe a year after that Vonnegut, an American of German descent, emerged from Slaughterhouse Five as a POW in Germany to watch helplessly as the great city of Dresden and most of its people were burned in a firestorm created by Allied missiles; a sight which haunted him for the rest of his life.

What you can't tell from the photo is that he was very tall. Oddly enough, he reminds me of Mac in some way. Mac may have thought so, too.

(Continued below the jump...)

50 Years Ago Today...

Credit: Space Universe by Digital Dreamscape.

Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse!

Mac would've turned 50 today; a sobering thought for myself and, I suspect, for those who knew him. But, I think, turning 50 would not have been as big of a deal for Mac. For one thing, I believe he'd remain eternally youthful at heart. I also imagine he'd possibly be a crypto currency multi-millionaire by now. And, that would be a good thing, but, I have my doubts about how comfortable he'd feel living in the present political climate in the country in which he was born. All that comes to my mind is how much he enjoyed visiting Paul Kimball in Nova Scotia.

He loved Nova Scotia.

About today's AI video, well, it's a cool, ancient-future kind of thing with plenty of magnificently designed spaceships. I know Mac would appreciate the spaceships. What got me is the frame they chose to present the video. It isn't merely a weirdly attractive image, it's Golden.*

Would Mac love AI? I wonder. (My guess is that he'd love the videos for sure and might want to create his own. For more spacecraft from Digital Dreamscape try this Stargate-themed offering.)

Below are some links for further entertainment. It seems, in spite of the "present political climate" science is flourishing. So, if science (and art) are flourishing, Mac would probably assume things weren't too bad... especially if he was a multi-millionaire! ;-)

***

Photos show the cosmic calling of extraterrestrial enthusiasts at Indonesia’s UFO Festival

*

New Research Finds That ChatGPT Secretly Has a Deep Anti-Human Bias

*

How far will AI go to defend its own survival?

"Recent safety tests show some AI models are capable of sabotaging commands or even resorting to blackmail to avoid being turned off or replaced."

*

The ‘dead internet theory’ makes eerie claims about an AI-run web. The truth is more sinister

*

Scientists discover new type of life form living in the human body

*

"Third state" of existence between life and death confirmed by scientists

*

A 'Third State' Exists Between Life and Death—And That Suggests Your Cells Are Conscious, Some Scientists Say

“But the emergence of new multicellular life-forms from the cells of a dead organism introduces a ‘third state’ that lies beyond the traditional boundaries of life and death.”

_____________________________________________

* In other words, if ever an image needed a Phi-shell this would be it. See the Golden Meme footnote in Clouds, Time & Spiraling Planes.

Determining the "U" in UAP

Ask Ethan: Could we determine if UAPs/UFOs are aliens?

"Although a great many unidentified sights have been seen in the skies, none have conclusively demonstrated the presence of aliens. So far."

"This is actually very robust; if you can find objects that either:

• accelerate at hundreds of gs (or more) for several seconds,
• that move at speeds of hundreds of thousands of km/hr (or greater),
• or that can change their distance from you by amounts that are greater than any known rocket can travel in the same span of time,

you have evidence that you’ve observed a technology that goes well beyond the technologies that are known to humankind at present."

***

- Via a Big Think article (link above) which attempts to establish "clear evidentiary thresholds we'd need to pass to conclude that an unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) truly defies natural or terrestrial explanation."

The video introducing this post reports one account of a mysterious spiral light which appeared over Norway in 2009. A CBS report of the same phenomenon appears in the Ethan article - Spiral Phenomenon Explained - but, judging by most of the comments on the YouTube page, I'd say the explanation (a Russian missile) was not popular.

Alternative explanation? The death of Mothra.

More Fun:

Angels or aliens? Some researchers say Vatican archives hold UFO secrets

The sci-fi future stands derelict: Taiwan’s abandoned UFO houses

***

The moon in a phi-shell. G - DS - 22024.

A belated Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse!

Art connects us to the past... which is a good thing, or we might try to forget it. The artwork above and inset left is a tiny detail of a much larger religious painting, a fresco of the Crucifixion from the Visoki Decani Monestary in Kosovo, Serbia, 1350, artist unknown. The image has been all over the web, mostly misinterpreted as a medieval UAP. According to The View from the Junkyard, and with whom I agree, the two UAPs which fly in the background of the crucified Christ are, in fact, medieval symbolist depictions of the sun and moon; this detail is of the moon. That the sun and moon happen to be vehicles for UHE (Unidentified Human-like Entities)... well, let's just say, it's probably one of those Pre-Christian things. The UHE may symbolize gods... the old gods who still lingered in artist's minds regardless of what new gods they were hired to portray.

If I remember correctly, Mac Tonnies adored the old gods as a boy... along with dinosaurs and robots, of course. But, then again, artists, writers and makers of all varieties still appreciate the old gods till this  very day. Well, they were Immortals, weren't they? Oddly enough, in visual art, the celestial gods often appear in vehicles that echo the shape of the pentagonal golden ratio's spiral mechanism. Even this one does to some degree, and, so, I embellished it with a phi-shell.

For more images and info regarding ancient future vehicles (and/or the "Chariots of the Gods"), try Crystalinks, or this  Preterhuman .pdf.

Macbot - Virtual Birthday #48 (Video added 8/21)

A vintage photo of a curly-headed young Macbot (aged 9) with his amiable, cardboard friend.

"...In case you haven't noticed, we're in dire need of beings endowed with "better than human intelligence." I don't particularly care if they're carbon- or silicon-based.

Look at it this way: If we create a species of truly intelligent machines, they'll be forced to contend with many of the concerns that plague our own attempts to avoid destruction (self-induced or otherwise). So while they will indeed be "alien," I think we can correctly view them as relatives -- or, to use Moravec's term, "mind children."

What are Verruggio and his colleagues really afraid of? That super-intelligent robots will enslave the human race in a cheesy cybernetic reenactment of "Planet of the Apes"? Don't count on it. The idea has proven cinematic appeal, but the overwhelming odds are that sentient robots, left to their own devices, will do what we should have a done a long time ago: take meaningful steps toward severing dependency on Earth (which, as noted by a growing chorus of scientists, promises to become less and less dependable)."

-  Mac Tonnies via a 2006 Posthuman Blues post. Yes, if there was any sort of battle between mankind and robots, Mac would surely be on the side of the robots... and this includes the Growbot seen in the NASA photo (inset right), a robotic plant which eventually might colonize Mars!

Anyway, for a multitude of robot posts, visit the original Posthuman Blues...(Door1 or Door 2).

"I know I've already posted on this, but I refuse to sit idly by without milking the "sex with robots" meme for everything it's worth.

Specifically, I'm skeptical about the 2012 date cited above. I'm willing to bet there are roboticists getting amorous with their creations right now -- for research purposes, of course.

And maybe it's just me, but no one seems to have commented on the potential sexbots might have on population growth. If these things are as good as techno-pundits anticipate, they may well prove to be the ultimate contraceptive..."

- Mac Tonnies via a 2007 post. Inset left is the head of contemporary robot celebrity, Ameca.

No, "sexbot" is not (yet) her job description, but, something about her expression in the photo tells me this is probably a good thing... like, maybe she was formerly employed as an electric food-processor. Now, there's an "ultimate contraceptive"...

A video celebrating Ameca's artistic skills is featured later on in the post. 

"Robots that eat vermin -- I love it. And think of the potential military applications. Drop a platoon of flesh-eating 'bots into enemy territory and watch the feeding frenzy. Plus, the military brass doesn't have to worry about troublesome body counts, as all human corpses will have been processed into fuel -- fuel that can be used to launch new offenses against The Enemy.

Quick -- what's DARPA's phone number?"

- Mac Tonnies via a 2004 post. Alternative strategy: releasing a platoon of food-processing sexbots into enemy territory.

"Robots like me can be used to help improve our lives and make the world a better place. I believe it's only a matter of time before we see thousands of robots just like me out there making a difference."

- Ameca, via this article. Ah, yes, making the world a "better place"... can't say we weren't forewarned! (Note: What is it that makes me nervous about a robot saying "I believe" as opposed to "I compute"?)

Oh, yeah, and if you watch the short video in the article, you'll note that Ameca seems to have a little glitch in her programming causing this jiggy little eye movement when she's perplexed. But, perhaps perplexed is too strong a word. Maybe she just blew a fuse.

***

While it's true that we are currently in that noxious time-frame known as the Dog Days of summer - which generally means bad news for everybody on all fronts - for you and I, there is, indeed, a silver lining to this particularly dark cloud: Mac's birthday!

 

This year's birthday post was brought to us by Mac's mom, Dana, who enjoyed the previous robotic birthday post so much, she magically conjured up the vintage photograph of a young Macbot (above) just in time for this year. Thanks again, D! And, since you liked BG Dodson's wonderful little bots so much, I've posted 3 new ones (inset left). (Note the Crowbot!) (Thanks, BG!)

BTW, Mac apparently fashioned his robot for a (5th grade) school art fair. The red things around its head were plastic soda straws...

While I'm not going into any major essay about robots on this day, I will post 2 videos featuring the major contenders in the recent robot arena. They appear below the jump...

For Mac on His Birthday...

***

Ah well, so much for the best laid plans... the overlords have taken away our "window on the Webb" - a web-cam video via the Webb Space Telescope - and I haven't the patience to deal with it. (Sorry, Dana, it was a GREAT idea!)

But, actually, BG Dodson - contributor to our last (Corvid) birthday card - has come to our rescue with these new additions to his extensive and wonderful menagerie... and they happen to make a mighty good greeting card, too! Don't ya think? :-)

Thanks, BG!

Cheers(!) to another imaginary year...

 

Once In A Lifetime

"And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well... how did I get here?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right? Am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God! What have I done?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground
Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was and look where my hand was
Time isn't holding up, time isn't after us
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Letting the days go by, same as it ever was

Here a twister comes, here comes the twister
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Once in a lifetime, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by"

- Lyrics to Once In a Lifetime (1980) by the Talking Heads.

***

It's all in our heads, my friends, all in our heads...

Heads in a Net of Pearls - DS 2020

Once again, this goes out to Mac in the multiverse: Happy Birthday, baby!

PS   Mac's Blip.fm link on the sidebar has been repaired.

 

 

A Virtual Birthday Card

"Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse"
Corvid-20 sculptures and photo - 2020, BG Dodson
(Click to enlarge)

Mac,

From All of Us

To all of You -

OX

Shadows of Ancient Galaxies

Dark Cosmic Nest, 2019, DS; a re-imaging of a graphic found here.

Click images to enlarge.

Astronomers uncover 'invisible' massive ancient galaxies

"Although once invisible to us in the vast reaches of the universe, 39 massive ancient galaxies have been discovered by astronomers using multiple space and ground-based observatories. This is the first discovery of its kind, the researchers said.

'This is the first time that such a large population of massive galaxies was confirmed during the first 2 billion years of the 13.7-billion-year life of the universe. These were previously invisible to us,' said Tao Wang, study author and researcher at the University of Tokyo, French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. 'This finding contravenes current models for that period of cosmic evolution and will help to add some details, which have been missing until now.'

The new prevalence of these galaxies, which are connected with supermassive black holes and dark matter, contradicts the current known models of the universe.

Given their age and distance, the massive galaxies were hidden from our view because their light is weak and stretched. The universe is also expanding, which makes the distance greater. Over that distance, visible light becomes infrared, according to the study."

***

Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse.

Dangling Conversations & Trifurcated Views

"Time needn't be relevant in the cosmic screening room. Whether a particular pattern emerged in the past or future is irrelevant. Information from the 'past' and 'future' (mere cognitive constructs) freely integrate. This is a realm without spatial or temporal boundaries. It's something like the 'implicate order' suggested by physicist David Bohm. The 'explicate order,' of course, is the intricate sensory illusion that we inhabit. Or think we do.

The ever-changing patterns in the protean cloud dictate the nature of whatever universe happens to be illuminated by our imaginary laser. Since our perceived reality is constantly modeled by the myriad ones and zeroes in the timeless cloud, we find ourselves diced into informational slivers. From this perspective, "continuity" is meaningless. The 'I' writing this sentence could be hundreds of billions of 'I's removed from the one that wrote the last sentence. More disturbingly, 'I' might not have existed at all until right . . . now." 

"The newly formed 'I' happens to have 'memories' of composing this essay, but memories, like everything else, are simply advantageous fluctuations in the filmic cloud, subject to constant revision. And since I'm ostensibly a component in day-to-day reality, it's inevitable that the randomly constructed parameters that define my world -- all of it, from my living room to the coffeeshop down the street to the structure of galaxies -- is every bit as flimsy and malleable. Reincarnation is quite real. It's happening all the time -- invisibly. 

Several months ago I was in an automobile crash. My memories contain the adrenalized moment of impact, the literally breathless aftermath as I pondered the crushed metal and broken glass, and a trip to a hospital inside an ambulance. It would appear I survived, albeit bruised and aching. But who am I to tell the story of what 'really' happened? Perhaps the arc of my life, as defined by the fluctuating patterns (and bits of would-be pattern) in the cosmic screening room bifurcated shortly before I collided with the other car. In one variation I came to a bloody end. In yet another there was never an accident at all."

"I pick the crash incident not because of any intrinsic importance -- at the most fundamental level, the blind dance of possibilities doesn't care if I live or die -- but because it illustrates how flawlessly one or two frames can be altered (or randomly inserted or deleted) to potentially catastrophic effect in the observable world. So long as a pattern remains intact -- and it will, since it has infinite space and time to organize itself -- so will some permutation of 'I.'

Which begs the question: What happens when someone dies? It's possible that informational death is impossible and that the person who "dies" in the "explicate order" is expediently recycled, living his or her life again and again in a state of total amnesia. Or maybe something like my crash incident applies and that observers who die -- in the directly perceivable world -- are shuffled into a future in which they "miraculously" survive their own crashes (or cancer treatments or heart transplants).

There's nothing concrete or absolute about our so-called universe. It is an alluring, insidiously clever simulation. The Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics implies that the universe is constant "branching" into parallel, exclusive states. A better term, in light of the scenario described above, might be 'flowing.'"

- Mac Tonnies from this November 8, 2003 Posthuman Blues post.

***

"Yes, we speak of things that matter
With words that must be said
'Can analysis be worthwhile?'
'Is the theater really dead?'
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow
I cannot feel your hand
You're a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives"

- Lyrics from The Dangling Conversation (video), 1966, Paul Simon.

I guess the anniversary of Mac's birthday, i.e., the beginning of his last, known, brief journey through our "directly perceivable world," is becoming sort of a extravaganza this year on Post-Mac Blues. Not since the very early days of this blog have I posted so frequently... well, apart from the series which inspired this one. And, there's one more birthday-related post yet to come: a sort of Araqinta greeting card.

Mac's quote above is actually a fuller version of a quote appearing in this post, one of a series on PMB appearing in October of 2012. I even find myself using the same graphics, pulled from M.C. Escher's Another world. I guess Escher's odd little avian/human hybrid resonates with me still. Inset left is Still Life With a Spherical Mirror  found in the last entry of that series.

I didn't particularly want death to be a theme of any of the birthday posts, but, for the past 2 weeks I have had one song going through my head... over an over again like an endless soundtrack: an old, wistful Simon & Garfunkel tune: The Dangling Conversation. I don't know where it came from and I don't know why, but, in an effort to finally relieve myself of it, I thought I'd better work it out.

As it was, Mac was a fan of the 60s folk/rock duo Simon & Garfunkel despite the fact that they parted ways before he was born, and, with Mac in mind, I finally had an epiphany: unexpected death is somewhat like a dangling conversation. Your relationship with the departed person is left hanging in the air with no visible means of support as if someone cut the telephone wires mid-conversation... or your cell phone's battery hit 0 at that same crucial moment.

But is a dangling conversation necessarily a narrative cut short?

This reminds me of a photo of Mac I mentioned recently: the one in the tattoo parlor. As it was, I wasn't the only person who had never seen it before. Mac's mom, Dana, confirmed that  she hadn't seen it either. And Dana knows Mac's Flickr pages like the back of her own hand. She did remember the other photos (I'd forgotten), but not that one.

So, what are the chances of a new photograph appearing in a departed man's online Flickr album 9 years after his death? I suppose anything is possible in cyberspace and one shouldn't take a minor glitch too seriously. It might just be the results of Flickr's constantly changing formats... or, really, it could be that Dana and I are mistaken and it was hidden there all along.

Then again, theoretically, it might just be that the borderlines between the Universe's "parallel, exclusive states" are weakening - the veils are growing thin - and all sorts of phenomena are beginning to bleed through.

Men Who Lift Us Up

Franky Zapata surfing the clouds on his Flyboard Air.
(All photos in this post can be clicked to enlarge.)

"French inventor Franky Zapata has successfully crossed the Channel on a jet-powered hoverboard for the first time, after a failed attempt last month.

Zapata took off from Sangatte, northern France early on Sunday morning and landed in St. Margarets Bay, near Dover in England. The journey took just over 20 minutes, according to Reuters news agency.

'I had the chance to land in an extraordinary place. It's beautiful. My first thought was to my family. It was huge. Thanks to my wife who always supports me in crazy projects. We worked very hard,' he told CNN affiliate BFMTV...

The inventor captured the world's imagination when he took to the skies above Paris at Bastille Day parade in July with the board that can reach an altitude of nearly 500 feet -- with the potential to go much higher -- and a speed of 87mph."

- Excerpt from this August 4th CNN report. The photograph of Franky Zapata and his wife, Krystel, was found here.

"The 40-year-old set off on his Flyboard from Sangatte in the Pas de Calais region on the northern coast of France at about 6.17am for the 22-mile (35km) journey to St Margaret’s Bay, beyond the white cliffs of Dover.

Escorted by three helicopters, he completed the crossing in 22 minutes, reaching speeds of up to 110mph (177km/h) flying 15-20 metres (50-65ft) above the water. He arrived into the bay to the applause of dozens of onlookers and journalists.

Zapata has been developing his hoverboard for the past three years, undeterred by losing two fingers in its turbines during its maiden flight in his garage near Marseille."

- Sourced from this August 4th Guardian article. The image (inset right) was found here.

"Fantasy film aficionados would recognize Mr. Zapata’s invention. In “Spider-Man,” the Green Goblin sows terror from something very like the Flyboard Air that Mr. Zapata piloted across the channel. Marty McFly uses a similar vehicle in “Back to the Future 2.”

Defense Minister Florence Parly was equally taken by the machine. “Innovation is not a gimmick.” The hoverboard could serve as “a flying logistics platform, or an assault platform,” she suggested, conjuring an image of squadrons of individually airborne infantry descending on an enemy.

But not tomorrow. 'As it stands, the Flyboard Air has no operational use,' says Marion Laguës, spokeswoman for the French Defense Innovation Agency, a branch of the General Directorate for Weaponry, which is helping to finance the development of new, quieter jet engines.

Whether the Flyboard Air is indeed an aircraft or not is a question that nearly wrecked the whole project. French civil aviation bureaucrats grounded Mr. Zapata in 2017 because he had no pilot’s license and his experimental machine had not been certified."

- Excerpt from the article: Not just a toy: Channel-hopping hoverboard draws military’s eye.
Image (inset left) found here.

"His Flyboard has also attracted the attention of the French military, which in December gave Zapata’s company, Z-AIR, a €1.3m (£1.19m) development grant. He has said his invention wasn’t quite ready for military use because of the noise it makes and the hours required to learn to fly it.

Zapata eventually hopes to use his hoverboard to fly much higher, something that would require him to carry a parachute, guidance equipment and possibly an oxygen tank. He is also developing an idea for a flying car."

-  Excerpt and image (inset right) also sourced from the Guardian article linked to previously. Also, videos of Zapata's flight and be found on YouTube here and here.

***

As fate would have it, on August 4th of this year, while Franky Zapata was flying through French skies on his Flyboard Air destined for the White Cliffs of Dover, humans were dropping like flies on the western side of the Atlantic, victims to 4 mass-shootings.

Some men lift us up and some men take us down (literally). But, as I've already vented about the latter (here), in memory of Mac's birthday I thought I'd post something he'd love to see... and want for his very own! Well, okay, at $250,000 it's not something the average consumer can afford, and, chances are, navigating it looks much easier than it currently is. Moreover, the military or law enforcement sectors - i.e., where the money is - might embrace it, leading to this sort of thing. But, if the military decides to pass on the Flyboard Air, maybe the various space agencies of the world might find some use for it. I can easily envision the first humans on Mars utilizing it to scout the Martian terrain. (Well, provided gravity doesn't pose a problem, and after reading this, I still don't know!)

In any case, the best news is that Franky Zapata's next project is developing a flying car... and, while it seems that a number of prototypes for flying cars are already gathering dust, and a new tease occurs every year - here's last year's - something tells me that Z-Air's might be the first one to really take to the skies!

The Process of Time

All photographs in this blog post were taken by Mac Tonnies and

found on his Flickr pages. Click to enlarge.

"The future isn't an inevitability; it's a process. It reaches back in time with delicate, enveloping fingers and beckons. We proceed into the future like slender pseudopods straining to break free of a parent cell. The transition is amorphic, dangerous and continuous. We are always on the front lines, waging temporal war within the privacy of our own skulls. The future is not ours, although it can be. Maybe this is what a multiversal intelligence seeks: not the chatter of electromagnetic transmissions, but the intricate lacing that occurs when spacetime is tempered with conscious intent. Finding us, it insinuates itself into our ontological flow. It replicates until its presence is so familiar we cease to even notice. We are silent partners, weaving new matrices of causality."

- From Mac Tonnies and sourced from this February 12, 2003 Posthuman Blues post.

***

Inside, the crew stirred within their communal environmental VR, roused by an unspecific sense of incipience. Zack felt it in the air, a certain heaviness that descended over the spires and narrow, cobbled avenues. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he stood in front of the noisy café. As he watched, the faces of onlookers morphed into pixilated anonymity. He experienced a rush of strange nostalgia as the sky over Prague grew metallic, strewn with listing spheres and half-glimpsed workstation icons. His muscles tightened and the noise of conversation and scuttling cars blurred into the sound of electronic surf, pounding endlessly against the shores of his consciousness.

A blare of synthesized instruments. Prague had redshifted to a niggling afterimage, and he was alone in a strange green room that smelled of discreetly rotting vegetation. A barbed device, looking something like a spider as conceived by an aspiring surrealist, detached itself from his scalp, leaving a constellation of reddened impressions.
A voice: familiar, unwanted: "Welcome home, Zack."

He sagged into a mattress of gengineered lichen that buoyed his limbs and spine as if offering him up for sacrifice. His ears buzzed. He could still taste coffee. The spider-interface dangled above his head, twinkling mockingly in the glow of the room's diagnostic screens.
"Lights," he heard himself say. "Turn on the damned lights."

The room erupted in yellow light, emitted from organelles embedded in the walls and ceiling. The room was alive; in fact, it appeared to have grown more verdant in his long sensory absence. He breathed a quiet sigh of relief. There had been fear of native biota wrecking the Isis' genetic architecture, leaving the ship an undifferentiated blob of metal and biomass hovering between stars.

Elsewhere, he knew -- or, more accurately, sensed -- his crewmates awakening in dimly glowing rooms of their own. The metal spider curled its limbs into a somehow dangerous-looking sphere and drifted on a tether of fiber-optic cable. For the first time, he noticed the microgravity; the only thing keeping him from ascending was the mattress' faintly adhesive embrace. He freed his arms and watched his thin, colorless hands with the studied patience of a forensic scientist happening across some vital and mysterious piece of evidence.

He hadn't used his body in... 203 years, ship time? Unless something had gone wrong... but the voice had said "welcome home," hadn't it? A chill raced down his spine as he considered the possibility of software corruption. Two centuries of exposure to interstellar space could have plunged the AI into a lethally premature senility.

- An excerpt of an untitled, unfinished science fiction short by Mac Tonnies published in this January, 2008 blog post.

***

The Dog Days of summer are upon us and, here in the States, all the murder and mayhem that traditionally is said to occur during the months of July and August is in full force. August is also the month of Mac's birthday and the time I make my yearly pilgrimage to his blog and Flickr pages in search of inspiration; some new thing that brings Mac back - if only for an instant - endowing this memorial with a tenuous foothold in the process of time.

And, I am never disappointed; each time I am mysteriously led to posts and photos that I may have merely overlooked in the past but which seem as if I'm seeing them for the first time. Both quotes - and (at least) 3 of the photos posted above - I can swear I've never seen before. The little oddity shown directly above I have seen before but I'm quite sure it wasn't there 9 years ago. The next-to-the-last photograph - a mirror image of Mac shooting photos in a tattoo parlor - is especially eerie to me. How could I have missed that? What's really odd is that in the photo he appears to have tattooed forearms. Is this even possible? Maybe it's just me - always a distinct possibility - but, then, strange thoughts come to my head. And, they're not original. What if, for instance, time is a continuum and, within the process of time, the past continues and the future is already occurring... and each has the ability to change the other? In other words, changes occur across the board... and, maybe, all these new artifacts archaeologists keep finding are new!

And, (maybe) Mac Tonnies has recently tattooed his forearms.

***

"About a year ago I was in a deplorably ill-conceived suburban coffee-shop sipping espresso and using one of the complimentary computers (which, remarkably, hadn't been trashed by viruses). I struck up a longish conversation with a girl on the adjacent terminal (mostly about subjects covered by this blog, which I was busily updating).

At one point I casually mentioned that the shop in which we were sitting would probably wind up as a bona-fide archaeological site within the next thirty years. I don't think she liked the sound of that, because the conversation ended shortly thereafter.

But hey, she asked."

- Mac Tonnies from this January 26, 2008 blog post.

43 candles... (& 1 balloon)

Photo Credit: Danish photographer, Marcus Møller Bitsch.

"Late last night I almost had an out-of-body experience... or at least it felt that way at the time.

I was dog-tired and most of the sensation of leaving my body (which I never quite actually succeeded in doing) was probably due to the heightened suggestibility that comes with fatigue. Still, it was interesting: I more or less freaked when I felt the "OBE" coming on, so I centered my awareness and the sensation faded.

At no point did I feel as if I were being yanked out of my body; it was more of a subtle tropism, like a champagne bubble drawn toward the surface of a glass. And as scary as it seemed at the time -- whether it was the first stage of an OBE or not, and I tend to doubt it really was -- I never felt out of control. Just a little jarred. And then I was back asleep and dreaming.

So I remain agnostic on the reality of OBEs -- although, if pressed, I think there's something to it.

(I seem fated to a life of really lukewarm "paranormal" experiences.)"

- Mac Tonnies via his March 27, 2005 Posthuman Blues post.

"I have spontaneous lucid dreams; I haven't yet learned how to induce them. Lately I've become acutely aware that my dreams seem to take place in a variety of interconnected locations. I'd like to explore this half-glimpsed world more deeply, test its barriers, mingle with its inhabitants, memorize its geology, and ally myself with its inherent strangeness."

- Mac Tonnies via his December 01, 2006 Posthuman Blues post.

"What of the human spirit? If "spirituality" is defined as something transcending spacetime, then I suppose that I am a decidedly unspiritual person. But if spirituality can be equated to such familiar traits as intellect, emotion, foresight and empathy, then it's quite possible that even the most unreligious among us are capable of impressive feats of spirituality. In contrast, the visions of deities cranked out and perpetuated by generations of mystics appear dull and uninspiring: lazy caricatures that strip the universe of wonder not by explaining it, but by rendering it so suspiciously familiar."

- Mac Tonnies via his .com's Dead Letter Files: A Case for Agnosticism.

***

Missing Mac on his birthday... missing his friends... missing the days when cyberspace was a new frontier. I hope all of you are doing well.

ox,

Dia

... And Many Happy Returns!

Google does the eclipse.

Mac would've turned 42 this past Sunday, the day before the (infamous) solar eclipse. I was unable to come to the table either of those days, but it isn't as if I wasn't thinking of him. As far as 42 goes... well, 43 is a better number... and also the reverse of 34, his age when he passed. Would Mac remark very much about being in his early 40s? Probably not. But, something tells me that being perpetually remembered as a young guy in his thirties would appeal to him.

As far as that hyped up eclipse went... well, here in New Mexico it was obscured by a thick blanket of clouds. Go figure. Generally the New Mexican sun burns off any cloud cover immediately but this was not the case yesterday... so, it was all rather a nonevent. Oh well... supposedly an even better one is arriving in 2024. Meanwhile, I think the best thing about this one was Google's adorable animation (above).

(Note to Mac: Happy, Happy Birthday, baby... and we're all wishing you a happy return real soon! By the way, in (belated) honor of your day I put some Bowie tunes on the sidebar... and, as a bonus, a bit of Mars archaeology (below).

___________________________________

To Mars!

A close-up of the Martian surface via the Curiosity rover.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS

"I've had dreams of archaeological sites appearing locally - specifically, Martian formations suddenly transplanted to Earth . . . in one case, my backyard!

(The latest was only a few nights ago; I meant to write about it on my blog.  I'll put that on my "to do" list.)

- Mac Tonnies via an email to myself dated June 26, 2006.

***

That Mac dreamt of Martian archaeological sites shouldn't be too surprising... hell, he wrote the book! That these same sites appeared on Earth in the dreams, however is a bit curious. Had he unconsciously determined that ancient Martian history is, in a sense, our own?

Speaking of which, remember the Mars Archaeological Society tee-shirt design? Well, I recently found some other Spirit Rover .jpgs in my files which feature the immediate surrounding areas - and a few more mysterious objects - where a few of the tee-shirt artifacts were found.  (I've posted them after the jump.) That they're impossible to identify is what we might expect from extraterrestrial objects. That they might seem vaguely familiar, however, is another story entirely. A genetic memory?

Meet your new Alien Overlords!

Well, okay, in reality, its average size is about 4 inches and its sting is rather harmless... but, don't be fooled!  Mastigias papua (alias the Spotted Jelly) has an advantage that none could have forseen...

Of course, you realize the real purpose of this post is to remember Mac on his birthday. And featuring jellyfish seems to have become a tradition.

He'd have been 40 today... not that the numbers mean a whole lot. And, in Mac's case, well, I can't imagine him ever getting old anyway. In fact, chances are, although he'd probably like the jellyfish video, what he'd really like is something like this...

Cheers, Mac!

PS  The above video was found on "hakodatecm's" playlist where a whole series of them can be found. Originally, a few were posted on a Pink Tentacle page, which Mac had posted about here... with this comment: This sure beats "Godzilla." (!)

That Mac... :-)

Once Upon a Summer's Day (Video updated 8/18/20)

"I wonder if the machinations of an interdimensional intelligence are more likely than ET contact; the closer we look, the weirder the universe gets...

I'm drawn to the possibility that we inhabit one of potentially infinite "nested" cosmologies inhabited by all manner of entities, some of which can project themselves into our own for reasons that remain obscure."

- Mac Tonnies, from this 2005 post.

Remembering Mac on what would've been his 39th birthday. As strange as it may seem, this is the fifth birthday remembered on this blog... the other four - from 2013 to 2010, can be found here.

***

Update (from six years in the future)!

I had a great video here originally... alas, throughout the course of time, it was replaced by YouTube with something inferior. I've replaced it with a slightly better video - the best I could find - but, yeah, I'm sorry the first disappeared.