Shine On, Mac!

Oracle (Cerebus Palus) - Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick - found here

"On their adventures, North Wind brings Diamond to the country she lives in, a country without pain and death. Yet, he is brought only to a shadow of the real country at the back of the North Wind. The real country is open for him only after his death. At the end of the book, Diamond dies, finally able to see the country."

- via the Wiki entry for At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald

This is PMB's third post regarding Mac's Birthday since he re-entered the cosmos in 2009. (See: 2010 and 2011 posts) And he's still missed. Very. Not a day goes by when something somewhere doesn't remind me of him... and not a cyber-minute goes by when I am not alerted to something I know he'd enjoy. Case in point is the Curiosity landing, of course, but, even more so, is this recent art installation created by Nicholas Kahn & Richard Selesnick, Mars: Adrift on the Hourglass Sea - Desolation and the Sublime on a Distant Planet. Apparently commissioned by NASA, the installation includes "photographs" (like the one above), 3-D artifacts, and surrealistic panoramic views that recall an ancient civilization! Truly wonderful and strange!

Thanks to Red Pill Junkie at the Daily Grail for this link!

That being said, I think I'll let Pink Floyd have the last word (as they so often do), specifically this 2002 live rendition of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (link to the original studio version,  released in 1975, the year of Mac's birth), by Pink Floyd's David Gilmore.

Shine on, Mac!

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, 

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, 

come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,

rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions, 

come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and i'll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph,
And sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser,
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!"

Artist: Pink Floyd

Album: Wish You Were Here (1975)

Lyrics: Roger Waters

***

... And, by special request: Diamonds, diamonds and more diamonds...(!)

Doing Time

Found on the Posthuman Blues "Doing Time" re-cap page

As I write this post, I'm listening to Greg Bishop's 2006 Radio Misterioso podcast, Can Ufology Be Saved? (in two parts) featuring Paul Kimball and Mac Tonnies. Mac is currently speaking about Mars - specifically, anomalies on Mars - how timely!

It's a podcast (feed page here) I haven't heard before, found via Paul Kimball's latest post on his Tears in Rain blog. But wait, there's more. The link to this podcast is found embedded in a featured PDF file of a script for a play entitled "Doing Time", a collaboration between Paul and Mac I blogged about here in 2009. I was always curious about the content, so it was a real treat to finally read it... so, many thanks to you, Paul, for posting it!

His post also features some Doing Time production shots - more can be found on this Semaphore Theatre Company page.

Regarding the play, well it's good, unwholesome, trippy fun - kind of like Alfred Hitchcock on "Martian pharmaceuticals"...  or a collaboration between Jean Paul Sartre and Philip K. Dick. You do yourself a disservice by missing it!

Paul also recounts an earlier blog discussion with Mac in the play's introduction. Here's an excerpt from Mac's side of the equation:

"While in California I phoned an author acquaintance to say hi. We ended up talking about Kurzweilian life extension, which my friend thought indicated an unhealthy fear of death. I offered that, without definitive proof that there is an afterlife, radical life extension –perhaps via mind-uploading – is both sensible and justified. My friend, the author of a nonfiction book dealing with spiritual matters, countered that one can achieve subjective validation that consciousness is more than epiphenomenal. In other words, some aspect of our awareness persists after biological death – but, so far at least, it's impossible to prove this to anyone who hasn't experienced his own sense of cosmic rapport. Fair enough. 

So how to experience consciousness as an abiding energy (if such it is) and not merely as the output of millions of synchronized synapses? Drugs, perhaps – although I've been warned that the "tripping" experience is confused and noisy, leading to false positives and replete with neurological static. Meditation seems a better, safer route. Still, how does one know that a moment's spiritual insight is anything more than an experience cooked up by the brain as a way of appeasing our incredibly deep-seated fear of death and obliteration? Not having experienced any deep insight into the nature of consciousness, I have no choice but to remain agnostic."

Meanwhile, I'll continue listening to the podcast - it's great to hear Mac's voice again. (And, a special thanks to Greg Bishop for this cool offering from Radio Misterioso's vaults - a link will appear shortly on the sidebar of this blog!)

UPDATE 8/18/12: Paul has just announced a Doing Time film adaption!

Voice(s) of America...(and elsewhere)

As a kind of postscript to yesterday's news is this related tidbit.  If you remember, Mac's - and consequently our - story became the basis for Rob Walker's NY Times article "Cyberspace When You're Dead" last year. As it so happens, this issue has been addressed again via a short Voice of America radio broadcast created by reporter and journalist extraordinaire, Adam Phillips.

Adam chatted with some of us recently regarding our endeavors to extend Mac's cyberspace life and the broadcast features  comments from Mac's mom, Dana Tonnies, Mark Plattner and yours truly, discussing issues which should be familiar to y'all by now.

That being said, Voice of America broadcasts are not  aired in the USA, though there is a live stream on their website and a podcast available eventually (I think). However, here's a link to the transcript: "In Death, Who Owns Your Online Afterlife?".

***

Image by Brian Froud

Meanwhile, Adam has a number of interesting podcasts found within his online files, one of which I listened to the other night and throughly enjoyed.

Remember this excerpt from Mac's last book (published posthumously)?

"Finally, I wondered the unthinkable: what if the antics of the" absurd humanoids" documented by Vallee weren't the work of some overarching intelligence? What if they happened just as reported, without the need to invoke externally imposed psychosocial thermostats?

This notion struck me as deliciously ironic. It suggested that the encounters with nonhumans that haunt our folklore were real, not necessarily projections preying on our gullibility. Could "fairies" and" elves" -and all their mythical successors-be distorted representations of an actual species?

While curiously appealing, the idea seemed totally orthogonal to science. Psychologists maintain that legendary "little people" are beings of the mind, the brain's instinctive attempt to populate the darkness. They're also quick to point out that modern accounts of spindly gray aliens are almost certainly due to fantasy-prone personalities, poorly trained therapists, and hallucinations experienced during episodes of sleep paralysis.

This analysis is attractive on several levels. It neatly does away with the specter of the Other we repeatedly encounter in myths. It also assuages our fears that our world might be fair game for dispassionate ET scientists, with their glittering probes and omnipotent saucers.

Alas, it fails."

- Mac Tonnies, excerpt from pages 18 & 19 of The Cryptoterrestrials: A Meditation on Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us

Mac, Jacques Vallee, and others, had a specific interest in faerie lore and it's relation to other paranormal "mythology" - specifically that of  extraterrestrial entities.

Well, Adam Phillips takes us to Ireland, where we can hear first-hand accounts of encounters with Ireland's "Good Neighbors"... those indigenous - and anomalous - entities that comprise the most ancient of all Celtic races - often purported to reside in a parallel Otherworld - the daoine sídhe. If interested, that podcast can be found here.

PosthumanBlues.com

Image by Mike Clelland from The Cryptoterrestrials.

"This is Mac Tonnies' Posthuman Blues Blog as it was captured shortly after his death. We hope future historians, the curious and his friends will read these words and Grok Mac in fullness."

- Capn Marrrrk Plattner via PostHuman Blues.com

Awesome news from Capn Marrrrk Plattner: there is now a Posthuman Blues.com! For those of you who didn't know, Mark has been busy capturing Mac's Posthuman Blues blog in its entirety - yes, in its entirety - for quite some time. Talk about dedicated friends... In any case, Mac work (and Mark's) now has a permanent and dedicated home... untouched by the hands of time (and the excrement of spam).

In a separate intro - Separating the Tears from the Rain - Mark writes:

"Whether he knew it or not, Mac influenced a great many people across many different disciplines, and simply put, we want a memorial for our friend who died way too soon. This version of Posthuman Blues is frozen in time right up to Mac's last post, and the comment thread which details the discovery of his death and aside from his books, it's the closest anyone can come to knowing the essence of Mac Tonnies, a man who was certainly worth knowing. In general, I really dislike saying, "What Mac would have wanted..." type statements, but I was under the impression that he really would have wanted to upload his consciousness into a computer. How awesomely Posthuman is that? Alas, instead of talking with Macbot we have to satisfy ourselves with the salient data points he was willing to share."

Congratulations, Capn Marrrrk!!!

And I think that I speak for us all, when I say thank you.

A One-way Trip to Mars! No, really!

"Human settlement of Mars in 2023

Mars One will establish the first human settlement on Mars in 2023. A habitable settlement will be waiting for the settlers when they land. The settlement will support them while they live and work on Mars the rest of their lives. Every two years after 2023 an additional crew will arrive, such that there is a real living, growing community on Mars. Mars One has created a technical plan for this mission that is as simple as possible. For every component of the mission we have identified at least one potential supplier. Mars One invites you to join us in this next giant leap for mankind!"

- via the Mars One website


***

I don't know how I managed to let this one slip by me, but I couldn't just finish posting about the passing of Ray Bradbury, without posting this as well. Apparently the original video has already gone viral, but here's the updated version.

But, is this for real? A Mars settlement in 10 years? In the last analysis, all I can really think is, "Mac. you should've stuck around..." After all, remember this?

Ray Bradbury (8/22/1920 - 6/5/2012...)

“Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, it seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I'm one of them.” 

― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

***

"I'm not afraid of machines," he told Writer's Digest in 1976. "I don't think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over. And if we don't take the toys out of their hands, we're fools."

- Ray Bradbury quote found here  (U.S.A. Today, death notice)

***

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, Live forever! Bradbury later said, "I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped."

- Via the notice on RayBradbury.com

***

"I memorized all of “John Carter” and “Tarzan,” and sat on my grandparents’ front lawn repeating the stories to anyone who would sit and listen. I would go out to that lawn on summer nights and reach up to the red light of Mars and say, “Take me home!” I yearned to fly away and land there in the strange dusts that blew over dead-sea bottoms toward the ancient cities.

While I remained earthbound, I would time-travel, listening to the grownups, who on warm nights gathered outside on the lawns and porches to talk and reminisce. At the end of the Fourth of July, after the uncles had their cigars and philosophical discussions, and the aunts, nephews, and cousins had their ice-cream cones or lemonade, and we’d exhausted all the fireworks, it was the special time, the sad time, the time of beauty. It was the time of the fire balloons."

- Excerpt from Bradbury's New Yorker essay dated June 4, 2012

***

Ray Bradbury passed yesterday at the ripe old age of 91. But if ever there was a human embodiment of immortality, he was surely it. I've posted a video of Bradbury discussing his 

amazing and always timely "Farenheit 451", which can stand as its own tribute to the timeless vitality of this beautiful man, found here, on my Other Blog.

Tears in Rain - the blog

“Is it possible that some of the ‘places’ I routinely visit in my dreams are, in some way, actual locations? Sometimes I experience an overwhelming nostalgia for places I’ve never been. Not all of these places seem entirely Earth-like; nevertheless they can seem suffocatingly familiar. On one hand, these bizarre locales could be electrochemically derived; on the other, they could represent something beyond our ability to properly define. Nodes on some cosmic Internet?”

 – Mac Tonnies, 2004, found here

Photo: Mac Tonnies, 2008

Paul Kimball is blogging again, and has posted some great "Macthoughts" on his latest blog Tears in Rain. The one above reminded me of a conversation Mac and I had about dream locations, and one I had forgotten about. So, thanks for reminding me, Paul!

Meanwhile, he's also just posted a great "Macthought" regarding technology and dug up a Kraftwerk tune you'd might like to hear again. The tune was written just over 30 years ago, but it may as well have been written today.

Triptych #15 - Update

Apparently, I spoke too soon...

Sigh.

Never underestimate the prowess of the "evil spammers".

Triptych #15

I payed a visit to Triptych #15 the other day, expecting to see, perhaps, no more than an increase in number of the "sucker vines of spam", but was pleasantly surprised. Apparently, due to whatever tweaking Google has recently employed regarding blog comments, it seems that the spammers have been in some way confounded and temporarily, at least, are leaving Posthuman Blues alone. I am strangely relieved by this. Finding spam on Mac's last post was comparable to finding dog shit on a loved one's burial plot.

Speaking of which, I also stopped by Pink Tentacle to see if Mac's favorite cephalopod resurfaced. The news is bad. The comment section of the Tentacle's last post is distressingly familiar... but, unlike the case of Triptych #15, no one is coming forward to clarify the issue. I really hope someone does soon...

In other news, Mike Clelland - no, I didn't forget you, Mike - has recently created a new site devoted to those "Tubular Belles" Mac was so fond of (see this PMB post). He has a nice dedication page, found here.

Lastly, the image above - Tech Totem #8 - is a creation by my good pal, and loyal follower of PMB, the art shaman himself, Bob Dodson. It can be found here. His latest creation - a work in progress - is just the coolest little robot ever! Thanks, Bob!

Ah, and what do you know, it's May Day! A most blessed Beltane to you.

Till next time,
Dia

Snow Circles

David Peeples sent me this amazing link today which I was compelled to post here despite my vows to abstain from this type of blogging on PMB. 

Of course, crop circles come to mind... but, rest assured, there's nothing inherently paranormal in the snow circles' creation...(but, then again, define paranormal!) They were, in fact, created by one man wearing snowshoes! No BS. The man's name is Simon Beck, and he and his work can be found here.

Thanks, David!

Sarah Multiverse Returns...

... with some fascinating news regarding Mac and that NY Times article from last year.

If interested, go to this Macbots page...

Yes, my decision regarding Post Mac Blues still stands, but I will post any news directly related to his legacy as soon as I'm aware of it.

Best,

Dia

Adieu... and Greetings!

"I'm a Kansas City, Missouri-based author and essayist. I blog daily at Posthuman Blues and tweet religiously. My latest book is After the Martian Apocalypse (Paraview Pocket Books, 2004), a speculative and generally well-received examination of extraterrestrial intelligence on the Red Planet. I'm presently at work on a new non-fiction book titled The Cryptoterrestrials: Indigenous Humanoids and the Aliens Among Us, excerpts of which I've posted on my blog. If you're in the mood for a multiplex Fortean anthology, my essay "The Ancients Are Watching" is included in 2008's Darklore Vol. II. (My first book, Illumined Black, is a collection of naively "Blade Runner"-ish science fiction short-stories. It can still be found in used-book stores and on Amazon.com.)

I've been a guest panelist at ConQuest, Kansas City's premiere science fiction convention. More recently, I've lectured in the United States and Canada on subjects ranging from exoarchaeology to transhumanism and have appeared on programs such as Coast to Coast AM, Strange Days . . . Indeed, 21st Century Radio, The Paracast, Binnall of America, and Radio Misterioso. My first play, produced and directed by Paul Kimball, debuted in Halifax, Nova Scotia in late 2007. In early 2009 I appeared as the "investigator" in an episode of "Supernatural Investigator," a Canadian program covering fringe beliefs and esoteric science. I also make an appearance in "Best Evidence," an award-winning UFO documentary.

I spend an inordinately large portion of my time pursuing unpopular ideas and esoteric theories with what I sincerely hope is balanced skepticism. I'm a member of the Society for Planetary SETI Research, a group that seeks to use scientific methodology to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial artifacts in our solar system. I read voraciously; preoccupations include cosmology, nonhuman intelligence, UFOs, consciousness studies, and futurism. Writers I admire include William Gibson, Philip K. Dick and William S. Burroughs.

I tend to think in the future-tense. I'm a skeptic, agnostic and existentialist; I perceive reality as a kind of consensual hallucination that forces us to define our sense of identity without recourse to faith or superstition. I have a deep affinity for 80s pop music; some of my favorite bands are The Cure, R.E.M., Portishead, Talking Heads, and The Smiths. Favorite film-makers include David Cronenberg and David Lynch. I can regularly be found haunting the Country Club Plaza, taking pictures, reading cyberpunk novels, and marinating my synapses in espresso. And I'm a voracious doodler; I've put some representative (if dated) drawings in my Sketch Gallery. (For artwork and graphics sent to me by colleagues and friends, please see the Art Gallery.) For more information (including links to archived radio appearances), see the Mac FAQ. For photos, refer to my Flickr stream."

- Mac Tonnies, via the MacTonnies.com bio page

***

And so runs Mac's bio page on his website. (Wikipedia editors take note. In the last analysis, Mac's Wiki entry pretty much, well, bites... too invasive, incomplete, and, to some degree, inaccurate. For instance, at one point, Posthuman Blues was getting hundreds of hits per day - hardly a "small" following by the standards of its time.)

But then, I'm not here to discuss internet politics today (technically Veterans Day); I'm here to finally put up the last post that was slated to go up November 1st, and would have, had I not - and the entire Connecticut town in which I live - been plunged into a 5 day black-out after a freak snowstorm. I've pretty much just gotten into recovery mode... "damage control" took about another 5 days. And so it goes.

Anyway, no, I didn't intend to cut y'all off so abruptly in my previous post. My decision to end this blog wasn't a superficial whim. The fact is, I am no longer able to maintain it. It isn't that there isn't more to be said... one could easily find material for numerous posts by referring to Posthuman Blues. Try searching a topic there - any old topic... the word "aliens" for instance, and you'll find a wealth of material covering numerous pages, with videos, images, story fragments, and essays. I really don't know how Mac did it.

He did do it, of course... but there is no longer a purpose for PMB than to bring Mac's work to attention. And this is something interested readers can do for themselves without my input. I hope this blog has helped somewhat. I have recently revised and updated the sidebar to map out Mac's various online contributions (and some of my contributions to PHB). More can be found within the body of this blog, but even this is an undertaking more suited to a dedicated website than it is a blog.

Originally, Post-Mac Blues was a place to mourn Mac's passing - it was never meant to be a replacement for Posthuman Blues - but I think the time of public mourning has come to a close, and therefore, to continue a mere personal blog - apparently the best-kept secret on the web (Re:, G.B. in a recent Radio Misterioso Mac tribute: "What's the name of that site Dia Sobin does now?") is rather pointless and redundant, and doesn't do justice to either Mac or myself.

That being said, there are still blogs and sites in which you might find Mac mentioned... Mike Clelland's Hidden Experience, Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso, Nick Redfern's and G.B.'s musings on UFO Mystic, Paul Kimball's remembrances on Philosopher King and The Other Side of the Truth, Capn Marrrrk's Twitter page, Mac's publisher, Patrick Huyghe's Anomalist news page, Rita J. King's and Joshua Fout's Imagination Age, Macbots - a community Mac Tonnies tribute site - and, lastly, at Triptych #15.

As for me, I will still continue blogging at Trans-D. And if you have an comments or queries (or links or information to share) my email address is: araqinta@att.net.

The photo above is one Mac shot the winter before his death. It always struck me as rather sad but, ironic... and fitting for the last post on this blog.

Adieu, then... to all of my previous visitors and supporters...

Greetings, to those travelers who have just recently stopped by. This blog is now an archive, but your comments and queries are still welcome here.

(Note: I am no longer moderating comments, but all spam will be promptly deleted.)