Mac Tonnies
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Contents |
The following is taken from MacTonnies.com with permission from Mr. Tonnies for use in The Book
Mac Tonnies is an author/essayist whose futuristic fiction and speculative essays have appeared in many print and online publications. He's the author of Illumined Black, a collection of science fiction short-stories, and After the Martian Apocalypse (Paraview Pocket Books, 2004). Mac maintains "Posthuman Blues[1]," a widely read blog devoted to emerging technologies and paranormal phenomena, and is a member of the Society for Planetary SETI Research. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where he writes, reads and surfs the Net. He is currently at work on a new book.
The following is Mac writing about himself.
Biographical sketch of Mac Tonnies
I'm a Kansas City, Missouri-based author, essayist and blogger[2] with an abiding appreciation for thought-provoking literature, weird and/or subversive ideas, and bleeding-edge art and science[3]. My latest book is After the Martian Apocalypse[4] (Paraview Pocket Books, 2004), a speculative and generally well-received examination of extraterrestrial intelligence on the Red Planet. Illumined Black, a collection of science fiction short-stories, was published in 1995 by a small press and can still be found in used-book stores and on Amazon.com. The stories -- which, ten years later, I find almost wincingly awkward -- are typically dark and "Blade Runner"-ish, reflecting my infatuation with the cyberpunk sub-genre.
I spend a 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[5], a group that seeks to use scientific methodology to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial artifacts[6] in our solar system. I read voraciously[7]; preoccupations include cosmology, nonhuman intelligence, UFOs, consciousness studies, futurism, emerging technologies, and literary criticism. Writers I admire[8] include William Gibson[9], Philip K. Dick[10] and William S. Burroughs[11].
I can regularly be found in coffeeshops reading cyberpunk novels[12] and marinating my synapses in espresso. And I'm a voracious doodler; I've put some representative drawings in my Sketch Gallery[13] and hope to add a slew of better examples soon. For artwork and graphics sent to me by online colleagues and friends, please see the Art Gallery[14]. For up-to-the-minute commentary, see my daily blog, Posthuman Blues[15], where I post personal experiences, speculative essays, intriguing science news items, and everything in between.
I tend to think in the future-tense. I'm a skeptic[16], agnostic[17] 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 an inexplicable affinity for 80s pop music; some of my favorite bands[18] are The Cure, R.E.M., Talking Heads, and The Smiths. Favorite film-makers[19] include David Cronenberg and David Lynch. For more information, see the Mac FAQ[20].
Statement
Consciousness is a potential technology; we are exquisite machines, nothing less than sentient patterns[21]. As such, there's no convincing technical reason we can't eventually upload ourselves into matrices of our design and choosing. It's extremely likely the phenomenon we call "intelligence" will cease to be strictly biological as we begin to merge with our machines more meaningfully and intimately. Philip K. Dick once wrote that "living and nonliving things are exchanging properties." I suspect that in a few hundred years, separating the animate from the inanimate will probably be an exercise in futility. Ultimately, we have two options: self-mutate by venturing off-planet in minds and bodies of our own design, or succumb to extinction.
Mac Tonnies' Essays
- South African mystery spheres and the Iapetus enigma
- Skeptics, Debunkers and Believers
- Thoughts on Extraterrestrial Archaeology
- Why Cydonia Should Be Reimaged Regardless of Anomalies
- The Face on Mars: Evidence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence?
- Sentience and Circuitry: Meat is Memory
- The Roswell "Hieroglyph" Controversy
External Links
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