“I can’t divide or hide from me
I don’t know who I’m meant to be
I guess it’s just the person that I am
Often I’ve dreamt that I don’t wake
Enjoy the gift of my mistake
But yet again, I’m wrong and I confess.”
PORTISHEAD – MAGIC DOORS - THIRD
The internet was a much different place twenty years ago. There were still “gatekeepers”, but without the all-consuming popularity of multi-billion-dollar social media empires, people were too scattered and decentralized to be so easily herded and corralled.
The landscape was relatively untamed, with far less restrictions, and a lot more users who were running their own websites, blogs, internet groups, chat-rooms, and forums.
Mac Tonnies, with his popular Posthuman Blues blog, was one of those people at the forefront of creating a community space to share information, ideas, and theories on the topics of trans-humanism, futurism, emerging technologies, The Singularity, and Ufology.
Mac’s credentials included his first book of short stories, Illumined Black, which was released in 1995 while in college, along with the underground hit After The Martian Apocalypse, published by Simon & Schuster in 2004.
I first “met” Mac through our respective websites sometime in 2006. Due to mutual inquisitiveness and areas of research, we began an email correspondence and interviewed each other on several occasions, while cross-promoting shared interests.
I can’t go so far as to say we were friends, but the term “colleagues of cryptozoology and conspiracy” might be more appropriate to the situation. However, I’ll never forget how much we connected over the album from the band Portishead, entitled Third, from 2008. I know we both had that on heavy rotation in 2008 (and I still do to this day).
He appeared in several documentaries covering topics of Ufology, and was highly respected as an emerging voice in the field of futurism. Yet, despite running a popular blog, and appearing on talk shows, Mac was always openly humorous about the day job he kept as a barista at a local coffee shop. He was personable, eloquent, intelligent, and insightful.
Mac Tonnies, a native of Independence, Missouri, died unexpectedly in his sleep on October 22nd, 2009 at the young age of 34 from cardiac arrhythmia. His family, friends, and fans publicly grieved his passing online, as well as a few notable figures including fellow authors, futurists, and historians.
His final book, The Cryptoterrestrials, was published posthumously in 2010, and the topics and themes reminded me of several conversations we had shortly before he passed away.
The book is centered around the possibility that UFO’s and “aliens” aren’t actually from other planets, but a lost civilization who reside within the inner earth. It’s a short volume, and I highly recommend it for any serious researcher of these topics.
We unfortunately lost a young author, futurist, and techno-philosopher who undoubtedly had a bright and exciting future ahead of him. So, every October, I can’t help but to light a candle, have a fall beverage, and remember Mac Tonnies; trying keep his energy and spirit alive in some small way.
I wonder what Mac would have thought of the emerging AI situation, and also think he'd have gotten a kick out of the fact that Portishead vocalist, Beth Gibbons, just released her first solo album entitled: Lives Outgrown (2024). Maybe, somewhere out there in that Great Singularity, Mac is listening to it...
