Mac Tonnies (20 August 1975 – 22 October 2009) was an American author and blogger whose work focused on futurology,

transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

and paranormal topics.

Background

Tonnies grew up in

Independence, Missouri Independence is the fifth-largest city in Missouri and the county seat of Jackson County. Independence is a satellite city of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the largest suburb on the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2020 ...

, and attended William Chrisman High School and

Ottawa University Ottawa University (OU) is a private Baptist university with its main campus in Ottawa, Kansas, a second residential campus in Surprise, Arizona, and adult campuses in the Kansas City, Phoenix and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. It was founded in ...

.Ortega, Tony.
Space Case: Attention, aliens: Please return our science-fiction writer.
'' The Pitch''. November 25, 2004 He lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Tonnies had an active online presence and a "small, but devoted" readership, but supported himself by working at Starbucks and other nine-to-five jobs. In 2009 he died of

cardiac arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, heart arrhythmias, or dysrhythmias, are irregularities in the Cardiac cycle, heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. A resting heart rate that is too fast – above 100 beats per mi ...

at the age of 34.

Books

His first book, a collection of science fiction short stories titled ''Illumined Black'', was published by Phantom Press Publications in 1995, when Tonnies was in college. It carried a cover blurb by

Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the '' Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's firs ...

and was positively reviewed in ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...

''. His second book, ''After the Martian Apocalypse'', was published by Simon & Schuster in 2004. His third book, ''The Cryptoterrestrials'', was published posthumously by Anomalist Books in 2010. In November, 2012, Redstar Books published the first volume of ''Posthuman Blues'', which contains excerpts from Tonnies' long-running blog of the same name. In the introduction, historian Aaron John Gulyas writes that, "''Posthuman Blues'' is of a piece with the Lost Generation of the 1920s and the Beat Generation of the 1950s. Tonnies spoke for his generation with passion, eloquence, and a rare insight."

Other media

In 2007 the play ''Doing Time'', which he co-wrote with Canadian filmmaker Paul Kimball (who was working on a documentary about Tonnies),Cyberspace When You're Dead
January 5, 2011 New York Times Magazine premiered in Halifax,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

. He also appeared in the documentary ''Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings'', and an episode of the Canadian television series ''Supernatural Investigator''. His blog, "Posthuman blues" was described by '' The Pitch'' as "one of Kansas City's best blogs, filled with well-written, intelligent takes on offbeat news items and humorous rants from a left-leaning political perspective." He appeared on ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in ...

'' in September 2009, and was a frequent guest on ''The Paracast''.

Cryptoterrestrial hypothesis

The cryptoterrestrial hypothesis was developed in Tonnies' blog, and later published posthumously. It proposes that the beings that are speculated to be behind UFOs and alien abductions are actually mysterious and secretive races of earthly origin, technically speaking a type of ''

cryptid Cryptids are animals that cryptozoologists believe may exist somewhere in the wild, but are not believed to exist by mainstream science. Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, which primarily looks at anecdotal stories, and other claims rejected b ...

'' (hence the name, from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: κρυπτός, ''kryptós'' "hidden, secret" and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

: ''terrestris'', "related to the Earth"). According to Tonnies' theory, these races have existed on Earth for at least as long as humanity, and present themselves as extraterrestrials or occult beings. This theory has some elements in common with certain aspects of the Interdimensional UFO hypothesis, such as Jacques Vallée's control system, something Tonnies himself remarked in his work multiple times. Some have also suggested that it is an extension of the ideas of Richard Shaver.

Notes

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