I came
across BIG news to me.
It
requires a bit of set up, though.
Anyone who
knows me knows I’ve spent far too much time researching “the weird.” Not so
much recently for various reasons, but it still captivates me, mostly in terms
of cultural phenomena and collaborative narrative constructs. Fifteen years ago
in my “travels,” I came across the name Mac Tonnies and his blog, Posthuman
Blues. I dove deep into his posts, amazed at how much we had in common. He’s an
English grad, a writer, a science fiction devotee, a Fortean, and a futurist!
And he likes The Cure and The Smiths!
He also,
quite sadly, was dead about a year before I knew of him. We would never
converse. Just one of those strange twists of fate.
Last
Friday though, I saw a post that pretty much rocked my world. Scholars from
Harvard University and Montana Technical University published a paper putting
forward the concept of “cryptoterrestrials.” As congressional hearings and high
profile stories in outlets such as 60 Minutes have kept UFO (or UAP if you
prefer) sightings in the zeitgeist, logical questions have once more circulated
as to what the things are, and if they are indeed vehicles, do they have
pilots? The cryptoterrestrials hypothesis posits that the occupants of the
craft are not aliens from another planet, but perhaps beings from right here on
Earth that fall into one of the following categories:
-The
remains of an ancient, but technologically advanced, civilization.
-A
breakaway civilization that branched off from humanity somewhere in the
evolutionary process.
-Really
bizarre, quasi-mystical entities more akin to angels than aliens.
In the
first two cases, these beings would be living underground beneath remote
sierras, or on the ocean floor (a place about which we know precious little).
Critically,
the academic paper cites Mac Tonnies and his posthumously published book,
Cryptoterrestrials. As he termed it, the book is “a meditation on indigenous
humanoids and aliens among us.” The “nuts and bolts, spaceships from other
planets” explanation really didn’t sit well with him, so Mac began searching
for alternative approaches for those few bizarre cases that still defy easy
explanation. As one might imagine, Cryptoterrestrials was an obscure book,
published by a small publisher. Other than Amazon, you might have found a
couple copies of it in the paranormal section of Barnes & Noble. But that
slim volume was there first in many ways, even to the point of being cited in
an academic paper making major news.
A few
important caveats:
-The
authors of the published paper acknowledged the lack of any conclusive evidence
for cryptoterrestrials at this time. Instead, they tender their hypothesis in
hopes of “consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness.”
-Even Mac
stood on the shoulders of giants. John Keel, Jacques Vallee, and Ivan T.
Sanderson all wrote their own speculations along similar lines. That’s how
research is done. One person builds on another’s work. Mac added to and
expanded on the idea considerably.
-Don’t call me a “believer in cryptoterrestrials.” I’m not. We clear? Even Mac wasn’t sold on the idea and considered it a thought experiment. Like most skeptics, I see no evidence…yet. I confess the idea is tantalizing, but that’s not the point. That's not what has me excited.
Mac was a super smart guy and a great writer. This current turn of
events demonstrates that you never know how something someone has done might
be influential later on, even long after they are gone.
I cannot
help but feel an odd stirring of hope at that prospect. So…
Yes! Mac
lives!
