"A stunning survey of the latest evidence for intelligent life on Mars. Mac Tonnies brings a thoughtful, balanced and highly accessible approach to one of the most fascinating enigmas of our time."
--Herbie Brennan, author of Martian Genesis and The Atlantis Enigma
"Tonnies drops all predetermined opinions about Mars, and asks us to do the same."
--Greg Bishop, author of Project Beta
"I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in the search for extra-terrestrial artifacts, and the political intrigues that invariably accompany it."
--David Jinks, author of The Monkey and the Tetrahredron
"Mac Tonnies goes where NASA fears to tread and he goes first class."
--Peter Gersten, former Director of Citizens Against UFO Secrecy
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(Includes my essay "The Ancients Are Watching.")
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11 comments:
oh but mars is different... they have geological processes which sculpt features into the landscape which only appear to be created intelligently. On earth we call these processes "human intervention". There are no humans on mars, so this can't be the cause, so we default to nature!
*sarcasm mode off*
stankan, you only have it half right
these things are labelled with names likening them to things on earth because these are the shapes we see, to label someone loony because they want closeups of these things in order to see what they are is like spewing derision toward people who wear thick corrective lenses and couldn't see without them.
People just want a clearer view, and most, save for an obvious few, would be happy to know what the hell these things really are.
I get so totally frustrated with people who are unable to make the logical distinction between curiosity and belief. Just because you filter out these things you deem as nonsense gives you no right to disparage the thinkers and dreamers. Even Carl Sagan made the "pyramid" comparison, and waxed poetic at the possibilities, even though deep down inside he probably felt they were just rocks.
Have you no hope? No passion? No heart?
I'd rather go through life thought of as a loon, than join in with the others participating in the rigidly controlled machine collective.
If a satellite took a picture like that of, say, a previously unexamined region on Earth, archeologists would be all over that sucker!
Not if the archaeologists were JPL.
"Have you no hope? No passion? No heart?
I'd rather go through life thought of as a loon, than join in with the others participating in the rigidly controlled machine collective."
From the start, human beings were doomed to someday become pampered lumps of flesh which know only appetite. All things considered, this was the inevitable terminus of our species. I'm afraid the machine collective was an indirect product of this historical process, and its technocratic tyrrany is here to stay.
The human inclination toward gratification and repose is so strong, it was inevitable that all our purposes should ultimately begin gravitating in the direction of mass consumption.
A subtle shift in the cultural paradigm of Europe made universal literacy and therefore universal education, too, possible. It's easy for rulers to keep ignorant serfs in subjection, but the liberated mind will not be ruled -- hence the emergence of liberal democracy. With a democratic society comes the notion of "rights" -- that is, a sphere of freedoms granted to every private citizen by law, allowing each to pursue what makes them happy. The people elect officials who then enact policies for the general interest. Maybe you can already see how things should insipidly begin their subtle gravitation toward full bellies and fat tummies (both literally and metaphorically speaking).
Hence we have the evolution of the modern day consumer. Hand-in-hand with the consumer evolves a similar sort of creature - namely, the entrepeneur. For this animal making money is an addiction, a game and a diversion. Together the consumer and the entrepeneur create the social infrastructure of supply and demand. What is the most efficient way to make this infrastructure work? Answer: increased organization, integration, bureacratization -- in short, a machine collective.
As our world shrinks into a global community, this machine collective will increasingly pervade all societies, and at all levels of each society. Eventually, everyone will be educated, everyone will be a democrat, and everyone will be a consumer.
Kierkegaard once wrote, "Spirit is dreaming in man." It is the human capacity to dream -- that is, the depth, profundity and complexity of our inner world -- which has been at the root of all great human endeavors, achievements and our atrocities too. The question then becomes: Is it possible for the human spirit to be reduced?
For all practical purposes, resignation is the safest, easiest way to secure a livelihood in today's world. One resigns himself to existence as a bureacrat, just a mere cog and function in the works. Our technocrat finds that he is confronted with little choice but to suppress spirit in favor of pragmatism. But what is willfully suppressed over time is also lost.
It's my belief that at least some things are self-evident by nature. A sense for such axiomatic truths must be developed (a person must be able to perceive the Tao, as Lao Tzu would have said). One such truth is that individuals with a greater capacity to dream constitute a higher type of human being. It is precisely in such persons that we find the greatest potentials for this creature called "homo sapien".
At this point I'm going to bring in the implications of atheism: If there is no God, then there is no Providence, no divine sovereignity over the course of events. Such an arbitrary train of events make everything purposeless and nonsensical; existence as such is rendered absurd. Part and parcel to this absurdity is that chance should ultimately cause the functionally dead bureacrat to triumph at the expense of the Renaissance man. Our species was brought forth in absurdity, in which we also live, move and have our being.
(One can also speculate this absurdity with regard to the Martian demise. The possible existence of a very vast, very ancient civilization on Mars -- all of it obliderated in a single moment through nonsensical impact with an asteroid -- which, incidentally, maybe our fate too.)
Have a great weekend. ;)
"The one "natural" explanation I've been able to come up with is that they are the protruding corners of much larger stone blocks the greatest portion of which are buried. When under great tectonic stress, rock does tend to shear along straight lines and flat planes."
I don't know about the other tetrahedral mountains, but the D&M Pyramid (for instance) also happens to be absolutely symmetrical in shape. Moreover, one corner is pointed directly at the Face, another pointed directly at the center of the "City Square" and still another directly at the Tholus. The City Pyramid, in close proximity to the D&M Pyramid, also has five sides. If we look closely, we find a further curiosity: a small four-sided pyramid perched atop the City Pyramid.
Both the Parallelogram and the Square, which I mentioned previously, are also within the same vicinity.
All of this taken together (rather than each in isolation) does, IMO, suggest a rather strong case for artificiality.
Ken--
To my mind, the jury is still out, though I lean towards construction, water and life.
Well, the jury is decidedly *in* re. water: It's there! And I'm convinced that the "seep" phenomenon is liquid water in action, albeit mostly underground.
Relatively simple extant life? The odds are increasingly good.
Past intelligence? Why not?
Nice having you here, Ken. Having some bright "regulars" makes this more fun.
(One problem with the EPH, though, is that the total mass of all the asteroids doesn't even equal that of the Moon let alone a much larger planet.)
Tom Van Flandern thinks the Oort Cloud is also exploded planet debris. And interestingly enough, the Deep Impact probe seems to be indicating that the conventional "dirty snowball" model might not be the complete story.
Incidentally, I got raked by a local alternative newspaper for daring to mention Van Flandern in my book. You should be able to find the amiable -- if kind of silly -- article by Googling "Tonnies Space Case Pitch."
Here is a site where someone makes an argument for artificiality (in Cydonia) from geometry. I'm not a mathematician so I can't say to what degree the info here is legit, but it's probably worth looking at:
http://www.dudeman.net/siriusly/cyd/city.shtml
beautiful, ken... simply beautiful (and sad)
"beautiful, ken... simply beautiful (and sad)"
In comparison to the age of the Earth, we've only been around for the span of an eye blink. Moreover, our world is merely an infinitismal ripple in space-time. In such a vast universe with countless combinations of possibilities, I'm sure there have been (and will continue to be) countless worlds with much happier scenarios. ;)
Mac - All I can say is "It's about freaking time".
Godspeed MRO,
Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com
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