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Marc Merlin's 2014 Burning Man Report For Tech Geeks
marcmerlin writes Haven't been to Burning Man, or missed this year's and would like a summary? Marc Merlin has posted a summary of this year with full GPS map, pictures from the air, and everything neatly categorized, with a track of his 127 miles of biking to visit as many camps as possible. Also, if you plan on going, check out the tips at the bottom of the page.
If you build a man a fire, he'll be warm for one night. If you set him on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
someone told me that DARPA types test out their latest mind control E-M gadgetry at Burning Man...
but to be more on-topic, Burning Man might be a good experience for a "geek"...
forget all the nonsense 'gift economy' techno-hippie blah blah...it's a bunch of artists, weird academics, ravers, drug experimenters, *rich people* who want to pretend to be those things at a high per-day cost, and of course creepers looking to scam or take advantage of people
it's camping in the desert with 60,000 people
now, in my observation, if you ask a typical burner "What is Burning Man all about?" you'll see an interesting linguistic phenomenon: recursive language ontology
the answer to the question is (all too often) not a fact or statement...the answer to "What is Burning Man all about?" is in part **the act of explaining the experience in a mystical, mysterious way**
it's the status of having been there, to say that you know what it's about, not the act of doing drugs or camping or looking at desert art
behold: http://www.burningman.com/what...
now, that said...if you're curious, GO FOR IT!
just do your thing and enjoy the nonsense for what it is...there is some really cool art and tech on display
Thank you Dave Raggett
Thanks for making my computer unresponsive for minutes. Great job in web design.
Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Terry Pratchett, Jingo
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Citations please?
I ask because the only person that I'm acquainted with that was raped in a festival-type setting had it happen somewhere down in Mexico on Spring Break during the late nineties when the Girls Gone Wild phenomenon was taking off, and she admitted that she was so drunk that she couldn't put up much of a fight.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Burning Man has always had a geek component to it. There's the, "build the man" part, there are the art projects that are one part art, one part creative tech, there are the logistics parts of how to pull-off holding this event in this location.
A buddy of mine that's a huge geek has gone more than once; I've been tempted by my suburn-in-fifteen-minutes skin probably wouldn't serve me well.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
TFA is great...it's what *I* would want to see...i have burner friends and they always show me 200 pictures of their little group in the same areas...nothing that shows a general survey of what is happening
Thank you Dave Raggett
Some guy posting pictures and commenting on an event
Nice pictures though. And a direct report from someone who attended rather than filtered news.
Works for me.
Amen to that. I want a festival someplace where I don't have to suck alkali dust. And I also want a festival that's about making things, not burning shit down and blowing shit up. The best thing 40,000 people can think of to do with a week is go to the desert and set shit on fire? If one tenth of that effort were spent doing something positive instead of something destructive, what could those people accomplish? How many trees could they plant, or whatever? Instead it's post-post-modern celebration of the destruction of the biosphere, which itself consumes massive amounts of energy just in transporting all those burners.
That said, if I were testing a stillsuit, that's where I'd go. Otherwise, it just don't make no sense. There's nothing there but what you make. Why not make something somewhere else? Maybe something you're not just going to set on fire.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
and she admitted that she was so drunk that she couldn't put up much of a fight.
While that's a Bad Idea(tm), no means no even when it's a drunken, half-assed no. If you don't care enough to listen well enough to hear and observe that no, then you're the problem.
I'm not one of the people who believes that alcohol eliminates the possibility of consent. If you get intoxicated and consent to sex, well, you consented. The obvious exception is giving people intoxicating substances without their knowledge. There is however a gray area; what if someone else slips someone GHB without their consent and without your knowledge, say, and then that person wants to have sex with you? Well, it's still your responsibility. You should know who you're fucking, and why.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Since when are nerds hippies?
I don't believe that Burning Man is destructive.
But it is. A lot of energy is consumed just getting people there, resulting in a lot of emissions. A lot of stuff is burned that shouldn't be, in spite of attempts to prevent it. What about a festival that's inherently creative? I guess that's not as fun as setting shit on fire.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Burning Man looks like a tentative near-future where robots work the menial crap for us and as we dip our toes in the waters of Culture-like leisure everyone experiments being a hippie and a DIYer artisan and a stoner and a furry and a badass craftsman all at once, and you know what? I'm glad it exists. Bring along the rabbit ears, I'll bring the swiss army knife, and let's see what we can make work.
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
I know lots of people who go, but have no desire to go myself.
The climate is actually mostly ok, but the alkaline dust definitely sucks, I'm not going to say otherwise.
Every gathering of tens of thousands of people stresses the environment, no matter how eco friendly these people are and how creative they strive to be.
Yes, I think those sorts of event are generally crocks as well, and hypocritical to boot.
Is there any reason to believe that your "festival that's inherently creative" puts any less stress on the environment?
Yes, if you keep it local. Instead of centralizing, have more and smaller gatherings. They can still be fairly large, as much as someone can reasonably actually take in at a time.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
True enough, but the Burning Man environment has one great advantage for nerds: it's an ultimate test of hardware reliability for your project. If the tech product you're about to introduce will survive BM, it will work in any home or business.
"There's nothing there but what you make." You hit it right on the head......
Good-bye
I know lots of people who go, but have no desire to go myself.
that part...
seriously...this was in '97 and we had a campus-wide ethernet with Pentiums in every dorm room...so the LAN battles in warcraft, quake, and starcraft were epic...so there was a reason
Thank you Dave Raggett
Keeping it local only spreads the impact,
Yes, that is the idea. When your impact is positive, you want to spread it around. If you made an oasis of the place where Burning Man is now, it would benefit relatively few people since people don't live there now; unless you made a whole town, and a lot of people lived there. But I don't propose spontaneous creation of townships, because it's not legally feasible.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"