Tech

Burning Man for tech billionaires sounds like hell on earth

by Jeremy Mersereau

Ever since its inception in 1986, Burning Man has stood as a bulwark against commercialism, and has remained a counter-culture antidote to heavily corporatized music and art festivals. *cough*

Well, that was the idea anyway. Some of the guiding principles of the yearly festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert include radical self-reliance, decommodification, and leaving no trace, all of which are pretty admirable values, even when they’re being spouted by a musty-dreadlocked aura expert named Lyric at a festival being gradually assimilated into a libertarian Mad Max hellscape. Not bad, Dr. Dre, not bad.

Still, all that self-reliance and decommodification lipservice goes out the window in the face of ludicrous, six-figgy salaries and the prospect of smelly, bitey bugs: Wealthy tech entrepreneurs such as Google owner Eric Schmidt took their self-driving, iterative learning ball and put on their own Burning Man-inspired fest called Further Future last weekend.

Now in its second year, the Vegas festival caters to people who want a Burning Man experience with Bay Area comfort; which means, tickets start at $350, you can purchase a personal “lifestyle assistant”, and absolutely no one is going to use the term “fregan” without chortling.

Speaking to The Guardian, executive chairman of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) Eric Schmidt said Further Future attendees are “a high percentage of San Francisco entrepreneurs, and they tend to be winners. It’s a curated, self-selected group of adults who have jobs. You can tell by the percentage of trailers.”

Schmidt, whose propensity for going to Burning Man is well documented, also rocked this outfit all weekend:

How… did you become a billionaire again? Outside the tech bubble, I’m fairly certain a photo like this becoming public is grounds for resignation.

Russell Ward, the chief organizer and publicist for the fest, said that Further Future “is top-league networking and business folks are all here in the guise of having fun. A ton of business will get done here. Entrepreneurs will get funded, investors will find their trajectories, service companies will meet and mix it up.”

Sounds like a blast! I’ve always said the point of music festivals is to find my investment trajectory.

Even the man who I’m holding responsible for the state of things in 2016 knows this is ridiculous:

Musicians who played Further Future included original LA alt-rap crew The Pharcyde, electronic futurist Oneohtrix Point Never, and Canadian turntable don Kid Koala, among many others. Hey, do what you gotta do to get paid: in 2016, the name of the game is siphoning off whatever you can from our VR app-pitching nobility. Just don’t make us go to their awkward, terrible desert festivals.

[h/t The Guardian]