Capitalist burning man camp

[Eric Chisholm]

There's a new burning man camp that some Bay area rationalists put together. There's still some spots left if anyone is interested in making money at or going to burning man with minimal hassle.

Me and Dee are going this year.

Apply here: http://paradigmcamp.appspot.com/

[Alia McCutcheon]

What an awesome idea!

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[Kenneth Bruskiewicz]

I'm happy for you but I'm not sure if I support the camp. They are trying to solve the problem of labor defection but they are defecting with Burning Man at large. Enough people have started introducing other kinds of defections to the point that Burning Man is becoming a completely different event than what it originally was, also diminishing some of the comparative advantages of Burning Man.

There are some shared principles taken up by attendees that make it the event that it is. One by one Burning Man's original principles are being substituted out of by new members of the community. Some of this is attributable to scaling; more people coming to the event = overheads that can be dampened by more organization; you also need a public face because now the law is interested in what you do. So you end up charging people for tickets - which invalidates radical inclusion, since now you're selecting who can get into a desert with more than enough space.

(Also this year the only art installations which are legitimately allowed to be burned are the Temple and the Man, which sucks.)

In this case the camp is coming dangerously close to invalidating radical decommodification. Seriously, if you're looking to make a buck at Burning Man, then you're really missing the fucking point. If you also just want to mooch off of others then you're also missing the point.

 This is an opportunity for you to get a different message of what's possible for people and yourself: the more you step outside of capitalism, and the more you give freely and receive freely without expectations, and the more that you simultaneously work to satisfy your own needs, the stronger that message is going to be. This is one of the few communities where you can truly experience "paying it forward" unconditionally, as well as be put into a situation where you're forced to rely on yourself to handle the elements and survive. Don't fuck it up.

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Kenneth (ˈke.nɪθ, n.): Honest guy drafting dishonest futures. Frameworks for thinking productively and getting creative. Scholarship at the edge of application and vice versa. Voting for a dangerous, kinder humanity. Lets the work speak.

[Kenneth Bruskiewicz]

This is just my input. This might help you out: https://asana.com/burningman

[Wolf Tivy]

Sounds like burning man is past its prime and it's time to pull the rip cord. No amount of posturing about what it's really about will change anything. That has never changed anything. Burning Man might be best understood as a historical event rather than a living steady-state institution, or at least it will be so soon. Put it to rest with dignity.

The problem of how to maintain cultural/goal/structural stability in institutions as they scale is extremely hard, similar in a lot of way to the goal stability problems in FAI. It is especially hard with radical non-structure. We are flummoxed by this problem on the Forbidden Truth list. Any wise insights that I'm missing?

As for paradigm, these guys are rolling with it and making a quick buck taking it in a new direction. Sounds cool. I won't be going, though.

(heartistian nihilism)Defect. Find prisoner's dillemmas you didn't even know you were cooperating on and defect. Enjoy the decline from poolside.(/heartistian nihilism)

[Kenneth Bruskiewicz]

I agree that BM seems past its prime.

I can name five regional festivals in BC that I've been told capture the Burning Man spirit, even if it isn't as badass as desert camping. I can also say that people just go out into the desert anyway. A lot of them are free. I'm willing to take anyone out to these festivals but I need a ride. Either way, Mecca will always be there, but at least there are churches that have open arms to communicate the message. And honestly there's no reason you should wait to give the subculture a go, if what you are motivated by is curiosity.

[Eric Chisholm]

I suppose burn I'm the forest is one of those?

[Kenneth Bruskiewicz]

* Burn in the Forest and Decompression

* Nothing in the Forest (made by people who couldn't make it to BITF)

* Cascadia Burn

* Octoburnfest

And there is Otherworld in Victoria; I'm not particularly interested in it, though.

There will be others, although the ones listed are the major ones that I remember.

[Evan]

I'll be in the Bay Area in August for Effective Altruism Summit, and the CFAR alumni reunion. Additionally, Kenneth wants to come, so I'm helping him get there via Pacific Northwest road trip. I'm excited to hang out with him there, even though he won't be invited to attend any formal events thrown by official organizations, because fuck convention. Kenneth, and I, might hit up some destinations in Oregon along the way. Otherwise, if that doesn't bug you, you're welcome to contact us to see if you can join us.

As I've concluded that supplanting myself to the Bay Area is too inconvenient, I intend to make the most of staying in Vancouver. Working with EveryLab, THoHT, Vancouver Rationalists, the local transhumanist/futurist community, and other Vancouver-based subcultures iterated on digital substrates, my stretch goal is to throw the first annual EveryLab/ExtremeNerd Expo at my house by the end of the summer, e.g., late August, or early September. This would entail doing enough awesome things in the next two months to justify throwing a miniature exhibition at my house. Let me know if you want to join, or if you think this is a stupid idea. Really, if you think this idea is stupid, I'm looking forward to that feedback more than any other.

 In the spirit of satirizing the idea of institutions being clunky by improvising my own with friends for fun, (and maybe (all sorts of) profit), I'm revitalizing communities that get bored by culture-jamming them. This includes hijacking this thread, because concluding 'Burning Man is kinda cool, but kinda sucks, so maybe whatever' is unproductive to the point it irritates me. Telling people to hijack my domestic life for the purposes of DIY projects is much more interesting.

[Kenneth Bruskiewicz]

> expo

I've got something fun in the works, however I won't reveal it until I need help. I like this idea.

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