Aural Pleasures for the Ride to BRC

13. Black Rock City Chicken Ranch by Burning Man Project

78. Event Horizon by Burning Man Project

85. Ouroboros by Burning Man Project

44. Moon Gate Portal by Burning Man Project

71. Navagunjara Reborn - The Phoenix of Odisha by Burning Man Project

59. MONA DIE! DIE! DIE! by Burning Man Project

57. Temple of the Deep by Burning Man Project

56. The Fire Hummingbird _ El Colibrí de Fuego Pyramid by Burning Man Project

82. Flame Pixel by Burning Man Project

36. Resilience by Burning Man Project

46. Sinksphere by Burning Man Project

Burning Man Project Communications Director Megan Miller interviews Mayor Stephen Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina and Mayor Hillary Schieve of Reno, Nevada during their visit to Black Rock City in 2018. They came as part of a delegation of 11 mayors from the U.S. Conference of Mayors who came to learn what their cities could learn from our city. (Photo by Robert Burnett)

It's often said that Burning Man and the internet grew up together: both started emerging at around the same time in the late 80s, went through a "wild wild west" phase in the 1990s, when they were seen as counter-cultures. Both started to get really big around the turn of the century, and both became massive cultural phenomenon after that (though, granted, it's a hell of a lot easier to find some...

Vanderbilt Professor of History Michael Bess is the author of the forthcoming book What makes us human? From neurons to the Sistine Chapel, and is studying the technologies that may destroy us, including artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. The risks of catastrophic failures, he says, are significant — basically our newest technologies are a car without a break, and if you drive one of...

In his previous work, leading Existential Psychologist Kirk Schneider has put the experience of "awe" at the center of human psychology. Without experiencing awe, life tends to become flat, mechanical, and unhealthy — a prison to be broken out of, rather than a possibility to grow into. In his new book, The Spirituality of Awe:  Challenges to the Robotic Revolution, Schneider points out that awe i...

Amazon has recently confirmed reports that its home operating system "Alexa," has been spontaneously laughing for no apparent reason, occasionally refusing to obey commands, and sometimes performing actions that were never asked for. No one has any idea why — is this a bug? A glitch? A hacker attack? — but internet pioneer and Microsoft researcher Jaron Lanier is probably not surprised. In his 201...

The problem with the way we try to give AI ethics is that we design these ethics to work for the status quo, the way things are right now. But things never stay the same for long, the status quo is constantly changing, and so that sets our AI ethics up to fail. That's the insight of Dr. Christoph Salge, a professor of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire and New York University's Ga...

Our problem isn't that Artificial Intelligence is getting better at being human, it's that human beings are getting worse at it. That's one of the conclusions that MIT psychologist Dr. Sherry Turkle, who has been studying the psychological impact of technology on its users since the dawn of the internet. One of the foremost researchers on the "soft side" of technology, her early work was optimisti...

Meet Tony and Daniel Wichowski, also known as Mr. Pepperdine and Scratch. Tony and Daniel met on playa in 2014 and married there legally in 2015. They remain unmistakably in love today. But happily ever after endings don't write themselves. Sometimes, it takes a transcontinental sacrifice, commitment to the sport of extreme paperwork filing, and a Supreme Court case to pull one off. Swiss cigarett...

We don't usually think of "Awe" as one of the essential human emotions, but licensed psychologist and American Psychological Association Fellow Dr. Kirk Schneider's research suggests that we should. Schneider, President Elect of the Existential-Humanistic Institute and past president of the APA's Society for Humanistic Psychology, says that awe is a contradictory emotion - one which makes us feel...

A guide to the Honorarium art and artists at Burning Man 2017. A great way to get fired up about the amazing art that's going to be on playa! Listen while you're packing, driving to Black Rock City, or just stuck in D Lot!

A guide to the Honorarium art and artists at Burning Man 2017. A great way to get fired up about the amazing art that's going to be on playa! Listen while you're packing, driving to Black Rock City, or just stuck in D Lot!

A guide to the Honorarium art and artists at Burning Man 2017. A great way to get fired up about the amazing art that's going to be on playa! Listen while you're packing, driving to Black Rock City, or just stuck in D Lot!

A guide to the Honorarium art and artists at Burning Man 2017. A great way to get fired up about the amazing art that's going to be on playa! Listen while you're packing, driving to Black Rock City, or just stuck in D Lot!

A guide to the Honorarium art and artists at Burning Man 2017. A great way to get fired up about the amazing art that's going to be on playa! Listen while you're packing, driving to Black Rock City, or just stuck in D Lot!