What if Kafka Was a Cyberpunk? (The Connection Between AI and Bureaucracy)
At the time Kafka wrote his infamous novels about human beings struggling to make sense of a world full of ...Read More
All posts by Caveat Magister
What Is It We Think Humans Can Do That Robots Can’t?
If this essay were a classic sci-fi script, then by the end the computer I’m writing it on would experience ...Read More
Why We Get the Robot Overlords We Deserve
Many months ago, while still developing this year’s theme, Larry Harvey began receiving a series of robocalls in which an ...Read More
The Parable of the Gift
The only thing I ever get for Christmas is depressed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about giving. For ...Read More
Frontiers of Decommodification: Video Games, Micro-transactions, and Authenticity
I’m not familiar with any serious schools of thought suggesting that Burning Man has much in common with video games. ...Read More
You Got Your Rules in My Freedom! You Got Your Freedom in My Rules!
I’d like to take a moment and pretend that Thanksgiving is the perfect time to talk about something that I ...Read More
This is Not the Utopia You’re Looking For
“Transformational experiences” are bullshit, and Burning Man doesn’t change a damn thing. I’ve spent the other posts in this series ...Read More
Why Am I Still Here? The Ties That Bind Us to Black Rock City
Back when I was only four Black Rock Cities in, I’d overhear people who were in their 15th, 16th, year ...Read More
What If, after 10 Years of Really Trying, I Still Suck at a Principle?
It’s time to admit the truth: I suck at Radical Self-Reliance. It’s really bad. I went to my first Regional ...Read More