So Burning Man’s Larry Harvey passes away. He was 70 years old. But what does this Burning Man concert promoter has to do with IT service and technology? More than we think. Because relations between Silicon Valley and Black Rock City is closer than we think.
Burning Man started in San Francisco started in 1986. So before it became a concert, it became a movement of tech innovation. Then, in the early 1990s, they moved to Black Rock City, Nevada. Harvey helped facilitate that move. He did this because he wanted to escape distractions. That way, radical ideas could flow. Even today, tech leaders attend burning man every year. These include small business starters to executives from Google, Facebook and Tesla. In 2004, to create a thinking person’s environment, Harvey came up with ten rules of Burning Man.? Notice how many times he mentions the word ‘radical’ in those rules.
Now, around 70,000 attend Burning Man every year. Furthermore, some of tech’s biggest advancements has ties to this festival. They conducted some of the first self-driving car tests here. The LED tech heads light sculptures there. Last year, they used the Apple ARKit to map LED leaves. You also had the Google SkyBox Imaging satellites. They showed off their new aerial imagery. So here’s another cool thing about Burning Man. No money is allowed, and Harvey saw to it no money was allowed. This forced people to be not only self-reliant, but equal to each other.? Here, the tech billionaire was no better than the struggling tech employee.
This breaks down a lot of barriers and pride, and it causes many IT support ideas to flourish. Before I read about Burning Man’s Larry Harvey passing away, I had crazy notions about Burning Man. I thought it was some modern day combination of Woodstock and Hedonism II. I thought it was some party place where all things debauchery went. But now I know that’s not what Harvey’s legacy intends to happen. Harvey meant for burning man to be a community of freedom and ideas, not an endless spring break party. Have you ever attended Burning Man? If so, then what are some of your memories?