Whatever embers may still be left burning from the original spirit of Burning Man are holding on for dear life as Silicon Valley tries to put them out for good. The latest dagger delivered to the Bohemia turned billionaire LARPing event comes from above, as Elon Musk’s Starlink is now providing internet connection to those in attendance, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A Burning Man regular named Kevin LeVezu, a photographer, runs a camp at the temporary city called iForgot. This year, he’s introduced a new feature at the outpost: WiFi. With a Starlink terminal, he’s set up internet access that requires attendees to offer a sacrifice if they want to use it. According to WSJ, one day, Burners had the option of either taking a shot of whiskey or getting spanked before accessing the internet—a price that was apparently paid frequently.
The idea of disconnecting at Burning Man had diminished well before LeVezu’s hotspot popped up, since cell service started reaching the remote parts of the Nevada desert. In 2018, SFGate ran a story about Burners lamenting the fact that cellular reception had gotten so good, resulting in people FaceTiming during the final ceremony and playing Pokémon Go during the day. There were even companies back then that were offering 4G LTE internet hubs to attendees so they could stay connected.
But the Starlink satellites really put a damper on the idea of getting away, leading people to gather in the desert not to be together, but to scroll. LeVezu told the Journal that one person was spending five hours per day at his camp, using the Starlink connection to run his business remotely.
The reality is that whatever connection Burning Man once had to radical principles of inclusion, self-reliance, and self-expression began rotting away when the Silicon Valley ilk started showing up and co-opting the whole thing, turning it into a luxury event that costs thousands to attend and has created an entire micro-economy around it.
Musk once said that Burning Man “is Silicon Valley.” Tyler Winklevoss called his time at the event “a spiritual experience.” Mark Zuckerberg flew in via helicopter, which should tell you just how well he understood the concept. All of these guys left the event founded on the idea of decommodification to run multibillion-dollar operations that have pushed long-time residents out of their homes, rely on cheap and exploitative labor practices, and destroy land and the environment in the name of “progress.” They are not fit for the Orgy Dome, may it rest in peace.