Burning Man 2017 was a celebration of life, and unfortunately a mourning of life as well. One attendee passed away after running directly into the flames of the main burn on Saturday night. The community was initially shook, but after coming together, and making the decision to move forward and heal, Burning Man has announced it's 2018 theme and it is uniquely specific.
The 2018 theme will be “I, ROBOT”. It also comes with some specific guidelines which the book and movie of the same name shared.
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
These principles center around the idea of how technology is starting to come ever more into the mainstream of the collective conscious of the world. Now that things are starting to become more automated, the question arises that who is truly in control? The humans or the machines we have created. Check out an expanded statement on the theme below. Check out the full article from the Burning Man Journal here.
This year’s art theme will focus on the many forms of artificial intelligence that permeate our lives; from the humble algorithm and its subroutines that sift us, sort us and surveil us, to automated forms of labor that supplant us. Are we entering a Golden Age that frees us all from mindless labor? Everything, it seems, depends on HMI, the Human-Machine Interface. In a world increasingly controlled by smart machines, who will be master and who will be the slave?
