If we are to mimick a sustainable civilization, even for a brief time this needs visibility. Modern civilization (when early death is no longer a major factor in survival of the community and you don’t need 12 births just to stay even on population count) only starts when you are aware of such things. Most folks have forgotten (or don’t care to know) just how important that plumbing system design is in their home and elsewhere.

I think this is a teach-able moment. We have the technology, ready to be shared, duplicated and deployed.

http://www.evapotrons.info/

I’d read on eplaya that anything beyond a simple evap pool was probably not practical. And I just didn’t think any harder about it.

My bad.

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I absolutely needed to contact the default world on Friday. My dog was in boarding and wasn’t eating. I got a text message via the sketchy cell coverage, but outgoing was failing. The playaTel folks hooked me up with wireless access to Default so I could use my android Vonage app to call and get a status. If it weren’t for that, exodus for me would have been Saturday afternoon. Instead, I got good news that she did start eating and I could stay ’till Monday morn. (Woohoo!) And then I handed my phone to someone else that needed to call to status a sick family member. After, we were both in a really good place to continue our burn. And then I went to the Baba Deck. You would have though I had magnets in my pants. I couldn’t leave. The vibes were better there than anywhere else, for me. I found my tribe.

The playa is more than art and hedonistic pursuit. It is a community. With community needs. And sometimes the community needs technology to solve problems. I, for one would like to see better grey-water treatment capability. We could have been better stewards of the playa had there have been a “Grey-water Camp” and perhaps some sort of collection method. We would have been able to ameliorate some of the dust issues had we a supply of treated water to disperse on the roads. I’m pretty sure a lot of grey water went directly on the ground, untreated. I’d call that a preventable crime.

I digress.

I would have a vision for where this goes. All those (poorly bound) schedule books could have been replaced with a Playa-Wiki on local webservers and eliminated un-necessay MOOP. I think the Playa NEEDS a local net. It is the mode of today and the future. Technology != Default. I think that to evolve the playa for the next generations and reduce our footprint we should embrace modern solutions rather than reintroduce the luddite mindset. We owe it to the children of the playa.

PlayaTel is a proving ground for that community of the future. Less MOOP. More inter-connected. A robust framework of utility to call for volunteers in our times of need to accomplish critical community tasks in a timely fashion.

OK. I’ll step off my soapbox. But I’d rather spend days on the Baba Beck than even ten minutes at Moscone Center. That experience there had more meaning to me than even the Temple burn. And I found my tribe.

I can be reached on eplaya as Xdominant. Comments and even flames welcomed. But I doubt you could discourage my vision with even the best snark you can muster.

)’( – Xdominant

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Btw, echoing others, where does the YURT tour start?! We’ll be yurt-ing, too, so come check us out! Actually, we don’t know where we’ll be yet :)

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Sorry the formatting got a little screwed up.

To everyone who is debating whether Burning Man is like TED:

Now TED is at Burning Man!

http://www.tedxblackrockcity.com/

Events, presentations, and workshops all week!

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There is no spirituality, enlightenment or porta potty talk involved. I swear.

All cheetah, all the time.

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Title: Yurt Tours
Time: Monday 2pm
Description: Class discussion of history of hexayurts, building materials, design options, anchoring choices, doors and decorating! Followed by tour of several yurts including admission into several yurts – some of which are air conditioned!

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Also I assume you know how intertwined the history of acid and the history of tech in the Bay Area are intertwined?

Shame if you don’t know the roots of the culture you deride so easily…

Anyway…. my advice to you….unclench.

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