from June 10th to September 10th it's Expo 2017 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

You guys like fireworks? Check out the Light Show from the Opening Ceremonies. It's really very beautiful. But this video is making buzz as sharp-eyed web hounds noticed that the show is great but there's no one on the ground to watch it.

See if you can spot anyone at the fair. I threw this video on my big screen and I only saw a few people on the fairgrounds and I think they were all staff. As a matter of fact, there's hardly any traffic on the nearby roadways either. Does anyone live in Astana?

Beautiful Yes, but a light show over an empty fairground feels really creepy to me, like the set of a sci-fi/horror film.

The homepage is well constructed and if you're interested the hour long Opening Ceremonies video is up on YouTube if you want to get a sense of Expo 2017's theme - "the future of energy without fossil fuels".

The skill in composing many of the videos at the Expo 2017 Astana International homepage is outstanding. But those same videos beg a question:

Like the Circus, Expos are a holdover from another century. The purpose for International Expos can be accomplished without the need for vast fairground acreage or the construction of daring national pavilions.

2017 is half over, up next is 2018. What if it turned out that the Opening Ceremony video, and all the other videos are computer generated?  Take it a step further - does Astana actually exist?

Personally I have no objection to a VR International Expo. I look forward to sending my avatar to Expo 2020 at Tycho Basin  on the Moon's southern hemisphere, or the mountains of Mars, or the rings of Saturn.

Just a thought.