filkertom | A Three-Hour Tour

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A Three-Hour Tour

Every now and again, I mention my ultimate Lottery dream: buying an island somewhere, building up some infrastructure, and moving my family and a whole bunch -- three to five hundred -- of my friends there with me. Just getting us the hell away from everything.

It would never work, of course. There are too many technical problems, potential legal difficulties, and supply problems to overcome. Not to mention the existence of pirates, various naval forces with weapons tests, and the occasional tsunami.

Besides, Cthulhu's alarm clock might be about to go off.

This does not mean that I'm the only person to think like this. And now some ultra-rich doof is trying it. They're supposed to be little libertarian petri dishes, where a man can truly be free.

Good luck with that.

I figure that, in a few years, these little Time-Share 2020s will have been picked clean and abandoned, and maybe then we can go out there and rehab 'em.

Meantime, I'm saving up toward a missile silo.

What's your ultimate personal fortress? How detached from civilization do you wish to be? In my case, not much at all, thank you -- but I do want a nice, tornado-and-nuke-proof haven. (Seanan, don't you even think about all the ways you could mess me up with virii. I don't get enough sleep as it is.)

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Omfg, I read about that a couple years back. Peter Thiel, tool for all seasons.

I can't wait to find out what happens when the libertarian islanders realize they can't grow their own food or generate enough energy to keep themselves in the comfort they think they deserve.

Best comment I've seen on the libertarian paradise project so far is from John Cole: "When I think of building a permanent floating city in the middle of the ocean, I know the first thing that comes my mind is really loosening up building standards." (http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/08/16/ship-of-fools-no-really/)

Top comment ... Great! A do it yourself 'Lord of the Flies' kit.

Taking Seanan with you should be a simple way to keep her from messing with you.

As for my personal fortress. I have always wanted to own a large-ish warehouse with living space for myself and my family and a bunch of friends. With rehearsal spaces, a movie theater and a gym (including a basketball court)

Being of the Leave Me the Hell Alone, Dammit School, that sounds like hell on earth to me. Although I wouldn't mind an island for the reasons set forth in my first sentence. And I like a nice island, with a place to snorkel.

This is my favorite part of the article:

"no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

Yeah, that's what you want way out at sea after you've cut all ties to civilization, loose building codes. And those people you bring in to do the mundane chores for pennies a day, they can buy all the guns they want to rob you with, unless you spend all your money on security. And after your money's gone you won't have welfare to help you out, but by then your home will be falling apart and sinking because of the looser building codes.

Yup, typical libertarian thinking. Hope they all move there so they'll stop messing up our country.

My personal fortress would be a neighborhood with a good amount of food shops (there _must_ be a cheese shop! And bakeries, chocolate cafe, a charcuterie, made from scratch candy/dessert store, a good deli or two, etc.), several good eateries, enforceable noise laws, low or no rent for friends and artistic types (especially filkers), at least two public maker spaces, several taverns with live filk performances, open gaming areas with comfy chairs, pedestrian-centric streets, open areas for food carts, art, performances, creative projects, what have you, state-of-the-art internet and wifi everywhere so people can work at home, a few studios for recording or filming.

Would this protect me from the zombie apocalypse? No. In a nuclear war it would be blown away in seconds. But it would sure save me from the everyday grind and depression that's going on.

TARDIS. A nice, well-lived-in, old-model (i.e., absolutely indestructible and impregnable and not penetrable by a ship's prow under any circumstances) TARDIS.

Doors? What doors? Oh, those doors. Behind the bookshelves. Never needed 'em.

I'm slowly turning our suburban home into a personal fortress. We have a 4Kw/hr solar array on the roof (our last 3 power bills from CoCalEd have been under $10, for city fees). I'm learning how to get an aquaponics rig set up, so we can have our own fresh veggies and fishies. I might eventually get a few chickens for fresh eggs (and the occasional chikkin stu), but I don't think we're ever going to be all that far from civilisation. I'm just happy enough with minimising the earthquake-ness.

I'm not going to try to work out the practicalities, but there is a very nice island in the south end of Puget Sound called Squaxin Island. The story is told that when the white man and the Northwestern Indians were working out their treaties (with the white man, who had the guns, telling the Indians what they had to accept) the Squaxin tribe got their island; but recently, I looked up the wikipedia article, and found that Squaxin Island is now uninhabited. I wanna go there!

Nate

Between this and the news that the wealthy are arming their yachts (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/07/06/security.yachts.pirates/index.html), it's making me think there's a great future in piracy.

Gosh, imagine if they'd spend some of that money on positive social change.
Hey, you guys know all that stuff you hear about how we musn't tax the job creators? This's what they're doing with the money we don't take in taxes and NONE of it goes back in to jobs or the economy here. Since Thiel works in investment, that means he likely only paid FIFTEEN PERCENT. So if he'd paid at, say 30%, less than most of us, that's a few billion extra we'd have to pay for stuff we need instead of island fantasies. The plane, boss, the plane!!

Impractical as it'd be, I've wanted a nice underground bunker for a good while.

I just want my own private hotel/lodge on a big chunk of land in Northern Michigan with a square-mile grassy rocket-flying field, a solid mile light-pollution buffer, carefully placed telescope pads power and couple observatory domes, one with a long 12-inch refractor, and one with a big light-bucket reflector. Yeah, and a few nice outdoor firepits for campfires. Inside, Enough bedrooms rooms for a filk convention and for NARAM, and for a big star party, several octagonal filk rooms, including one with a dome and a planetarium projector that can be concealed under the floor, as well as a well-equipped shop for the modelers and telescope makers. Oh, and my own private train shuttle to the nearest airport for use by guests.

If we're going for anything goes, I'd like to live in the City of the Saved (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/City_of_the_Saved).

This is not the first time this has been attempted.

It doesn't occur to these idiots that if they are outside the jurisdiction of any government, they are also outside the *protection* of any government.

And if, say, Albania decides they want the "island" or something on it, they'll just sail up a destroyer or two and *take* it.

If they attempt to arm their island to resist that sort of thing, the weapons will either be inadequate or violate arms export laws, which will get them an unfriendly visit from the Navy of one of the major powers.

Me? I've played around with ideas on and off for years. To start with, I'd need a section or two (a section is a one-mile square of land that's one of the basic units that land is divided into most of the US).

The section(s) would have to be in the right sort of terrain and climate (I want some woods, but need a "meadow" occupying most of the central area).

Underground "house" built around a central "well". And provisions to close the well with something approaching blast doors.

Other likely features are a raised berm (made to look like a natural rise) surrounding the well at a distance. Possibly waterfall feature down one side of the well.

Near the edge of the property would be the "garage" (built into the side of a mound, that again would be made to look natural on at least the side(s) visible from off the property.

And the utilities would enter at a similar "mound".

Part of the idea for those garage/utilities "mound" is that it's really *hard* to vandalize something like that.

Connections to the house would be underground, and if possible, be large enough to walk thru. The heck with having to dig things up for repair. Just walk down the service tunnel and open the conduit.

I figure the kitchen, dining room, living room and bedrooms would all open onto the well. Have a corridor around them, and things like storage, laundry room, etc on the outer side of the ring corridor.

Terrain gets a bit tricky because there needs to be someplace *lower* than the bottom of the "well" to drain things to.

Maybe someplace on the rim of the Columbia Gorge or the like?

You know, my ideal place to live would be something very much like what we've got now except

1) it would have solar cells on the roof.
2) it would be more than one story (same square footage is fine; well, okay I wouldn't mind having the boatshop be a bit bigger) but divvied up into two stories.
3) it would be in some magic City Where All My Friends and Family Live.

Sigh. It's 3 that is really the kicker, isn't it? I guess I'll just have to make do with the Internet.

Well, tornado-proof is easy. Just build where there aren't tornadoes. Like, oh, say, the Pacific NorthWet! Nuke-proof, a little more difficult. Missile silos are nukeproof, yes, but they're sterile, often remote, and ... not very cheery. Wait, same approach: Go where they're not gonna nuke! Like, oh, say, southern Oregon? OK, if you're gonna go that area, you also have to consider volcanoes. (Earthquakes are a non-issue, just build on something *solid*. During the Nisqually quake, the places that had problems were places on fill, like, oh, say, Pioneer Square. Places like Ballard, just a few miles away, built on natural ground? Especially stick-built Craftsman homes? *no problem.*

So dig thee a hobbit hole into the side of a hill, maybe just bore out the whole hill, carefully - 'cause you'll want south-facing for solar power and gardening, and north-facing for people in the summer and for cooling... East and West for partial sun kinds of things.

I think I know just about where to put it. Someplace that would make Seanan very happy.

I am periodically tempted by a cohousing scheme using an old motel, ideally a "suites" motel (sitting room/kitchenette, bedroom, bath) that forms an L or U around a restaurant / courtyard. Divide the restaurant into cooking/eating space, TV lounge, gaming and/or music areas. Folks could decide whether to buy 1 suite or 2 and remodel...

I wish them luck and hope they succeed in building it. The R&D costs will drain a few bank accounts and put the money back into the economy and the spin-off technologies and discoveries will benefit everyone. Plus watching it fail will help us build one that actually works and the world will have solid proof that libertarianism doesn't work.

How do I know it will fail? Well loose building codes will mean shabby construction and when the first "big" storm hits, it's disaster movie time! On top of that one of the biggest risks is fire. Again the slim building codes will mean someone will decide to skimp on sprinklers. It won't matter how well YOUR house is built when your neighbor is The Towering Inferno. Almost forgot, no government "controls" means no government protection. So a bunch of pirates or even a bunch of gangbangers with a boat can just take over. Yeah, the residents may be better armed, but which side has more experience in actual combat. Providing your own military is expensive and when the shit hits the fan, I think most guards would save their own skins.

Now for my own personal fortress, there's this house in a cul de sac in my neighborhood that would work. It's on a hill with a pond behind it. I'd double the strength of the foundation, make sure it's water tight with an escape tunnel out near the pond. The outer walls will be secured with metal plating under the siding. Floors would be secured too. I'd have a shed attached to the house by a covered hallway with a generator for power outages. Not only would I be secure, but the house would be out of the way in a maze of streets giving me a certain amount of invisibility.

Now about PayPal, I don't know much about it, but AFAIK it doesn't actually produce anything. It makes money by shuffling around funds in banks and living off the interest. I like PP because it's convenient, but that's it.

I want a Hobbit Hole. With metal covers that can slide over the windows in case of Zombie Attack.

... I have a degree in Architecture. It's possible.

Oh I cannot WAIT till these spoiled little white boys who've never noticed their own privilege their whole lives (98.6% of all libertarians) get a clogged toilet - and there are no invisible brown/female/poor minions to magically swoop in and unclog it for them at below-minimum wage.

Or when these libertoofs look around their island paradise and realize there are two whole women on the island (and they're both getting the hell out of Dodge, thank you very much).

I've never thought about this. I'd probably scout out Route 66 for someplace where the land is cheap, the infrastructure is still there, and I don't have to go too far to get groceries. And I wouldn't build a fortress, although I might want to grow two rows of bushes, with a Jersey barrier between them.

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