From: JTS - MCDLXXXVI (jts7@duke.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 15 2001 - 08:38:43 PST
> Government is our main concern.
...as well it should be.
> We really want to run as our own govt.
...which is really hard to do.
> We feel we have good ideas about
> how a group of people should interact, and feel that it is within our
> rights to demand the trust of a government to allow us to do so
> self-sufficiently.
Good luck. Even the French might not just be willing to let you slouch off
with an island. Even if you do, your "independance" will have to be
continually bought with bribes official and unofficial if you really want to
operate with autonomy. Oh, and it will be subject to immediate revocation if
your island ever becomes of "strategic" significance. Show me a few examples
of countries giving away prime real estate. Who woulda thunkit that there'd
be a war over the Falklands? I'd give you a lot better chances if you just
squatted on some rocky spar in the north atlantic.
Also, be careful what you ask for, neh? Possible that (as elsewhere
noted) some gang of <national identity> Thugs will decide that the smancy
island full of potsmoking geeks with giant hubs and cool computers is a
good place to go rob. Or maybe just hang out there for a few years. If
you get "independence", how on earth is this utopian commune going to
handle the problem? I figure SOME government is going to get a call
about that, unless you just want to have a private merc force on retainer
for those situations. Maybe you can buy a time-share option on some
outfit in the Congo.
> Products: These will be the yummiest, most desired vacation experiences
> encountered. (:
> 1. Family: $lotsofdough
> 2 br, 2 hrs tennis per day, children and adults, crochet,
> horseback riding, swimming, movies
> 2. Adult (other side of the island, or maybe another): $lotsmore
> 1 br, 1 hr/day weight training, 5/week hrs sailing, horseback
> riding, 5 hrs/week,
> swimming
> You get massages here like you get salads, they come with anything you
> order.
Great idea. Maybe Disney can do it. Question: who is going to supply
these services on Geek Island? You planning on having the residents
schedule it all in?
- 6 hours open source coding
- 10 min network maintenance
- 1.5 hours "daily attitude adjustment"
- 2 hours toilet scrubbing/housing managment
Or will Geek Island be a paradise for residents, paid visitors, and just
not the Hired Help - the second class citizen sect of servants, if you'll
allow an alliteration?
> But it's really not that damned expensive to communize it, is it?
Except perhaps in lives.
> Since this can be interpretted so many different ways, it forces the
> goveernment to look at things from more of a microscopic aspect.
I can think of very few situations where having the microscopic attention
of the government is a desirable state. If you're going to really try to
"communize" it, maybe you should make the first order of business the
institution of immigration laws and a population limit on the island.
Please, try. I've thought the various imaginings of such endeavors never
captured the truth of them, so I'd like to see how a real world example
degenerates from idealism to realism, and how far that degeneration
damages the experiment.
JTS
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