Aspies For Freedom

*grins* I've been looking at this all day, waiting until I had a chance to spend some proper times going through things...

Firstly, a couple of corrections:

First off, power (I'm an alternative energy nut):

Tidal:

Deep water tidal is actually a very constant source, if linked to the ups and downs of "high and low tide", rather than to actual waves. The idea is to funnel the raising and lowering of the ocean surface through a fan propelled by diagonal holes - the huge mass of the ocean pressing on the fan more than makes up for the lack of quick movement.

Also, offshore tidal generators would not restrict water access to a great extent - they can be several kilometers away from the mainland.

The cons are simply that due to the large forces involved, and the vagueries of the ocean (i.e. living creatures, sand particles, etc), lots of maintenance and parts replacement is needed.

So:

Pros:
Efficient, regular power.
Low environmental impact.

Cons:
labor intensive.
Requires frequent part replacement.


Wind, also, has the additional con of being extremely noisy, in large-scale wind farms, at least. So:

Pros:
Pretty much constant, as the wind coming off the sea/ocean would be a nigh guarantee
Free!

Cons:
Considered by some to be unsightly.
Is, again, dependent on the wind.
Noise pollution.



Now onto water.

Processing saltwater into fresh water is, unfortunately, very power intensive. If we're looking at renewable energy sources, it may not be possible.

You have, however, missed the simplest source of fresh water there is - [i]rain[i]. If we're designing this city from the ground up, it would be easy to pipe-connect all the roofs. No maintenance would be needed that wouldn't be needed with any other kind of water supply. The only downside would be extra tank storage space needed. So:

Pros:
Simple.
Not much extra cost to set up, as roofing and guttering needs to be built anyway.

Cons:
Extra water tank storage needed due to inconsistent supply.



Waste:

A simple solution is chemical toilets. Basically, it's a variation on the pit toilet, except that waste falls into a bacteria-laden box, where it is slowly converted into fertilizer over time.

Pros:
No complex treatment plant or sewerage system necessary.

Cons:
Need to be "switched" every two years or so.


There are also "backyard" versions of grey water treatment plants, but I'll leave someone more knowledgeable to sort out the pros and cons.


Internet:

As far as Satellite hookups go, if we've got a whole cities-worth of resources at our disposal, then we can damn-well launch our own satellite. Orbital objects cost around $400/kg to launch, but from what I've seen, the majority of that is labor costs and general bureaucracy - I had a look into the possibility of making and launching one a while back, but the other interested people became less interested when it started looking like work was involved, rather than just sitting around chatting about it.

Another option might be laser-hookup to the mainland, via several waystations - though I suspect that the satellite option would be cheaper. Laser's a decent intranet hookup option, though...



Education I have a huge number of ideas for, but I'll leave it 'til another day.



Transport:

A slightly simpler option than the moving pathways would be ski-lift style constructions - less moving parts than the pathways, cheaper to maintain.

To be honest, though, if we're talking a small island, my thought would be bicycles - with motorised transport available for those that need it.


Other sections needed are industry and politics.

Industry I'm thinking tourism, art, music, writing, server hosting, etc.

Politics is a harder one - it would really depend on the size of the place.

Some more food for thought...

*grins* That would be a good idea - wouldn't want to mix them up in design, then find out after construction...

As far as lights go, whichever style you go for, I say ditch the usual flourescents - those things are harsh. Perhaps long-life LEDs?

Contextual lighting's a good idea, but you'd need to work out electrical comparisons before picking it as the winner - motion sensors may be as or more draining than just leaving the lights on.

Also, you'd want some intentional dark areas that people could escape to - for special events, candlelit picnics, or just to get away...

My vote's on town - I'm trying to do that for real (timeframe 1-2 years), so I'd be very interested...

I like it - never heard of those before!

Just a thought - you could get a double-whammy effect by also collecting from wind variation, via different levels of "pulling" from the cable itself...

Agreed - this is something that can actually happen, so it should be treated as such. I'm probably as guilty as anyone of running with the fantastic ideas.

In the spirit of the above, I think some of the more fanciful options (satellite launching, moving walkways, etc) should probably be ditched, at least for now.

That being said, the biggest issue with getting this off the ground is finding interested people - and this document can probably help quite a lot with that. If we can map out a feasible self-sustaining community, further reduce it to a monetary figure (initial and maintenance costs), then map from this the business models necessary to cover this maintenance cost - this is the point at which people will become interested, and become willing to risk an investment (myself included - if this thing ever looks realistic and affordable, I'd be willing to put in a share).

For example, if it turns out to cost around half a million, it means we only need 10 people putting in $50,000 each. If we have a robust enough collective business model, 10 people could even do this on a loan.

This is where this document becomes useful.

Islands actually aren't too expensive - there's no jobs available on most, for one thing, which pushes the value down. Prices start from around $30,000, and a good-sized island can go from around $200,000.

Here's a few: http://www.privateislandsonline.com/

I think the million dollar islands are the "tropical paradise" ones, whereas all we'd need is general bushland.

As far as building costs, if we use alternative building materials such as papercrete, we can set things up quite cheaply - keep in mind that we don't really need a huge city to start off, as we're probably not going to have a huge amount of people willing to move there in the initial stages. I'm guessing about 10 houses or so should do it. I've had a pretty solid look into this (Me & Bella are trying to create a little self-sustainable property at the moment), and there's no reduction in the quality.

I tend to think donations will be difficult - some people will donate, and I think it's a good idea to set up a facility to let them, but I think it will be very difficult to convince people that a private island is a viable charity. Owning a slice of real estate that will quickly increase in value, however, is something many people would be interested in.

If marketed correctly, I think an autistic "resort" approach would cover costs - this means that people just wanting a holiday would be able to just hire a cabin, rather than having to help out with gardening & other jobs.

*grins* Yep - I even have a neighborhood picked out (Tabulam, NSW, Australia), and I have a goal to buy up property & move out there within the next 1-2 years. We're going to set up a little self-sustaining property, and we're still debating if we expand it out to create an autistic community. Either way, I'll be encouraging others to buy up property there & move out.

The town itself only has 150 people, so it shouldn't be too hard to take over, in theory. I work at the department of immigration, and I'm trying to figure out an easy way to set up a method of getting people visas... If there's enough of us, we can probably make an argument for "special purpose" visas.

Nah - no-one really knows if it will work or not yet. This thread's mostly about finding out.

I had a quick look through the article, though, and it sounds a lot more ambitious than what we're trying - there's no way we'd be able to plan to fit 100,000 people in a single self-sustaining building. Luckily, I doubt we'll need to.

Self-sustaining communities do exist, so it's a realistic possibility at some stage - we just have to work out if it will be within our budgets and resources in the near future.

I tend to think the neighbourhood idea would be easier. It's also less inspiring, though, which means less people will become involved, and will perhaps make it a less realistic option by virtue of that fact.

I'd be happy with either.

I just found one more "con" for wind power:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nSB1SdVHqQ

*grins*

Just thinking - this is probably a developed enough plan that we should start actually looking at costing plans... In the next day or so, I'll try to find some figures on building materials (probably the most important part).

Does anyone know any figures for other things on the list?

*grins* It's a deal...

I like the idea of the religious buildings all being grouped near one another; however, a circular design around a central park leaves out the option of a proper Druidic grove or a pagan Stone Circle (I'd be inclined to go with a stone circle surrounded by a sort of natural area, with many trees and small, secluded meeting places, as this will appeal to the widest possible range of pagans/other nature-lovers/New Agers/Buddhists).  Possibly a more organic shape, with room left for new buildings if a large enough population of residents request one?
I'll think more about this idea.

This is problematic for people like me, who want to be involved from early on but are absolutely dirt poor.  Perhaps in later stages we could have a system whereby skilled workers are given a house on the island free or at reduced cost in exchange for some invaluable job they can perform? (economics is not my strong point, so not sure if this would work out in the long run!)

Here's an unrelated idea that I've had buzzing around in my head:
Let's name the buildings, streets, plazas, etc. after famous and/or important people in the autism world.  We can have Baggs Street, Sinclair Plaza, Baron-Cohen Elementary School, Einstein School of Technology, etc.  And we can reuse names so we don't run out as quickly- I imagine there would be a Baron-Cohen Ave. as well.
Yes, it's a little silly, but I like it.  

Well, I think there should certainly be a "Pakrat Place" somewhere in all of this plan.