Aspies For Freedom

Purpose of Document: 2
Introduction 2
Facilities: 3
Model one: Island 3
Power: 3
Underwater Cable: 3
Tidal 4
Solar 4
Wind 4
Water: 5
Piped in from external source: 5
Processed saltwater 5
Freshwater source 5
Waste 6
Internet 6
Satillite Uplink 6
Fiber 6
Education 6
Security 7
Transport 7
“Moving Paths” 7
Community segways/bicycles 7
Lighting 8
Always on streetlights 8
Contextual Streetlights 8
No lights 8






 

Purpose of Document:

To discuss the feasibility and implementation of creating an autistic utopia.

Reason

1. To promote discussion and potentially action

2. To review the technical, social and security issues faced


Introduction

Many people within the autistic community have raised the concept of creating an autistic prevalent community.
However, everyone has different ideas as to how this would be implemented. This document will discuss some of the most popular ideas, being:

“Infinity Island”
The concept of buying or otherwise securing an island, and creating a village or small town made up exclusively of people on the spectrum and their families, with guest facilities for those who do not wish to permanently dwell there.

“Autisticville”
The concept of creating a town or village made up predominately of spectrumites be it gated or open.

“Autisticend”

The concept of creating an autistic prevalent region or neighbourhood within an existing infrastructure.

About the Author
The author is known to forumites at Aspies for Freedom (http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com) as “Pikajedi”.  He is Male, Aspergian, and specialises in computer hardware. He was born in 1989, and lives in East Sussex, in the UK. He can be reached at ardjet4@hotmail.co.uk, if you wish to leave feedback then send an e-mail, with the subject being RE: Utopia.

Credits:
Erkolos from Aspies for freedom (henceforth AFF) for his input and feedback.
EvilZakkie from AFF for his input
Whoever came up with the idea for Infinity Island (sorry, I did look but couldn’t find a trace of it)


Facilities:

With any community, there are a few essentials:

Power
Water
Waste
Internet
Education
Security
Transport
Lighting



Depending on the model used, each method provides different challenges

Model one: Island

Power:
With an island, whilst it is possible to run an underwater power cable, this would be undesirable, for a number of reasons

1: Cost
Laying an armored underwater cable would require a great amount of funds, not only for the cable, but for the permissions, the laying equipment, and maintained
2: Maintanence
An underwater power cable would be extremely difficult to repair and maintain. Breakages would have to be fixed either by section, lifting out a damaged section and replacing it, or by divers.
In either case, power to the island would have to be suspended.


Underwater Cable:
An armored cable stretching to the mainland

Pros:
Access to the nearby national grid
Leaves more space on the island

Cons:
Would have to be completely shut down for repairs
Would make us dependant on our neighbors

However, as it is an island, other options are available:



Tidal
If the island is in a tidal area, then it would simply be a matter of emplacing the facilities.

Pros:
Free!
Quite efficient

Cons:
Would restrict waterborne access
Not a constant source


Solar
An intermittent powersource, and again, its usefulness depends entirely on location of the island.

Pros
Easily installed: simply place on roofs and “stalks”
Cheap

Cons:
Works only during the day
Dependant on good weather

Wind
For an island, this would not be a problem, and would make an excellent power source.

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,dependant on the wind

I have mentioned renewable sources only, as the islands self sufficiency would be extremely desirable:this will also drive down costs in the long run.

Water:
With an island,it would simply be a case of purifiying the existing supply,or,if we are lucky enough to have a fresh water supply,simply processing it


Piped in from external source:
Laying a pipe from the mainland to deliver water

Pros:
Guaranteed clean and drinkable
Guaranteed source

Cons:
Again,if a break occurs in the underwater pipe,then the whole island loses a resource
Expensive

Processed saltwater

Using a saline treatment plant to purify salt water

Pros:
As it is an island,the source would be nigh infinite

Cons:
Expensive to setup.
Am lead to belive is costly to run

Freshwater source
As unlikely as it is,it may be possible to find a freshwater source or spring on the island

Pros:
Would require little processing
Salable

Cons:
Highly unlikely



Waste
Waste would be a problem for an island,however.
It would be highly undesirable to run a sewage pipe out to the mainland;what happens if it breaks?
Obviously,it would need ridding of and processing off the island;if at all possible,it would be desirable to reclaim most of the water,and leave it as a mostly solid,as this will enable easier disposal.

Whilst the island would require cesspits ,would it be one under each house, each street, or one giant for the island?
What would happen with the mostly solid leftovers?
Would be worth looking into use as a fertilizer (hm,genuine Autism brand fertilizer…)for sale.


Internet

As many autistics spend a great deal of time on the internet,it would be vital that there was sufficient bandwidth

Satillite Uplink

This would be extremely expensive to setup,and would be dependent on there being a satellite overhead.

Fiber
Running a optical cable out to the mainland would probably be the best idea.however,this is runs into the same problems as the other underwater methods ie:breakages. However, it would provide a fast, reliable connection.
As for the actual computer hardware and network infrastructure,I may cover that later.



Education
Education is not something I am proficient at,and so will have input from other members of the community placed here.




Security
A discussion on Security was had on Aspies for Freedom; rather that paste sections of that debate, I feel it would be far more simple to just give a link.
http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...062&page=2

Transport

On an island, transport requirements would be minimal.
There would not likely be enough room for buses, or trains.

So, this leaves smaller scale transport solutions.

“Moving Paths”

A favorite of Sci-fi writers, on a small scale mobile pathways are feasible, if somewhat overkill.

Pros;
Free transport
No waiting
Easily accessed

Cons;
Always on;
noisy? Hazardous?
Power cost;
If we are based on an island, it would not actually be that much of a drain to rig up tidal energy to provide the driving force.
Economic costs;
It would be quite safe to assume that such a mechanism would be quite expensive to set up, and who would pay for its upkeep?

Community segways/bicycles

Segways, Bicycles and other man powered devices, available and free for anyone to use. Charging stations could be based along major areas.

Pros;
Easier to maintain than the pathways; if one fails, no need to take down the whole network or large sections thereof.

Cons;
Who would be responsible for the maintainence and repairs?
What would be in place to stop the theft of these devices.


Lighting

Would we have streetlights, or would we want to keep light pollution to an absolute minimum?

Always on streetlights

The bog standard lights you’ll see along any road.

Pros;
Tried, tested and proved.

Cons;
Light pollution

Contextual Streetlights

Streetlights that only turn on when appropriate IE; when motion is detected in the area, or someone is walking along a path that is likely to take them  near the light. Can be manually turned off by a button along the bottom, to allow for stargazing.

Pros;
Less light pollution
Cheaper to run?

Cons;
Potential for misuse
Potentially more likely to break?

No lights

Pros;
Much cheaper
No light pollution

Cons;
Not as safe
No lights.

Pikajedi, I don't have time right now to read this whole post but this bit caught my eye.  I know there was a very long thread on AFF a while ago about the ideal aspie school, you might want to have a look at that.  I can't find it for you right now but I might be able to later if you haven't found it by then.  It outlines most of the basics of what aspies want from a school and some more details as well.

this is a cool idea, but not very socially practical because things can be learnt from living with normal people. and we will probably get bombed. As ethnic clensing or somthing.

and there is the billion dollar question, the one I have been avoiding desperately.

at the moment, this remains an..intellectual exercise; obviously, the geography of the island, or the neighbourhood, or what have you, will drastically effect the layout of said commune.

but EZ....this is only the first model.

I still have to finish the new town concept, and actually START the neighbourhood one.

Ah, yes, I forgot to add- what about religious buildings?
Personally, I want to add a large, astronomically aligned stone circle; we'd also need a Synagogue, Mosque, and probably multiple churches.  That's just for starters...

My budget paper will be focusing mainly on infrastructure, residential and commercial concerns.

That's probably the best approach.  I was wondering about it because I'm going to be doing a sketch of the entire island as a bird's-eye view, and I haven't decided whether or not to put religious buildings on it.

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!)

no jobs out there...in the beginning.

I imagine that, to start with at least, it would be very cold tinned food, rationed luxury type thing, at least until the infrastructure is in place.

How about nanobots and computer turrets to protect the island from hostile NTs? I already have some rough designs and concepts prepared, I first developed them as I trudged through regular schooling in my much young years before I started to be homeschooled as I currently am. I think I just need some more development and then just the facilities to produce my inventions.

How do you get around the coast of this Island? May I suggest jet skis? Jet skis are the greatest form of water transportation.

I don't know how well this will be received, but would it be possible to have a colosseum in which we could have NT slaves battle each other. I'm just throwing that out there of course, slavery is generally unjust but if this is an AS utopia then surely we should be able to deal with NTs as we like in this utopia.