Let's start a town/country/colony.

[Jenkins]

you kidding me? fine ill just secretly leave everyday and go penguin hunting. i still demand my whale steaks cooked in seal grease >.<

also i believe we should have an airforce base next to us. you know, those AC-130's and a-10 thunderbolts make GREAT hunting/ defence planes

 

[Anarchemitis]

Okay how much money does everyone have, we have got to start building this place

Lemme see... I got my debit card, and I have about $200 on it and another $700 in my savings acoount, but we can't use that lest I get dinged for $5. With my blackmail stuff, I could probably hustle another $3000 and that helicopter I imagine I still have could fetch another $50,000...

 

[beemoh]

I've always dreamed of designing a city on an artificial gridwork.

A grid section would be say whatever 1 city block would measure, perfectly square. Roads between the grid squares would be the foundation of the whole design. Under the road would run all amenities (power, water, fiberoptic cable), and an underground road underneath that, for service access to fix any problems. Each road intersection would also be a junction for the amenities running below, each junction would connect to the four quarter-grids diagonal to the junction. Thus you could simply turn on and off a quarter of a city block without interrupting service elsewhere, and failure in one junction would only affect 1/4 of four different grids. With the grid BEING a grid in design, the downed junction wouldn't block anything else because service would just re-route around the down unit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes#Urban_design

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I forward the motion to name it "Awesometopia".

Seconded. Oh Dear God seconded.

I also like the idea of a massive palace. Preferably one that can fire its lasah, or some other defensive technique against the inevitable zombie/alien/other video game bad guy onslaught.

About the funding, I've got about £2500 readily available and 8p in my pocket.

 

[Zemalac]

My choice would be a mostly-underground lair. It would need a gigantic underground room with catwalks, lasers, large and heavily armed men standing guard, and probably robots. The aboveground part of it would be a large palace-like compound made of white marble, with very tall towers connected by arial walkways. The tallest tower would have an airship mooring dock and huge windows. This would all be on top of a reasonably tall mountain, tall enough to get a good view but not so tall that it's perpetually frosty.

If I were to design an entire city, I would indulge my taste for fantasy architecture. Terraces, arches, flying buttresses, arial walkways, towers, waterways/fountains, and elevated roads would play major roles. The ground would be pleasently shaded because of my tendency to build infrastructure at a lot higher than ground level. At the center of the city would be a giant tower with--this is important--a mooring dock for gigantic airships. Because I like airships. Everything that could possibly be built out of white marble or similar stone would be.

So that's what my city would be like. Not, perhaps, the most practically designed city in the world, but one that would look the coolest.

 

[Sylocat]

I'm actually considering writing a mystery series (or an ARG) dealing with just such a community, set up outside of society's rules.

Okay, thinking practically about how to make an efficient community, it would sadly have to be exclusive. Perhaps even invitation-only, since that's the only way I can think of to be sure and keep out the jerkwad dregs of humanity that screw up the rest of the world. Also, there would be no elections, since America's electoral history has proven beyond a doubt that people have no interest in voting for anyone who is actually capable of governing competently. The whole thing would be controlled by a small hand-picked circle of officials.
I believe in states' rights, and that variety is the spark of growth, so perhaps there would be several small mini-communities, each with their own separate government, interacting with one another. If there were tensions between factions, they would be mediated nonviolently, but not entirely quelled, as competition is the instigator of many advances. I imagine many quarrels would be settled via game tournaments.
I could go on, but it would get long-winded and I'm starting to sound like Andrew Ryan. ^_^; Let me just mention clean energy sources and an economy based primarily around art, and doing away with the public school system and founding a new educational structure.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

who here is extremely epic at coding. because before we form this we should make an MMO just for the escapists to try it out that would be awesome

 

[Anarchemitis]

I've always dreamed of designing a city on an artificial gridwork.

Words

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes#Urban_design

Hah! Mine's better, I run utilities and roads under my roads, and the grids are smaller units.

It hasn't been proven but it is a very feisably true theory:
A city without roads. Make the entire city's transportation a large and well-designed mass-transit system, like subway or a sky-train monorail. The construction and maintenance savings alone would justify it, not to mention the reduction of pollution.

 

[TheKnifeJuggler]

I've always thought a community with zero light pollution would be a good idea...

One that still remained active during the night.

 

[Saskwach]

I could wrangle up ~$5000 from various sources if my demands were met. What those demands would be I have no idea, but goddamn I'll come up with some.
Edit: Demand 1: All citizens shall be given the initial supplies and training to maintain a small vegetable garden and/or chicken coop.

 

[fat american]

My colony would be floating in outerspace. The colony would basically be a huge space ship capable of traveling from galaxy to galaxy in a few minutes. And with enough energy. Hop from universe to universe. Even create new ones if we really needed to. The colony would also have the ability to land and take off from planets at will. There would be no need for prisons because if you commited a serious enough crime, out the airlock with you. For lesser crimes, hous arrest with no electricty except for vital things. The colony would have room to grow but would start off the size of LA and NY combined. There would be a smaller farm colony that was tethered to the larger colony. This is to avoid contaminants from getting into the food and for better purer food.

 

[Jenkins]

i dont think you guys understand. what jenkins says is what jenkins goes (wait..) and i say vostok station. if my penguin shooting range is not met. there shall be dire consiquences

 

[Niniux]

I think Geo-thermal heating and Solar/Wind/Hydro power is a must. A good Geo-thermal vent could supply enough heat during the Winter months that having a good-sized greenhouse would be feasible. Are there many vegetables that can grow with a modest amount of sunlight (IE ~8 hours during the peak of Winter)?

I like the idea of no roads and just internally built mass transit, augmented by sidewalks. All of this would be shielded from the elements by glass. Maybe we could even construct our utopia in such a way that in the event of some type of catastrophe, we could completely air-tight seal it off from the elements.

We'd also have to run some high quality fibre optic line out to this place for decent internet connection, as satellite internet is not really great yet. And, sure, we'd have a great intranet, but we'd want to keep tabs on those silly outsiders and laugh at the follies of the outside world.

I do believe we would have to have some sort of weapons as well. Defense is something that is important. I believe that anyone who wants to be part of this utopia should have a year or two of mandatory military/policing training and work.

I picked Canadian climate in around Alberta just because it wouldn't be terribly expensive (Well, as long as it's far away from major city centers in Alberta since prices have sky rocketed). There's a good amount of wind. There are hot springs and such. If someone can find a cheap tropical island, we could do that too. Build our community partial submerged off of an atoll or something.

 

[Omnidum]

To keep all the unnecessary journalists out: A HUGE forcefield.

What should the authority be? And where should we put the BanHammer?

 

[stompy]

I've read enough Orwell and Huxley to know that there is no utopia.

That goes without saying. Of course, you shouldn't believe something just because it's in a novel; even a good novel.

No, but it gels with my own observations of human behaviour and society. But, again, I understand what you're saying. Thanks.

 

[Jack Sheehan]

I would create a huge fascist Police-state with Jackbooted Thugs on each street corner. Anyone disagreeing with the rules would be mercilessly sent to Gulags (in Westmeath).

 

[Saskwach]

I would create a huge fascist Police-state with Jackbooted Thugs on each street corner. Anyone disagreeing with the rules would be mercilessly sent to Gulags (in Westmeath).

So... no changes need to be made to Westmeath then?

 

[Jenkins]

but.... oh fine. be that way khell.... i guess ill resort to shooting polar bears and puppies.....