I'm happily living under the radar in Mexico in early retirement. Wouldn't want to move to cold climate. If people are going to live happily, it should be in a place where neither heating or cooling is required (or at least not much). Ecuador would probably leave you alone.

I am just wondering how the gulch would handle and if they would welcome older members who have no particular skills. Willing to work but not a past "affluent" member of society.

Love the idea!. I volunteer any skill I have: writing, publishing, gardening, retail, easy sewing (so not a tailor!), medical, cooking, could raise some chickens...What are we looking at for storm activity/extremes in climate, etc? And what will we use for currency--will we need it?

I suspect you are correct.

Australian gun ownership is very restricted. Canada is too. NZ offers more freedom. None of these countries are even close to the USA.

Nonsense, it's already being done.

Yeah, 3D printing is going to have to go nanoscale before it becomes genuinely useful. And by that time, replacement organ printing. Which means, as long as the brain holds out, immortality becomes real - to those with the budget.

It will happen. There are challenges. Crystal structure and bond arrangement. These factors control elasticity, hardness, and strength of steels.

Pitcarin Island is one mile by two miles.

It is now on my wish list.

Dams & what-not can create surface water storage like we do in California, but you are billions of dollars and billions of tons of concrete short of doing something like that.

Required reading: Island by Thomas Perry
http://www.amazon.com/Island-Thomas-Perr...

All the basics involving the siting of a community in 'international' waters are covered from planning, first drop of landfill, maintaining sovereignty, attracting interesting people, dealing with nearby countries... right up to a hostile invasion! It's all here and is a surprisingly readable, riveting adventure.

I gather the nearest authority, above the mayor, is the government of New Zealand. Wouldn't New Zealand law govern in that case?

"Yet" being the operative word :)

Indeed, if somebody were willing to throw a lot of money at the problem, they could build themselves a good sized artificial harbor. In fact, all they'd really need is a large floating dock (assuming some way to pull it onto shore during storms). The problem, of course, is that an island that can only support a few hundred people isn't worth the trouble.

Every solution I can think of for a small island would work better for a floating seastead city.

Both Canada and Australia allow guns; in fact, Canada scrapped their handgun registration system after it turned out to cost more and do less than promised. I'm not sure about NZ.

Certainly Britain does not try to control what "Commonwealth" countries do very closely, or Pakistan wouldn't still be a member.

3D printing of metals is not practical yet.

The UK would gladly sell the Falklands to Argentina. Problem is the Falklanders are more British than the British.

My guess is private gun ownership is outlawed.
They are British.

If the UK was willing to send their navy and air force to Falklands to keep the Argentines out, they may well be willing to do the same here.

That's hard to judge until/unless we see what *kind* of sentience artificially intelligent beings develop; emotionality versus intelligence; what kind of philosophies and convictions they subscribe to, what kind of aspirations they form.

If you can get enough pure water and the needed nutrients.

Pretty soon the robots won't see the need for humans. See Isaac Isamov.

How many weapons do those fifty islanders possess among them?

It might be wise to think about what they are going to do about us.