An (Urban) AS Community?

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I would expect that any AspieBURG community would be in an enviroment with functioning law enforcement and legal enviroment. Law Enforcement in such locations is presumably quite capable of dealing with the hypothetical situations offered above.

In the detailed hypothetical example offered above, the individuals commited at least 4 crimes even before they get to the diner, where they then wait for an hour, quite possibly in full view of security cameras.

I can see it being a lot like Tokyos Akihabara district only with legalized marijuana and being located somewhere in silicon valley or in San Francisco.

Re. bully tourism, you're presupposing that Aspies are defenceless and incapable of sticking up for themselves. Maybe they are, at the moment; if so, that's something that definitely needs working on, regardless of whether AspieBURG/Acres gets built.

But as AgentPalpatine points out, there will still be law enforcement, and I'm fairly certain attacking someone and throwing their chess pieces everywhere counts as assault.

Here is another idea... how about we start with AspieMatrix first?

We could create a business online and run it remotely as a team... then when we gain money and decide what we want to do we can take our business to a physical location and start building from there.

I am all for AspieBurg or Aspie Acres but I could see someone donating land before they donate a building.. but I could be wrong.. we wouldn't know until we tried. If we start an online business we could buy whatever we want though.

I think the key to making this work though is to look at people on the autism spectrum as a asset that no one is mining.... We need to get all these autism spectrum people and find their genius and it will make us all successful and benefit the world, too. Think of it like human bitcoining.. haha

If you're refering to Aghogday's "matrix" concept, his description does veer more towards what is taking place today, without a physical (offline) location. Given the amount of disatisfaction expressed here on WP alone, I'm not sure many people are thrilled with that approach.

The advantage of at least an early-stage AspieBURG is that it does'nt "rely on the kindness of strangers", in that it can be self-financed. It's a very competive world for donations, and it's a lot easier to get a donation when the donor sees that there is already something tangible taking place. To use a very relevant example, Arcosanti, which does exist, took years to scrape together the donations to build out it's (current) structure, but donations were much easier with a functioning location.

That example assumes one goes down the "non-profit route", which is not the only route available.

I think there may have been a miscommunication here. I don't know what this is - Aghogday's "matrix"

I was just trying to differentiate from the city and the country and thinking that it might be best to start on the internet with a business and then have it grow from there. Then we build our online business and then use that business to initiate a physical community somewhere. This way we don't need donations from anyone initially and we can start employing aspies immediately. This could help our group stay together rather than be separated by having to have employment outside of the group, if we can't get the donations necessary now.

This would also avoid that problem of not getting people to move to a new city initially.



I wonder if we could contact these people and have them help us start our own community? I will research that more and see how it might apply to our situation. I still have a ton of catching up to people like you who have been working on this so long already.



I like the profit route... I think the AS community has so much to offer.. and we could use all that earning potential to help people in our community who might not be able to help themselves initially or even permanently.

I can't fit in with any of the neurotypical groups.

Great minds think alike.....aghogday refered to a concept that was close enough to what we were discussing that I thought you were refering to it. http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt228582.html (The Broader Amish Autism Phenotype vs. The Autistic Matrix)

So is the community based on capitalism or socialism?

It's really weird, the more I am here in this community the more I see eerie similarities to myself in how many other aspies think. It's a new and exciting experience.. haha

I think it should be based on capitalism... the reason I think this is because I think aspies are a completely untapped resource... and it's possible that if we do this right we could really blow the neurotypicals out of the water in many different fields... I mean in a ridiculously extreme way. I view it as mining gold though... you have to go through a lot of work and possible failure and frustration to get to the gold.

I think we'd also need some kind of a new immigrant orientation program, so get people acclimated to living in Aspie Acres/Aspie Burg. After all, after many years of living in mainstream NT communities, full of confusing social rules, bullying, etc., people will not instantly be able to living in an aspie community, where all social rules are laid out, and where no one will be bullied in school for wearing out-of-fashion clothes. They will need to be taught how to live in such a community.

To use a real-life example, Israel had it in some form since 1948. It's called Ulpan, an "immigrant absorption program". Traditionally, it was done on a kubbutz, a dedicated farming commune, not unlike Aspie Acres. People lived on a kibbutz in free housing, had free food, kids went to school, and in exchange, everybody, except little kids and the very old, were required to do some type of work. Whether it's writing reports to submit to the Israeli government or cleaning tables in the cafeteria, everybody had some type of job. They also received job training and Hebrew lessons from visiting teachers, for when they move out of the kibbutz and into a regular apartment. (Houses are rare in Israeli cities, most people live in apartments.) In the last 30 years, the kibbutz program was heavily reduced, in favor of city-based Ulpan programs. People's apartments are subsidized and they receive financial aid for food and daily living. In return, they're required to take Hebrew lessons, job training, and attend immigrant support groups at their local Ulpan office, and possibly work at some type of training-level job.

If we ever get this Aspie Burg community (it's preferred over Aspie Acres by a big margin) actually up and running, we'll need a similar program for Aspie Burg. After all, someone who spent their entire lives memorizing NT communication scripts, dodging bullies, and struggling to act "normal", will experience massive culture shock after moving to Aspie Burg. They will not instantly stop putting on a fake smile, spewing out "fine" when asked "how are you?", and trying hard not to "walk funny" (as NTs describe it), the minute Border Patrol stamps their passport and says "welcome to Aspie Burg". By continuing to act NT as they were accustomed to doing their whole lives, they'll just find themselves in the same situation as in the mainstream NT communities. Some form of an immigrant absorption program will be necessary. On that note, some briefing for tourists, like a 1-hour class, will help too, to prevent them from acting in ways that offend aspie residents. And it'll provide a hassle factor for visitors that'll reduce the frequency of bully tourism. Everybody wins.

Last edited by Aspie1 on 09 Jun 2013, 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Aspie1, you bring up so many great points. Do you know anyone who has lived in those kibbutz's? I think it could be great to use that as a model and having people that really did it would be great in learning the potential pitfalls and issues that might need to be watched for and overcome.

I also think that you are really on point about people being so on edge from living in mainstream society. Aspies coming into this system could use a lot of counseling in that regard and I think it could be beneficial to create some new types of etiquette rules specifically for an Aspie community. Maybe we could get rid of a lot social traditions that we have been taught we need in normal society? We need to find experts in these fields to get their input I think... sociologists and behaviorists, architects etc etc.

I don't know anyone who lived on a kibbutz, but I stayed on a kibbutz for two days as a tourist when I traveled to Israel in 2006. It's hard to explain what it was like because there are no equivalents in the US. Imagine a farm, with many cabins off to the side. Each cabin has a bedroom with three beds, a toilet with a sink in one room and a shower in another room (a legacy of the British Mandate rule in the early 20's century), and a common sitting area. The main building has a cafeteria, a kitchen, a gym, a theater, offices, and classrooms. An outdoor swimming pool is open seasonally or year-round, depending on where in Israel you are. Kibbutzes once has their own schools, but today, kids are usually bused to nearby city schools. (Those buses are usually repurposed interurban buses, as opposed to highly visible school buses, to avoid becoming an obvious target of terrorist attacks.)

Having said that, kibbutzes are on the decline. Many of them have been replaced by professional farms, worked by day laborers, guest workers, and student volunteers. Living on a kibbutz when first moving to Israel hasn't been customary for decades, although the option is still available. So if we're going have an immigrant absorption program, it's best to model it after city-based Ulpan programs, the ones most Israeli immigrants go through today. The best US equivalent is one's local community center ("the Y" or "the J", depending on the religion). Ulpan centers have classrooms, visiting agents from government aid programs, counseling services, and a small fitness center. Immigrants go to their Ulpan center to arrange for financial aid, get job training, learn about city services, find a synagogue, study Hebrew, work out, or just get their questions answered. Some centers offer local walking tours and even bus trips to the Western Wall in Jerusalem (less than 3 hours away from most cities). Many Ulpan workers are volunteers, oftentimes immigrants themselves.

I just wonder what it was like in terms of rules and rule enforcement. What if some people were a problem or wouldn't work or were abusive etc etc. Those issues seem like the most problematic. What if you had someone who was in a leadership position that was just a horrible person or a group of them. In the end it's like governing a small nation or something.