8 ms·
Ask HN: Is there a hippie commune for hackers?
Seriously, is there a hippie commune for hackers? There's gotta be one somewhere in the Bay Area.
If I could just plow the fields during the day and work/sleep in a little cottage and be left alone, that'd be alright with me.
- noodle 16y agoreminds me of this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1403301 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1403301 i still really like the idea
- cscheid 16y agoReminds me of the setting in Stephenson's Anathem. A high-tech monastery would be great, except that the need for a good connection to the web pretty much kills the whole isolation idea.
- shaunxcode 16y agowouldn't a hacker hippie commune be more about building a robotic plow and spending your, now spare, time OCRing and analyzing old farmers almanacs to determine the optimal time to plant/rotate/water crops?
- citizenkeys 16y agomany years ago, i've lived on non-hacker hippie communes. there's actually several outside of austin in texas. it makes sense given all the cheap ranch land in rural texas. ideally, you have a "main house" with the kitchen and where everybody meets up. then you have little cottages all over the ranch with bunk beds where everybody sleeps and works. when people need to buy stuff, they drive into town. for hackers that just need a roof over their head and a few meals so they don't starve, it's not a bad idea.
- sliverstorm 16y agoMost hackers want internet. Otherwise they wouldn't be reading Hacker News.
- pyre 16y agoMaybe they scrape the site for offline viewing when they come into town (something similar to RMS's 'web-to-email' setup)?
- zackattack 16y agohttp://www.sproutrobot.com http://www.sproutrobot.com
- shaunxcode 16y agoWow, only on hacker news would my flippant, but secretly serious, comment lead to an actual working implementation of something great. Are you involved with the sproutrobot? Super cool idea and I've just signed up!
- steveklabnik 16y agoOriginal announcement: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1336406 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1336406
- trotsky 16y agoIn today's culture, it might be dreamed up on facebook, funded on kickstarter, promoted on twitter, picked up by 10,000 blogs that all poach from each other and then abandoned by the next semester because the earth-water-sun interface is ancient and suffers from significant design issues whose tickets never get responded to by the upstream provider.
- olefoo 16y agoI'm tempted to start blogging up the project proposal for a hippie arcology to be built on a south facing slope in southern Oregon with geothermal backup heat and a fiber optic connection to the internet for the remote workers whose economic contributions exempt them from the maintenance duties that the less skilled have to do (hey, someone needs to turn the compost heaps and feed the tilapia you know). The basic design concept is to have one largish thermal envelope that encloses multiple garden and dwelling spaces that are kept at a relatively constant temperature year round. I would really like to bring the Whole Earth Catalog hacking tradition full circle.
- pyre 16y ago> hey, someone needs to turn the compost heaps and > feed the tilapia you know Now I'm just picturing the Dharma Initiative, and Ben's burnt-out, drunken father that came to 'the island' thinking that he was going to be a part of something special, only to find out that they wanted him to be the janitor.
- citizenkeys 16y ago"Home Power" magazine is what you need to check out: http://homepower.com/home/ http://homepower.com/home/ All their back issues are available online in pdf. They have all the details on cost-effective clandestine home energy solutions. Also, the trick to cheap hot water is a water heating coil on your roof facing the sun. The water gets hotter as it runs through the coil.
- _delirium 16y ago> I would really like to bring the Whole Earth Catalog hacking tradition full circle. Sort of a tangent, but the Whole Earth Catalog scene and the tech scene were surprisingly inter-related in the 60s-80s, which is something I didn't know until recently. Ted Nelson, who had coined the word "hypertext" about three years before the first WEC was published, was greatly influenced by it for his 1974 book Computer Lib / Dream Machines, and Steve Jobs was an avid reader as well. There was even briefly a software version in the 80s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_and_Review http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Software_Catalog_an... I think I was surprised to find a connection mainly because in 2010 I associate the Whole Earth Catalog more with anti-technology primitivists, which doesn't seem to have originally been the case--- seems plenty of technologists were also interested in it, since DIY doesn't have to mean primitivism.
- there 16y agoGNU?
- trotsky 16y agoI think the bay area hacker version of a hippie commune is a co-op loft that hosts parties on the weekends to cover some expenses. Or some version there of. The ones I knew of still charged rent but it was easy enough to work out a way to do work for rent or a sliding scale. Not nearly as communal as what you're imagining, but way more communal than 99% of living situations.
- starpilot 16y agoI lived in co-ops for two years of college. It was very inexpensive, about $550/month including "rent" (not actually rent since we were technically owners), all utilities, furnished, and all meals, in an excellent downtown location near campus. A comparable apartment in the area might go for $700/month per person, assuming it's a two- or three-bedroom place, and that doesn't include utilities or food. Of course the rooms were tiny, the house was very used-up (the two I lived in were 50+ years old), lots of carpet stains, scuffed floors, and you have to deal with living with 20+ young people (noisy, drama etc.). It was a good way to meet people though. At my school at least, co-ops were basically frats for hippies.
- gruseom 16y agoA commune where you're left alone? A charming oxymoron.
- widgetycrank 16y agoLike a monastery?
- citizenkeys 16y agoBasically a drop-in center / hostel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel
- jonhendry 16y agoResidential shared office space, really.
- PostOnce 16y agoI was joking about this with a friend a while back. I prize my solitude a bit much, but I think it might be fun. Outdoor work might be better for hackers' brains than most realize. Get your body in shape in the morning and your mind in shape in the afternoon. Hrmm. You could always start up one of your own. Kickstarter could help. :P
- noahth 16y agoif you build it...
- h4x0r3d 16y agoi will come! :P
- philfreo 16y agoSuperHappyDevHouse or Hacker Dojo? http://superhappydevhouse.org/ http://superhappydevhouse.org/ http://wiki.hackerdojo.com/ http://wiki.hackerdojo.com/ Also... List of Hacker Spaces - http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/List_of_Hacker_Spaces
- citizenkeys 16y agoThese places look cool. I'm gonna check out that Hacker Dojo place.
- whimsy 16y agoThis may be relevant to your interests: the next SHDH[1] is being hosted at Hacker Dojo. [1]: http://superhappydevhouse.org/ http://superhappydevhouse.org/
- oscilloscope 16y agoNoisebridge is an active hacker space I go to once or twice a week: http://noisebridge.net http://noisebridge.net
- citizenkeys 16y agoSince I live in San Francisco, I'm going to this place later tonight.
- citizenkeys 16y agoNoisebridge has the right idea. If you've never been there, just show up and hang out awhile. Seriously. Only thing about hacker spaces in general is "no sleeping". My vision involves a place to sleep and take a time-out.
- dequantified 16y agoMaker spaces are evolving towards this .... fabrication labs out in the woods. earthships and repraps. Factor E farm in Missouri: http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose http://www.openecology.org http://www.openecology.org is pretty cool idea too
- pessimizer 16y agoI've been thinking about it for years. The only problem is that most programmers seem to be status quo capitalists bordering on libertarian. It might be easier to teach hippies to program than programmers not to be aspirational yuppie SWPLs. A couple of cults have gotten by on programming and/or web design, Aum Shinrikyo and Heaven's Gate come to mind.
- citizenkeys 16y agoyeah... I looked up heaven's gate earlier. I'm talking about a "do your own thing" place to eat, sleep, and code. not any sort of weird cult.
- pessimizer 16y agoIn communes, you don't really do your own thing. I think you're talking about an apartment building where a lot of hackers live that has a hacking room instead of a gym. Or possibly efficiency apartments. Maybe you meant "common kitchen" rather than commune? Like a dorm?
- citizenkeys 16y agoI'm thinking along the lines of a 24-hour drop-in center / hostel for developers instead of crazy bums. The wikipedia entry for hostels kinda sums it up, including the picture of the taiwanese hostel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel
- pessimizer 16y agoA hostel is just like a hotel, except you usually don't get a room (unless you're willing to pony up an extra $20.) You're just looking for a cheap place to stay, but you don't want it to be scary. Hostels generally are not scary at all, and are filled with mostly pleasant foreigners. They used to have rules that require that you have ID proving that you don't live in the town that you're hostelling in, though; don't know if that's changed at all.
- 16y ago
- citizenkeys 16y agoSome clarification: Commune does not mean being without internet, nor does it necessarily imply growing food. Think about it: if we had bunk beds, we could stack hackers on top of each other to save space. Compress at least twice as many in the same space. And if we bought food in bulk, we could eat better on the same amount we ordinarily need to live on ramen budgets. All this being said, I am broke, broke, broke! I burned through all my school financial aid until next semester starts in January. My email is citizenkeys@gmail.com . If anybody's got an extra bedroom for a month...
- JesseAldridge 16y agoLet me know if you figure something out. I've got $4000 in the bank. Rent is by far my largest expense. Solve that problem and your runway length approaches infinity.
- citizenkeys 16y agoIf you have the cash to buy a place, then all you need is utilities and property taxes, which are comparitively low. There are some people whose savings draw enough bank interest to cover such things.
- danohuiginn 16y agobut tightly-packed communal living is a solution to high rent. Share a bedroom between 8 people. Add office space, kitchen, bathroom, and you've got your entire startup packed into one 2-room apartment.
- michaelnovati 16y agoYou can also check out the Palo Alto Hacker House, http://www.facebook.com/hackerhouse http://www.facebook.com/hackerhouse
- whimsy 16y agoor http://hackerhouse.bluwiki.com/ http://hackerhouse.bluwiki.com/
- citizenkeys 16y agothat page says its hasn't been updated since april. i am curious about the current tenants.
- danteembermage 16y agoI just watched The Secret of Kells on Netflix and was wondering the same thing. The protagonist has a complete devotion to the creation of illuminated texts which seemed like a perfect stand in for [insert open source project that would illuminate the world here] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Kells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_of_Kells
- ramidarigaz 16y agoJust watched that this afternoon. Fantastic film. I can't recommend it highly enough.
- citizenkeys 16y agoSeriously... I'm going to register a domain and try and set this up on kickstarter. If anyone wants to help out with design or whatever, send me an email to citizenkeys@gmail.com . In theory, if we just had a big rental place with couches, bunkbeds, a kitchen, and a place to shower. That'd be enough to start.
- alastair 16y agofyi there may be laws that regulate how many people may live in a single residence. i know there are in my part of the world.
- dwwoelfel 16y agoAnyone thinking of working with him on a housing project should consider his attitude toward contracts and paying rent: "Here's how you deal with big apartment complex property management companies: just lie. Seriously. And give a friend's phone number as your "employer". Make up some fake paystubs in quickbooks. Big property management companies usually hire stupid people that sit in the office all day, do nothing, and collect a paycheck. They don't verify income, or any of the other things they request. Since they don't care, neither should you. Fuck 'em. Another final comment about big apartment complexes: at a certain point, if you know you're going to move, just quit paying rent. Apartment complexes take a hands-off approach to evictions and actually file real eviction proceedings. As such, you can sit there and live rent free for an entire month or more while they file the legal paperwork against you. Save that rent money you're not paying and save it for when you do find another place." -citizenkeys http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1892706 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1892706
- citizenkeys 16y agoOkay, I got the concept down: What I'm imagining is a drop-in center / hostel for hackers. The wikipedia article on hostels kinda sums up what i have in mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostel The pictures do a good job of showing what I had in mind.
- c3o 16y agoYes! I'm involved with a hacker space in Vienna, Austria (we're proud that Noisebridge cites us as inspiration) and I've long believed that on the floor above every hackerspace there should be a hostel. A "hackers in residence" program, if you will – complete with international exchanges and a "worldwide pass" subscription. I haven't figured out how to cover the starting costs, but using Kickstarter is a really good idea. You should start a mailing list/Facebook group/wiki.
- gexla 16y agoA hacker, hippie commune? Why not just a hacker commune? Or just a hippie commune?
- ecyrb 16y agoReminds me of the Cory Doctorow short story: "The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away" Available here: http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/08/weak-and-strange http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/08/weak-and-strange
- whimsy 16y agoIn case you don't like short stories and didn't click the link, the title is a line from a Jonathon Coulton (of Portal fame) song, "The Future Soon" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEEDa9Mej8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEEDa9Mej8
- maxaf 16y agoHave you considered moving to Israel and joining a kibbutz?
- berntb 16y agoIsn't there a three years mandatory military service if you move there permanently before 4X years of age...?
- maxaf 16y agoOnly if you actually apply for citizenship. I believe there's a way for foreign citizens (US? others?) to live there indefinitely w/o actually immigrating.
- edanm 16y agoI don't know details, but I'm pretty sure that only applies if you're seeking citizenship. Also, at older ages, the amount of service you have to do goes down considerably.
- berntb 16y agoOK, thanks for information to you and maxaf. I only know one guy that went there a bit (academic) and he loved the place.
- alexophile 16y agoI spent some time on a farm that could liberally be called a "commune" and there's actually a ton of innovation to be had all over the place. Somewhere, I probably still have a moleskine with notes on the matter. A couple things I remember: -Crop Rotations: The texts I read about this subject were the result of some very painstaking note-taking, and keeping all this information straight can confound even the very studious. We had at least 3 copies of Elliot Coleman's "The New Organic Grower" around and they were all falling apart from constant reference. Having instant access to your planting history would be invaluable, especially if coupled with pH effects of relevant crops and other useful info. Certifications: The process for getting that nifty "certified organic" label is quite difficult. You have to submit all sorts of things. It was even worse for us because we had commercial kitchen equipment (we sold jarred jams, salsas, etc) Marketing: We sold shares of our output through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. ~100% of people who partook found out about us from meeting us at a farmer's market. I think there's a decent market for CSA shares, but not really any way of comparison shopping, or even knowing what's available. It would be neat to work on a project to solve these problems while simultaneously encountering them on the day-to-day. But fair warning: "plowing the fields all day" does not really leave one in the mood for hacking. Contemplation? Surely. Conversation? Absolutely. But I wouldn't expect to get a whole lot of hacking done, at least not in your first season.
- burgerbrain 16y ago>I probably still have a moleskine with notes on the matter. Why do people insist on telling us the brand of their notebook? It's just a book with some blank paper dude...
- shaunxcode 16y agoI think its more like how people call an "over head speaker system" a "tannoy" or adults over the age of 50 call any console video game system "the nintendo" etc.
- burgerbrain 16y ago
- organicgrant 16y agoSo I wasn't acting alone when I bought capitalistcommune.org a few months back? I have a 'giant' mansion...in Iowa...with open rooms for hackers. Hit me up, libertarian-capitalist-economical living can be a real ideal. See pic here: http://organicgrant.posterous.com/winter-home-0 http://organicgrant.posterous.com/winter-home-0
- jonhendry 16y agoThat doesn't look "giant". Just sayin', before a bunch of people show up expecting a hundred available rooms.
- organicgrant 16y agoAround 4,000 sq ft. 6 bedrooms, library, bar/lounge in the basement. 3 bedrooms are occupied, but if you want to live for basically free and focus on your hustle, do get in touch. I think I'm going to pursue pushing this idea out more in my area. Napoleon Hill would view it as a Mastermind.
- stretchwithme 16y agoThat's a great idea. Can't see the photo though. Is that a gmail link?
- organicgrant 16y agoFixed the link, Posterous issues.
- olalonde 16y agohttp://organicgrant.posterous.com/winter-home http://organicgrant.posterous.com/winter-home
- organicgrant 16y agoorganicgrant [at] gmail.com High-speed internet, large garden plots right down the street, and a few blocks from a (20,000 enrolled) state university
- erikpukinskis 16y agoI met a couple of people about two years ago in Tennessee who lived in the middle of nowhere in a house in the mountains. They had a couple of solar panels that basically produced enough power to run an iMac so they could do some freelance design work to make money. They had a Verizon data card for net access. Otherwise they lived like it was 1900.
- pyre 16y agoI can't imagine that they only used the iMac for design work, did they?
- erikpukinskis 16y agoThey were doing some sort of web design I think, so.... I don't see why not?
- pyre 16y agoI was just thinking that if they didn't keep up with their skills, they might have a hard time getting work. (Not necessarily that they were using it for video games or youtube or anything.)
- citizenkeys 16y agositting at noisebridge right now: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Noisebridge this is almost what i had in mind, only my version has bedrooms, showers, and allows pets. noisebridge kicks ass. it's a giant hacker studio. i've never been here before. if you're a hacker and live in san francisco, you owe it to yourself to just show up here at least once. i will be here for awhile tonight if anybody wants to chill out.
- neilk 16y agoNoisebridge has had some issues (actually ongoing issues) with people that treat it as a living space, or just "forget to take the last BART" with suspicious regularity. Maybe your idea would solve that problem. Or maybe it would exacerbate it, not sure. Unrelated: there's also another movement called "cohousing" which tries to strike a middle ground between the post-WWII standard of one-family-per-house, and communes that tend to have a complete lack of privacy. http://www.cohousing.org/ http://www.cohousing.org/
- steveklabnik 16y agoOr if you're anywhere else, check out your local hackerspace (the general term for something like Noisebridge): http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/ http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/
- dstein 16y agocommune... be left alone... Bay Area... little cottage... hackers... plow the fields... I don't think you've decided what you really want here. If you want to live in a small, communal, hacker workplace in the Bay area, then you should join or create a technology startup. If you want to plow fields, live in a small cottage, and be left alone, you should buy a small house in the countryside.
- wlievens 16y agoNot having decided what he wants may be part of the question.
- gonzo 16y agoI made my own just outside of Austin, TX once. Bought a 10 AC farm just outside Blanco. Was already certified for growing organic "elephant" garlic. Had a little cottage, a well, with rainwater collection (I flushed the toilets with this, it was nearly trivial to change-over the plumbing.) Dropped Cable into it (for IP). Added 2KW of solar panels, and a 250 gallon propane tank. Was into it for maybe $130K, fully paid-off. Grew my own food, hacked some. Got tired of living without other technology folk around, sold it.
- centuren 16y agoCan you provide more details on this? By "little cottage", I assume this was meant for one (you), and $130K might be a bit steep for a single-person, experimental venture. 10 AC is hardly a small area, though, and suggests potential to expand it to, say, a 3-10 person number. If the marginal costs required to increase water, electricity, etc, to support such levels don't add to the final price tag dramatically, it could be quite interesting.
- Inviz 16y agoI share a large close to luxury house with atleast three hackers located in Bali, Indonesia. Recently we finished the transfer by getting a good internet connection (not that easy in mountains, but totally worth it). My advice - move to the friendly environment that lets you live off really small money (100$ is a good salary for locals here) and then things are easy and pleasing.
- Entlin 16y agoThat sounds brillant. Do you have pictures of it that you could share?
- drinian 16y agoNot a commune, exactly, but you can go live on a tropical beach with other American hackers with CocoVivo -- http://www.cocovivo.com/ http://www.cocovivo.com/
- JonnieCache 16y agoThis is something I'd be very interested in, I'm currently looking for a new place to live. If anyone knows of anyone doing something like this in the UK, let me know!
- percept 16y agoI don't know if any are hacker-specific, but you might check the list of communities here: http://directory.ic.org/iclist/geo.php http://directory.ic.org/iclist/geo.php
- fajar 16y agow mw blajar hacker
- dnsworks 16y agoHave you considered arcosanti? It's where most of the ravers I know went when they realized their lives were empty without drugs.