I should add that my present home IS my gulch, but am not trying to develop a "gulch" that is an "expat" enclave. I think that, in time of crisis in a a city or town when the locals might be rioting and looting, a concentration of (comparatively) wealthy expats would be sitting ducks for the looters.

My idea of "Going Galt" was to blend into a very small community and become relatively invisible. My neighbors know I'm a foreigner but I don't look or act wealthy (my 20 year old Peugeot reinforces this image).

I wrote more about this in this topic:

http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/2f...

In some ways 3D printing is like computers were 25 years ago. It has been around for a long time, but suddenly hobbyists are starting to use it at home. Some people say every home will have one, but it's hard to imagine.
http://www.element14.com/community/group...

bossy

I'm a potter. I could supply all the needs of the valley. From dishes for eating to such articles of ceramic the valley would need. From ceramic insulators for electric lines to flower pots to artistic decorations.

I'd love to set up a new studio in the valley's art district.

I am pretty excited about 3D printing of metals. Imagine having the equivalent of a desktop CNC.

In the outside world, I am retired, with a daughter starting college this summer (Art Institute-Dallas). In the Gulch, I am a gadfly who buzzes about stirring discussion, mostly cordial, sometimes vituperative, but in the main, fun. I can saw a board, hit a nail (sometimes using a hammer), cut down a tree, split wood, use an idiot stick, parse a sentence, cook a solid meal and make bread. Then I get to the hard stuff.

I did work for money. Definitely OK. The environmental benefit was decent. It wasn't a driver for me, but if it made my customers feel better about themselves, that's fine with me. The ethics in question were doing work with people who never want to be Gulch members. I don't have a problem with it.

"Interested in working collaboratively? "
I'm always interested if there's something to do with technology. I'm happy to be fully busy right now, but I'm always looking for a way to do more stuff with technology.

Is there a wedding? tell me now so I can hook up kathywiso for food and pirate,OA and joss for music and nonmooch for flowers and overall design and winter for the touring car and scott for video and....

"taking money to convert plant and animal waste into biofuels, energy, and chemicals from environmentalists"
There's nothing wrong with doing work for money. I don't know if biofuels will ever scale up, but supposedly they're carbon neutral. There's an off chance the technology will lead to some way to harness energy that doesn't destroy our environment. That would be a huge creation of value, solving one of the biggest problems of our time. Even if it doesn't scale up, you've tried something new and done something to reduce the costs of damage to the environment.

For instance, I plan on reading books by Khalling and AJAshinoff and tjpatt4 this summer. I am talking with a couple of other well-known people in the Gulch about commerce with them as well.

Dear CircuitGuy,
I am doing 3D printing of tissue scaffolding, and soon I am going to be 3D printing metals, too. Python is actually the language of 3D printers. My daughter took a course in Python as part of the Florida Virtual School (online).
I have two printers from http://www.3dstuffmaker.com. Interested in working collaboratively?

Re: Didn't the Gulch do almost no trade with the outside world?
I actually questioned myself about my previous ethics of taking money to convert plant and animal waste into biofuels, energy, and chemicals from environmentalists. It was a fair trade, and I took a peculiar joy in looting the looters, but it felt odd dealing with people outside the Gulch.

A major part of my purpose in this thread is to have everyone find out who does what so that we can do commerce with our Gulch colleagues.

Didn't the Gulch do almost no trade with the outside world? So in a Gulch I would probably do general equipment repair. I would be learning how to print parts on a 3D printer. I would hope the equipment repair would lead to see some problems that start with something being broken and not being able to buy a replacement, but which are actually opportunities to do something a new way. But most of the time, I would be doing a lot of less-exciting tech, electrician, and IT work, at least until a more advanced economy developed.

I really hope someone creates a micronation like the Gulch BUT not cut off from the world. My wife could attend a legal conference on the seastead and my kids could go to a one-day hackerspace classes on UAVs or Python. They could also have a waterpark for kids in the evening, and rooftop bar with Indian developers drinking tea, some Israeli program managers who license software from a firm on the seastead, a bunch of attorneys there for the conference, and a few rich kids from Germany sipping drinks with Ketamine talking about Herman Hesse.

The type of Gulch you're talking about, though, is about a thousand miles northeast of Irkutsk. In that kind of place, you have to learn to be jack of all trades and enjoy borscht and cucumbers-- no indulgent tourists with the vacation/conferences.

I thought you were going to be the event coordinator.

In the outside world I perform home and landscape maintenance, tend my garden, cook for myself and friends, and work on a "script" (for a film) about "Going Galt" in Argentina.

In the Gulch I perform home and landscape maintenance, tend my garden, cook for myself and friends, and work on a "script" (for a stage play) about "Going Galt" in Argentina

in the outside world I am a business manager and author. In the "Gulch" I promote the movies, Ayn Rand, the philosophy of Objectivism...and facilitate discussions