I said, “Okay. So the technology gave you a short cut to a new society; all the old models were irrelevant. No invasion and genocide, no bloody uprising, no glacial democratic reforms. But getting there’s the easy part. I still don’t understand what holds the place together.”

“Small invertebrate organisms.”

“I meant politically.”

Munroe looked baffled. “Holds the place together against what? The onset of anarchy?”

“Violence. Looting. Mob rule.”

“Why bother traveling to the middle of the Pacific for something you can do in any city in the world? Or do you think we went to all this trouble just for a chance to play Lord of the Flies ?”

“Not intentionally. But when it happens in Sydney, they send in the riot squad. When it happens in Los Angeles, they send in the National Guard.”

“We have a trained militia, who have near-universal consent to use reasonable force to protect people and vital resources in an emergency.” He grinned. “‘Vital resources.’ ‘Emergency powers.’ Sounds just like home, doesn’t it? Except that the emergency has never arisen.”

“Okay. But why hasn’t it? ”

Munroe massaged his forehead, and regarded me as if I were an over-persistent child. “Good will? Intelligence? Some other bizarre alien force?”

“Be serious.”

“There are some obvious things. People turn up here with a slightly higher than average level of idealism. They want Stateless to work, or they wouldn’t have come – give or take the occasional tedious agent provocateur . They’re prepared to cooperate. I don’t mean living in dormitories, pretending everyone’s your extended family, and going on work parties singing uplifting communal anthems – though there’s some of that about. But they’re willing to be more flexible and tolerant than the average person who chooses to live elsewhere … because that’s the whole point.

“There’s less concentration of wealth, and of power. Maybe that’s only a matter of time – but with so much power so heavily decentralized, it’s very hard to buy . And yes, we have private property, but the island, the reefs, and the waters are a commons. Syndicates which collect and process food trade their products for money, but they have no monopoly; there are plenty of people who feed themselves directly from the sea.”

I looked around the square, frustrated. “Okay. You’re not all slaughtering each other or rioting in the streets, because no one’s starving, and no one’s obscenely rich – yet. But do you honestly think it’s going to last? The next generation won’t be here by choice. What are you going to do – indoctrinate them all with tolerance, and hope for the best? It’s never worked before. Every other experiment like this has ended in violence, been conquered or absorbed … or given up and turned into a nation state.”