134 – Size of a community

How many people should be the maximum for a community?

This question requires a large amount of speculation. There are so many contributing factors such as space constraints, economic constraints, a sufficient number of of educators, trainers, advocates or mentors, in history there are records of monastic communities in the thousands, with fields of grain, farmlands and orchards there to provide the necessary food, cloth, and materials for the order. While such a community is lamentably difficult to reproduce in the modern world it does offer us the hope that such an endeavor is indeed possible. Initially anything up to 150 people seems excessively large population of members.

If a community ever reaches a prescribed number for at least 6 months it should then divide half, moving into separate buildings (communities? Gore assoc.) . Then when both communities again reach the prescribed limit they split again. This mitosis allows for a growth rate based upon available space and would allow a natural growth rate with each community in turn responsible for setting up the following.

** It might even be reasonable for such communities to try new methods or specializations to other communities thus creating families of descendant groups that specialize on particular skill sets.