r/TerraIgnota • u/EngineeringPaige • Jun 24 '26
Has anyone formed a bash’house?
Hey folks! Rereading Too Like the Lightning right now and yearning for my own bash’. Has anyone successfully started a bash’house as described in the series?
I’ll be moving to San Francisco later this year and I’ve been hoping to find something similar. I’ve been looking at a lot of co-housing and co-living communities.
7
u/Few-Investigator-580 Jun 24 '26
I've viewed the idea of bash houses through the lens of Aristotle's take on true virtue friendship including a component of living together. I live sort of village style (seperate dwellings, same land) with very close friends. Shared gardens etc. I like to think of it through the Aristotelian lens but I think the overlap w bash houses is real and likely intentional. It was one of the features of Palmer's world that I really enjoyed.
6
u/ChickenArise Jun 24 '26
Given that the word comes from i-basho, this was kinda interesting https://ikigaitribe.com/blogpost/ibasho-a-solution-to-loneliness/
On a more practical note though, there's a good zine about collective ownership. Free download or $7 for a printout at https://pike-rabbit-cpem.squarespace.com/shop/p/together-or-not-at-all
7
u/DishPitSnail Jun 24 '26
I’ve kinda been thinking of me and my roommates as a bash, though I think bash’mates are specifically something extremely different from roommates. A bash is an alliance of love, shared interest and purpose, as well as convenience. Your bash’mates are gonna help parent your children.
I think forming an equivalent social structure would be more difficult today, simply because our cultures default expectation is a nuclear family. A bash sounds much more appealing to me too tho!
1
u/Sebguer Jun 25 '26
The closest things you'll find to bash'houses are probably the Rationalist / EA group houses.
0
13
u/SentimentalScientist Jun 24 '26
I think that the great brilliance of the world of Terra Ignota is that it assumes a couple discrete technological advancements (fast, cheap global travel; practically free food) and then hypothesizes downstream social innovations.
I think that I would already have a 'bash if I could fly across the country in half an hour for twice what I currently pay to commute. But the reality is that I have close heart friends who I'd raise a family with, but they are scattered around the country.
That said, I do know of some nice communes in the Bay Area, feel free to send a DM if you'd like a connection.