An excerpt from a conversation between Scientific American's John Horgan and physicist Garrett Lisi:
Horgan: Can you describe and give an update of your proposal to create a network of science hostels?
Lisi: Twenty years ago, research scientists were anchored to academic libraries and laboratories. The internet has now set them free. Where can they go? What is an ideal theoretical research environment? I think we need something like artist retreats, but for scientists. While working on physics, I spent a decade visiting friends’ vacation homes in nice locations, and group-living communities, and I think a network of such places—Science Hostels—would be a great resource for scientists and science-friendly creatives. One year ago I bought a small ranch house with a nice view here on Maui and built three guest cabins with a friend of mine (who likes beer, pizza, and nail guns a little too much). We named it the Pacific Science Institute, and over the past eight months we’ve had about twenty visitors come through and stay with us, for free, for a few days to a few months, to work and play. It’s been great! A nice house in a beautiful location, populated by selectively social science geeks, makes for a pretty ideal living and working environment. It’s the flagship Science Hostel. We also own a larger piece of land here on Maui, maybe for PSI 2.