Is that a good idea?

Not literally like BoS though. Forget about the heavy focus on weapons and the patented armor and probably a bunch of other things, but I mean an off-grid community with like-minded peolpe with an intense focus on high-tech, and that's very hard to join.

A cult of sorts, perhaps, but a cool cult. Most off-grid communities seem to be more back-to-earth anti-technology type of communities and that's not my style.

Solar energy is getting ever more effective and cheap and I've read some communities are entirerly run by solar power, so that will not be a problem (assuming a few truckloads of cash).

N.A.S.A?

What in lords holy name are you talking about? A real life one?
Ok ok here is what you need, you need a power armor T-51 which doesnt exist, and a man (good luck) to fill the suit, along with either a minigun (AND ANOTHER GUD LUK) a gatling lazer or some laser weapon (bear in mind, only the minigun exists and its more or less impossible to hold if you aint Hulk)

Like I said, forget the weapons and armors, at least until the apocalypse.

Ahh so from what i understood, your talking about the people? the BoS belief?

The Brotherhood started out as United States army that were stationed at Meriposa. After the great war they decided that advanced weapons would be best kept out of the hands of wasteland scum such as raiders and slavers. So if you are looking for a real life BoS, I guess you don't have to look much further than the United States Army.

Building a small, technologically advanced settlement is many things - bearing similarities to the Brotherhood of Steel from the video game Fallout probably being one of the minor ones; besides in this day in-age the kind of "high-tech" that civilians are going to have access to will be advanced computers and labour saving devices.

An off-grid isolationist (except trade and the minimum required to follow the law) community that reveres (high) technology, with members that are at least reasonably smart and that agree upon a set of basic principles on how to run things, how decisions are made and conflicts handled and so on.

Right, that was just where I got the idea, and I find them oddly inspiring (maybe because the games allow me to interact rather than just, say, reading about something).

Hoarding advanced weaponry like machine guns and tanks wouldn't be such a bad idea. (in theory)

Just don't go all "The Codex doesn't let us do blah blah blah!" on us.

Because that would be so restrictive and, damn it, we should be able to do whatever we want with our weapons?

Easier said than done, for the tank part.

A BoS-style group's existence really doesn't make much sense in the real world.

Sounds like a bunch of inbred (unless there are a hell of a lot of members) nutjob survivalists hiding out in the woods, waiting for the day someone pushes the button. But with their main interest being in technology. Is it really worth it to keep a bunch of iPhones and laser sights in storage for use after an apocalypse...

Or more seriously/realistically, do you just mean to have a large (still would need a lot of people/families) group/community that is put together with the sole purpose of being able to survive/get back on their feet independently through the use of technology after an incident? Wouldn't it be easier to have a proper (non-isolationist) town built around technology, than to have a huge isolated community (essentially a town) cut off from the rest of the country/world. The isolationist part could spell disaster and be the undoing of their little community if anything serious actually happened...

So someone with the same rules and basics then. I doubt there are any that resemble it like that, as the world isnt divided into small groups of survivors of a nuclear war
Well not that i know of anyways.

No, nothing with the Brotherhood. Create a real life cult to rid the world of the Brotherhood.

I would rather annihilate the US government, in fear of them making something that resembles the Enclave, rather then rid the world of BoS.

Which Brotherhood? Cause the original Brotherhood and the Enclave are pretty much the same in terms of letting people join them. In Fallout they say "yeah you can join but you have to go to this highly radioactive place and get tech." Paraphrasing btw. When you come back they are like "holy crap you're sill alive" because they didn't think you would go through with it, and if you did go through with it, they expected you to die.

Yeah, but they dont go killing everyone, atleast they are more or less peaceful. And i was kinda thinking about the midwestern brotherhood, and east, as they are a little more acceptable of outsiders.

Which would leave us where exactly?

If we follow that kind of reasoning.. you better kill of civilians as well...They might end up in a tribe.. and could turn in something like your "beloved" Legion...

"Hey everybody, let's form a cult"

Uh, no.

They'd eventually pull a "waco" on you.

The main purpose is not really to get ahead in case of an apocalypse though (but that's a bonus), but to live a good life pre-apocalypse. I don't really think we'll get an apocalypse, but there might be a severe crisis down the road (which will make cities more dangerous with crime and civil unrest etc).

As for the degree of isolation I don't know what's realistic. Trade with the outside has to go on obviously (can't manufacture our own high-tech from scratch, to name one thing -- otoh the necessities for survival shouldn't depend on the outside). Ideally people would work within the community, and some might be well-off to begin with.

Size? I don't know, another thing to examine by looking at existing successful communities. This guy below moved with his family into the sparsely populated deep Nevada desert, from having been a successful urban businnesman, and he says he's happier than ever:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/02/moneytales.DTL

I don't know how big the pre-existing community is, or even how close to each other they are, but still.

I was thinking more along the lines of a community without cop-killing nutjobs. They do exist.

I'm sure there are others who feel the same.

You obviously have no [censored] idea who i am (NEVER MENTION THAT I LOVE THE LEGION... EVER!)