In his Past the Point of No Return blog post, George Mobus described "Ark Colonies" based on permaculture practices as standing the best chance of survival and not necessarily required to be based on subsistence living:

What is a Feasible Living Situation for Future Humans?

This is a good concept that has been thought of by many people. I myself have been trying to find a way toward this for quite a while now. I don't have the funds to acquire the necessary land, but if I did, man, what a neat thing it could be.

However, the history of "intentional communities" is littered with failures. Everything from patriarchal/matriarchal to commune with a management group to religious cults have tried and failed. I believe one of the factors contributing to failure was the availability of alternatives. Members could always bail out and return to "civilization," and the temptation to do so was enormous. On the other hand, prehistoric tribal and feudal living didn't provide a whole lot of alternatives, so communities tended to stay together unless they were destroyed by outside forces such as attackers or climate change.

I strongly believe that a bunch Ark Colonies are necessary now and I definitely agree with the writer that a "high tech" organizational structure would be necessary for two reasons: 1) The colony needs to be more attractive than "civilization" to the majority of the occupants, and 2) it needs to accommodate and integrate a broad spectrum of personalities and skills instead of relying on familial or religious bonds. This has to happen pre/during collapse so that the community is intact and functional post-collapse.

So the Ark Colony would need an advanced organizational structure that provides a low-stress, non-political environment that rewards individual achievements without creating a rigid hierarchy or resulting in one or a few powerful individuals, or inappropriate distribution of resources.

So I thought I'd toss the question out: Any ideas?