NML is inspired by the Temporary and Permanent Autonomous Zone (TAZ & PAZ) movement as described by Hakim Bey, but should in no way be confused with autonomous zones. In fact, this project contradicts many of Hakim Bey's notions of an AZ. The most significant contradiction may be the fact that NoMansLand is dependent on the web and on satellites. Obviously this dependency makes the project extremely vulnerable to being monitored, invaded, co-opted, and shut down by authorities. Indeed, if NML is at all effective, it very likely will be infiltrated.

Consider this an experiment. Can the tools of warmongers be used for peace? Can the tools of profiteers be used for cooperation? We hypothesize that NML is an inevitable by-product of control and order. It is a dance between Freedom and Cartographers. The Owners and Rulers would have the movement stay underground in order to protect their property titles and boundaries. But at what point do we come out of hiding? Can autonomy and freedom even exist above ground, where it is visible and vulnerable to being bought and sold? We aim to find out. Besides, their money, their laws, and their maps are only legitimate if we accept them.

NML is like a TAZ in that it is a mobile, dynamic, open and evolving free society . NML is also like a PAZ in that no land has ever belonged to Man, and no land ever will. Territory is a lease. The rent is stewardship and the landlord is an ontological question. Property, however, is an illusion created when maps are confused for the territory they represent. This illusion is destroyed in the NoGoZones, where people, places, industries, and cultures fall through the Grid and slide off the map. This is where they arrive. The Island of Misfit Toys is not by the North Pole. It is here in the shadow of the globe. Everything else is an overlay.