What is the most remote point on Earth? 

Seems like a strange question to ask, but last night I was watching some stuff about AI chatbots and Israel-Palestine and feeling all sorts of existential dread. Which made me ponder: Just how far can you actually get away from everything? 

Well, the question has two answers. 

The actual most remote point on Earth is called Point Nemo. Situated roughyl 2,688km from the nearest piece of land, it is known as the oceanic point of inaccessibility. It is quite literally a point in the South Pacific Ocean. 

Three interesting facts about Point Nemo: 

1. The area is so remote (no regular marine or air traffic routes are within 400km) that sometimes the closest human beings to it are aboard the International Space Station when it passes overhead. 

2. The place is relatively lifeless and considered a "biological desert". It lies within the South Pacific Gyre, one of Earth's system of rotating ocean currents that block nutrients from getting in. 

3. The surrounding area is known as the 'spacecraft cemetery', where spacecraft too large to burn up in the atmosphere on re-entry are dumped back onto Earth. The ISS is slated to also die there. 

But where is the most remote inhabited place on Earth? The answer to that is Tristan da Cunha, a group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It's sort of halfway between South Africa and Brazil, but is actually a sovereign state of the United Kingdom (colonialism, y'all). Its fitting that one of those islands is called 'Inaccessible Island' (home to the endemic Inaccessible Island rail, the smallest extant flightless bird in the world - cute). Anyhow, on the populated island of Tristan da Cunha, a 2021 census recorded a population of 243 people. The place is so remote that getting there is only possible by boat, and its a 6-day boat journey. 

Here's a great fact: "Between 1988 and 2010, no one was arrested for crime by the single policeman on the island."

Given the tumultuous state of our world right now, that sounds mildly tempting as the next big getaway vacation.