http://www.seasteading.org/
See their article in Reason Mag
Listen to the Podcast at Econtalk
Brief Introduction to the Seasteading Institute
The Movement
What is "Seasteading"?
Seasteading is creating permanent dwellings on the ocean - homesteading the high seas. A seastead, like in the picture to the right, is a structure meant for permanent occupation on the ocean.
Why would you want to do that?
Because the world needs a new frontier, a place where those who wish to experiment with building new societies can go to test out their ideas. Unfortunately, all land is already claimed. Enabling the ocean to be the next frontier, allows for startup societies to bring experimentation and innovation to political, legal, and social systems.
Currently, it is very difficult to experiment with alternative social systems on a small scale; countries are so enormous that it is hard for an individual to make much difference. Seasteaders believe that government shouldn't be like the cellphone or operating system industries, with few choices and high customer-lock-in. Instead, they envision something more like Web 2.0, where many small governments serve many niche markets, a dynamic system where small groups experiment, and everyone copies what works, discards what doesn't, and remixes the remainder to try again.
Think about all the major political divides - freedom vs. security, absolute wealth vs. inequality, strong family vs. tolerance, open vs. closed borders, etc. - that are decided through rhetoric and the votes of a few representatives who decide for tens or hundreds of millions of people at once. Imagine if small groups had the capability to instead test their own ideas on a small scale and see what happens. People could create societies with different priorities, and we'd be able to quickly see how well those ideas work in practice. Some ideas will work well, some will work terribly and some will be a matter of preference; but above all we are dedicated to the belief that whatever our ideas, we want to stop arguing about them, stop proselytizing them and start living them.
Is that really possible? How would it work?
It's hard to give a short answer to this. The briefest answer we have is to point to the cruise ship industry as evidence that providing power, water, food, and internet on the ocean is not only possible but can be profitable. Our lifestyle and business model will be very different - based on permanent occupation and businesses beyond tourism - but cruise ships at least demonstrate that the basics can be covered without breaking the bank. It remains for us to show, by building small seastead prototypes, that comfortable, spacious, permanent, environmentally friendly dwellings can also be built at reasonable cost.
And similarly, while we don't yet know if there is a realistic path to recognized sovereignty, the history of the cruise ship industry demonstrates that a great deal of practical autonomy can be achieved using flags of convenience. If the idea still seems crazy (the bad kind), we have answers to some of the common objections in our FAQ, and we have written a book with much more detail.
How are you going to do it?
The seasteading movement is being pioneered by our non-profit organization, The Seasteading Institute (TSI). We were recently covered in Wired, and have received $500,000 of initial funding from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and early investor in Internet companies such as LinkedIn and Facebook, and futurist organizations such as the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Methuselah Foundation.
TSI was founded in 2008 with the mission to "Further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems." We have developed a strategic plan for making seasteading a reality. You may read our Two-Year Strategy Document to learn more about how we plan to fulfill our mission.
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
bump
Won't work, government tyranny inevitably reproaches and destroys any attempt to found new communites.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Minerva
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Rose_Island
I've seen their material before, sounds like something worth pursuing for those who can, but like Willink said, government will eventually intervene and expropriate.
However, I wouldn't be so myopic to say that this is the last chance at Liberty. Anything can happen, and change can come quickly when it does.
There is, however, one final frontier that the State will be helpless to monopolize when people finally venture out and explore, and that is Space. It is just too vast, and the time to travel so long, that once people start spreading out, there is no practical way for the State to exist.
What I find unrealistic about such ‘frontier’ projects is that moving form society is a very high-cost alternative. You have to drop from society and content yourself with the division of labor achievable by a medieval village (if you can convince 300 guys to come along, no small feat). If you try to get around that by being close enough to shore you’ll be claimed by the state, if you try to get some resource (oil)…I do not even have to go through that. So, I find such alternatives tremendously high-cost to be realistic.
That being said, i enhoys their site and their discussions quite much. And of course, who knows such things…
Remember that these sites would be tax and regulation- free. That alone would attract businesses which in turn would bring along workers.
von Vodka: Remember that these sites would be tax and regulation- free. That alone would attract businesses which in turn would bring along workers.
I agree, but one must balance that against the increased costs of transporting goods, of higher wages (needed to attract workers to such god-forsaken places), and many other inconveniences. After all, one could easily move to the amazonic jungle and no one could get there to tax you, and still people kindly refuse. Society is just more precious than liberty. Seeking the later without the former is utopian.
Merlin:You have to drop from society and content yourself with the division of labor achievable by a medieval village (if you can convince 300 guys to come along, no small feat).
There is no reason to believe that autonomy means self-sufficiency. These individuals will gladly produce wealth and exchange with other nations, yet they will operate from a sea based country independent from other countries. There is also no reason to believe that governments will automatically attack the seastead, though I’m sure it’s a possibility.
Jeremiah Dyke: There is no reason to believe that autonomy means self-sufficiency. These individuals will gladly produce wealth and exchange with other nations, yet they will operate from a sea based country independent from other countries. There is also no reason to believe that governments will automatically attack the seastead, though I’m sure it’s a possibility.
To participate into the division of labor one must be within reasonable distance, or in general excpect to leave a huge amount of income in transportation costs. Cruise ships, as long as they are of-shore, do not participate in the division of labor, but gnaw at their accumulated resources.
Thus a seasted, to be viable would have to either be fairly close to shore, as the Italian guy in the linked wiki article (I really do not see how could a seated within territorial waters pretend to be an independent nation), or else tap on some underwater resource. This is indeed a viable solution, an oil-rig based seated could easily fend for and succeed in enriching itself.
Of course it should reside well outside current EEZ-s else would face immediate war (its oil, for heaven’s sake!). Tourism too could do, in some particularly scenic spot. Whether it could work with other resources, such as fish, or financial services, I highly doubt. The profit to be had in such productions would have to be diminished by transportation costs (where applicable), the cost of the thing itself and the mental cost of living in, by definition, a godforsaken piece of the globe.
Finally if some seasted where to succeed in, say, challenging the monetary supremacy of the US by issuing silver coins, it would be easy to charge it with being an “unfair tax heaven” and proceed to bomb the hell out of it. People bought Iraq’s justification, I really don’t see why they wouldn’t buy this.
maybe they could be more self sufficient than you think?
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/concept-water-scraper-brings-monumental-architecture-open-sea
@ Merlin
The seastead would be within 200 miles of land (just outside the economic zone owned by the state waters). Like the cruise ship it would use up resources, yet, unlike the cruise ship it would be stationary and thus would only need to generate power for electricity, etc, not refueling. The seastead would incur transportation costs but nothing that a freight ship couldn’t provide every three months. Any additional costs would be offset by savings in taxes.
I see two potential ways that the U.S. would definitely engage in warfare against the seastead. One, if they harbored international terrorists or two if their society was extremely cult like i.e. selling 10 year-old prostitutes, etc.
Jeremiah Dyke:I see two potential ways that the U.S. would definitely engage in warfare against the seastead. One, if they harbored international terrorists or two if their society was extremely cult like i.e. selling 10 year-old prostitutes, etc.
Because Iraq was doing those things. With as seasted there is the added plus that the whole thing could be kept totally secret. I could send a single F/A-18 with a Paveway II and set the whole thing ablaze, and no one would know. One gets so trigger happy when attack is so simple. A seasted with nukes on the other hand, is a different matter entirely.
I’m not saying that is impossible, I wouldn’t put my hopes there. Gated communities would seem far, far more sensible.
Joe: maybe they could be more self sufficient than you think? http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-03/concept-water-scraper-brings-monumental-architecture-open-sea
That must be the coolest thing I've seen in a while. But back to reality now...
My (amateur, national-geographic, pseudo-engineer) take on this…
“Wind, solar, and wave power would provide energy…”
What? Whole plains need to be covered with wind-turbines/solar panels to get a normal city to go, and the guy would use the cross-section of the Empire State to power a large town? I’ll sooner power my TV set with potatoes. Nuclear batteries could help though.
“The tentacles would also move around in the ocean tides, generating electricity from kinetic energy.”
Idem
“…hydroponics…”
If hydroponics where anywhere near the order of magnitude of being economical, I believe that Colombian drug-dealers would be hydroponing they way to untold riches by now (as would everyone else). I hear its very, very expensive. It would be far cheaper (still not viable though) to just sell fish and buy food.
“Obviously, no one has any plans to build anything remotely like this.”
Of course, people still like money.
“But if global warming throws us into a WaterWorld like future…”
…we’ll go extinct.