
Building a new society on a free floating platform in the high seas - acangiano
http://seasteading.org/
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chaosmachine
_"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled
to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the
poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the
man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I
chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city
where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be
bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the
small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as
well."_ \-- Bioshock

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Groxx
After reading their Intro page, I wholeheartedly agree. That's _precisely_
what they're saying.

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patrissimo42
I dunno how you got that from our Intro page, we are quite explicit that
seasteading is not about any one form of government but enabling more
diversity and experimentation. Startup governments!

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electromagnetic
Until these designs include a moderate amount of self-sufficiency, they're not
going to be cost-effective enough to get regular people living on them. This
means you either have to aim for tourists or provide a paparazzi-free haven to
celebrities.

Fishing would be mandatory for food and greenhouses would certainly be
required, and preferably a well implemented vertical farming operation could
do wonders. However, unless the scale is huge it would be difficult to become
self-sufficient, especially if providing meat via cattle/pigs. Chickens are
relatively easy to keep in higher densities and would likely provide a good
supply of protein, providing you have the room to have the graze;
incidentally, chickens are only generally destructive of grasses around their
nest-site (where the chicken coop is) and are excellent pest controls. Without
natural predators and with clipped wings, chickens could be allowed to forage
in any open gardens. You'd be required to introduce worms, certain bugs and
beetles, and bees anyway, so they'd provide supplementary nutrition to your
chickens (free of cost and the chickens are a form of organic pesticide).

The economy would likely have to have a vertically integrated economy.
Basically, you either need to seduce a whale (rich person/celebrity/etc)
who'll spend money on services you're providing for a few benefits (major
privacy), or you'll have to net tourists and take their money, or you'll have
to have a huge export industry, likely through fishing. If you're choosing the
latter, you might as well buy out or establish a fishing platform and work
from there. It's been well established that oceanic platforms can act as their
own man-made reef, encouraging fish growth in their area. Essentially, a well
designed platform could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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jacoblyles
"Self sufficient" is another way of saying "really poor". Outside of fantastic
aquaculture opportunities and some limited gardens, Patri expects they will
import food from states that have a competitive advantage in farming (such as
having large tracks of arable land and plentiful labor). You should check out
the Econ Talk podcast I linked to below if you're interested in stuff like
this. The easy objections were thought of a few years ago.

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tlack
I feel like this is just a bunch of nerds and kooks who want to meticulously
plan their great utopia while living comfortably in their suburban homes. If
they were serious, they'd already have a few boats lashed together and would
be planning their spar and updating the site from some idyllic remote location
in the sea.

~~~
jacoblyles
Well, there was this: <http://ephemerisle.org/>

And the design of larger scale spar platforms is under way. The Seasteading
Institute did raise a half million dollars from Peter Thiel, so they have some
backing.

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pudo
I found Bruce Sterlings - very sarcastic - comments regarding this enterprise
very interesting (and funny):
[http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/06/male-
libertar...](http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2009/06/male-libertarian-
americans-in-the-computer-industry/)

I share his views insofar as this is internet ideology run amok without much
consideration towards social equality and similar aspects.

Consider the idea of 'coaststeads': How is this different from simple tax
evasion? The idea does not seem to have the coaststeaders sleep on their ships
- they simple commute there in order to evade regulation.

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cmars232
Snow Crash or Diamond Age?

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elblanco
I always found Snow Crash's organic approach to this idea better.

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dnsworks
The last time this was tried, it was called "Aquariums: Project Uprising" or
something equally ridiculous, and consumed several million dollars before it
was revelealed to be (duh) a very well-hyped scam.

~~~
stcredzero
I've been following this one for years. They are very well thought out. (I
learned about Vanadium Redox batteries from them, actually!) And no, I'm not
involved with them. Just have them in my interesting bookmarks.

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Kilimanjaro
Retarded about the platform. Why not use an island instead?

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camccann
If you know of an easy supply of islands that aren't already claimed by some
country, I'm sure they'd love to hear about it.

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ErrantX
Could build one - shallow water (that might be the hard bit), artificial base
then a thick layer of imported rock/soil. :)

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cmars232
Shallow water would probably fall within another sovereign's nautical
territory.

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ErrantX
yes, probably. Though they do discuss the fact that current plans will put the
building within the USA's territorial waters.

~~~
stcredzero
Only as an interim step. I'd see if the island of Nauru would lend them their
sovereignty in exchange for their continued existence as sea levels rise. The
island would only become a mooring point, but as long as they could build up
just one spot above sea level, they'd still exist.

