Friday, June 1, 2012

Do You Want To Live In A Floating Ocean Community?


“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.” --Kenneth Grahame

By their nature, people seek adventure. The drive to escape the status quo opened the American frontier, sent man to the moon, and has led to countless ocean expeditions for the purpose of charting new territory, exploring the depths of the seafloor, vacationing, and more. The Seasteading Institute was founded on the premise that these temporary voyages have just begun to tap into the bounty of the oceans; it seeks to enable a new cohort of seafaring pioneers to establish permanent communities in international waters, to experiment with new ideas for innovative and sustainable governmental systems.

But why would anyone want to colonize the ocean when there’s so much open space on land? First, as those who have experienced a taste of life at seas can attest, the vast blue landscape calms and mesmerizes -- unlike on land, everyone gets a seaside view! Second, residents of floating vessels have substantial autonomy, including the ability to relocate with much greater ease than on land. The seasteading community envisions a future in which floating mega-cities made up of detachable, or “modular,” buildings enable the formation, reshaping, and replication of the best ideas for organizing society. The ocean clearly has much to offer, whether one is looking to dine and relax on a brief cruise or build a permanent platform for advancing humanity.

Given the audacity of this vision, The Seasteading Institute is trying to break down the major legal, business, and engineering challenges into smaller “incremental” steps, which can be solved by entrepreneurs using existing technology. Since its founding in 2008, the Institute has produced hundreds of pages of research and built a community of thousands of people around the world. This leveraged approach will stimulate development of numerous seasteading businesses in the next few years. One such business is the Blueseed Project, a for-profit spin-off of the Institute, which will provide opportunities for foreign tech entrepreneurs who can’t get immigration visas to lease space on a retrofitted cruise ship 12 miles from Silicon Valley. These ventures will prove that permanent living on the ocean is not just possible, but sustainable -- technologically, legally, and financially.


Once the major challenges have been overcome, an increasing number of people will opt for the seasteading way of life, creating demand for real estate aboard ever-larger ships, small floating platforms, and eventually, full-fledged cities on the ocean. If you are interested in participating in this grand vision for advancing humanity, you can sign up to receive a semi-monthly newsletter at seasteading.org, or support the Institute by becoming a member.

Written by: Charlie Deist, Staff Writer/Administrative Associate at seasteading.org



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