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Seasteading

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Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government. The term is a portmanteau of the words sea and homesteading.

Seasteaders say such autonomous floating cities will foster faster development of techniques "to feed the hungry, cure the sick, clean the atmosphere and enrich the poor". [1] [2] Critics say, among other things, that seasteads are designed more as a refuge for the wealthy to avoid taxes or other problems.[3]

Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platform, a decommissioned anti-aircraft platform, and custom-built floating islands. [4]

No one has yet created a state on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state.

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperating with an existing nation to prototype floating islands that are legally semi-autonomous within the nation's protected territorial waters. On January 13, 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone". The "seazone" will be the location of a prototype seastead designed by marine engineering firm Blue 21.[5] [6]

History

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,[7][8] Paolo Soleri[9] and companies such as Shimizu and Tangram 3DS.[10]

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

Other historical predecessors and inspirations for seasteading include:

At least two people independently coined the term seasteading: Ken Neumeyer in his book Sailing the Farm (1981) and [[Wayne Gramlich in his article "Seasteading – Homesteading on the High Seas" (1998).[12]

Gramlich’s essay attracted the attention of Patri Friedman.[13] The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001.[14] Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

The Seasteading Institute

The Seasteading Institute's "ClubStead"

Launch

On April 15, 2008, Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman founded the 501c3 non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI), an organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters.[15][16][17]

Friedman and Gramlich noted that according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country's Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from shore.

However, beyond that boundary lie the high seas, which are not subject to the laws of any sovereign state other than the flag under which a ship sails.

They proposed that a seastead could take advantage of the absence of laws and regulations outside the sovereignty of nations to a) experiment with new governance systems, and b) allow the citizens of existing governments to exit more easily.

"When seasteading becomes a viable alternative, switching from one government to another would be a matter of sailing to the other without even leaving your house," said Patri Friedman at the first annual Seasteading conference.[15][18][19]

The Seasteading Institute (TSI) focused on three areas: building a community, doing research, and building the first seastead in the San Francisco Bay. TSI advocated starting small, using proven technology as much as possible.[20]

The project picked up mainstream exposure after having been brought to the attention of PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Thiel donated the initial seed capital to start The Seasteading Insitute, and has contributed $1.7 million [21] in total to date. He also spoke out on behalf of its viability in his essay "The Education of a Libertarian".[22]

As a result of Thiel's backing, TSI received widespread media attention from a variety of sources including [23] The Economist[17] Business Insider,[24] and BBC[25][26]

Progress

In 2008, Friedman and Gramlich had hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the San Francisco Bay by 2010[27][28] Plans were to launch a seastead by 2014, [29] and TSI projected that the seasteading population would exceed 150 individuals in 2015.[30] TSI did not meet these initial targets.

Clubstead

In January 2009, the Seasteading Institute patented a design for a 200-person resort seastead, ClubStead, about a city block in size, produced by consultancy firm Marine Innovation & Technology. ClubStead marked the first major development in hard engineering, from extensive analysis to simulations, of the seasteading movement.[17][31][32]

The Floating City Project

In the spring of 2013,[33] TSI launched The Floating City Project.[34] The project proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation, rather than the open ocean.[35] TSI claimed that doing so would have several advantages:

  • Easier to engineer a seastead in relatively calm, shallow waters
  • Easier for residents to travel to and from the seastead
  • Easier to acquire goods and services from existing supply chains
  • Would place a floating city within the international legal framework.

In October 2013, the Institute raised $27,082 from 291 funders in a crowdfunding campaign[36] TSI used the funds to hire the Dutch marine engineering firm DeltaSync[37] to write an engineering study for The Floating City Project.

In September of 2016 the Seasteading Institute met with officials in French Polynesia[38] to discuss building a prototype seastead in a sheltered lagoon. On January 13, 2017, TSI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone". The "seazone" will be the location of a prototype seastead designed by marine engineering firm Blue 21.[5] [6]

People

On July 31, 2011, Randolph Hencken replaced Patri Friedman as Executive Director. Friedman became chairman of the board. Joe Quirk was hired as Communications Director in March, 2014.[39][40]

Design Proposals

Retrofitted cruise ships

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. TSI estimated the cost of converting a cruise ship to a "shipstead" to be around $10M.[41] Blue Seed, a for-profit spin-off of The Seasteading Institute, pursued the retro-fitted cruise ship pathway.

Spar platform

The Seasteading Institute's initial platform designs were spar buoys, similar to oil platforms.[42] In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.[31]

Modular island

András Győrfi's "The Swimming City"

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete.[43] Reinforced cement is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures. The company AT Design Office recently proposed another modular island design.[44]

Other Projects

Blueseed

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland[45][46] but as of 2014 the project is "on hold".[47] Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute.[45][46]

Evolo

The company Evolo has hosted design competitions that have yielded some seastead designs. [48][49][50]

Criticism

Criticisms have been leveled at both the practicality and desirability of seasteading. Among these criticisms include:

  • Most of the people involved in seasteading do not have nautical training or experience.
  • Seasteads can't be built engineered to withstand open ocean conditions in an economical fashion.
  • Seasteads will cause environmental damage from resource extraction, and waste production.
  • Seasteads exist primarily to allow wealthy individuals (such as Peter Thiel) to avoid paying taxes.
  • Seasteads will allow seastead residents to pursue anti-social ends, such as avoiding financial, environmental, and labor regulations.

Conferences

The Seasteading Institute held its first conference in Burlingame, California, October 10, 2008. 45 people from 9 countries attended.[51] The second Seasteading conference was significantly larger, and held in San Francisco, California, September 28–30, 2009.[52][53] The third Seasteading conference took place on May 31 - June 2, 2012.[54]

Seasteading has been imagined numerous times in pop culture in recent years.

  • Waterworld was a major motion picture that featured seastead communities at various points throughout the film.
  • In video games, the idea of a city on the ocean to escape from any kind of government is the main plot of the games BioShock and BioShock 2, Brink, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, while in the Metal Gear games a fictional private military company named "Militaires sans Frontieres" (Soldiers Without Borders) maintains a base in the ocean, named Mother Base, that is independent from any government.
  • Transhumania is a seasteading city in the novel The Transhumanist Wager by Zoltan Istvan.
  • The book Snow Crash in part takes place on Rife's Raft, a floating refuge camp consisting of boats, rafts and anything that floats tied together.
  • L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, engaged in a similar practice, for similar reasons (namely, avoid established governmental authority). An entire branch of the organization, including Hubbard himself and his executive leadership, became a maritime based community named the Sea Organization (Sea Org). Beginning in 1967 with a complement of four ships the Sea Org spent most of its existence on the high sea, visiting ports around the world for refueling and resupply. In 1975 much of these operations were shifted to land based locations around the world, especially in the USA (e.g. Clearwater, FL) and the UK (Saint Hill Manor).
  • Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is a Japanese anime that primarily takes place on a traveling city made of an interconnected fleet of ships in the ocean.

See also

References

  1. ^ Griffiths, Sarah (2015-07-08). "Will cities of the future FLOAT? $167 million project using concrete platforms could be home to 300 people by 2020". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  2. ^ Zolfagharifard, Ellie (2017-01-17). "Plans for world's first 'floating city' unveiled: Radical designs could be built in the Pacific Ocean in 2019". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  3. ^ Guardian: "Seasteading: tech leaders' plans for floating city trouble French Polynesians"
  4. ^ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (April 28, 2008). "Homesteading on the High Seas: Floating Burning Man, "jurisdictional arbitrage," and other adventures in anarchism". Reason Magazine. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  5. ^ a b Carli, James (December 10, 2016). "Oceantop Living in a Seastead - Realistic, Sustainable, and Coming Soon". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-01-25.
  6. ^ a b BBC, News (January 17, 2017). "French Polynesia signs first floating city deal". BBC. Retrieved 2017-01-25. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  7. ^ "Vincent Callebaut Architecte LILYPAD". callebaut.org.
  8. ^ "LILYPAD feature". archinect.com.
  9. ^ Rose, Steve (August 25, 2008). "The man who saw the future". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  10. ^ "12 Post-Apocalypse Floating Cities and Homes: From Crazy Concepts to Reality". TreeHugger.
  11. ^ "Explorers in the Valley still charting new territory". The Irish Times. 19 September 2008.
  12. ^ "SeaSteading -- Homesteading the High Seas". gramlich.net.
  13. ^ Fingleton, Eamonn (March 26, 2010). "Seasteading: the great escape". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  14. ^ Gramlich, Wayne; Friedman, Patri (2002). "Getting Serious About SeaSteading". Andrew House. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  15. ^ a b Baker, Chris (January 19, 2009). "Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 2009-01-19.
  16. ^ "History".
  17. ^ a b c "Cities on the Ocean". The Economist. 3 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  18. ^ "Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies". WIRED.
  19. ^ "City floating on the sea could be just 3 years away". CNN. March 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  20. ^ May Young, Niki (May 22, 2008). "The Seasteading Institute established to develop permanent ocean communities". World Architecture News. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  21. ^ Wang, Brian (January 13, 2017). "Peter Thiel on Trump, Seasteading and making futures more like the Jetsons or Star Trek". Next Big Future. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  22. ^ Peter Thiel (April 13, 2009). "The Education of a Libertarian".
  23. ^ "Seasteading: the great escape". Prospect Magazine. April 2010.
  24. ^ "Seasteading Misconceptions - Business Insider". Business Insider. 16 November 2013.
  25. ^ "BBC - Future - Ocean living: A step closer to reality?". BBC Future.
  26. ^ Stossel, John (11 February 2011). "Is Seasteading the Future?".
  27. ^ Adam Frucci. "Silicon Valley Nerds Plan Sea-Based Utopian Country to Call Their Own". Gizmodo. Gawker Media.
  28. ^ "Libertarian Island: No Rules, Just Rich Dudes". NPR.org. 21 May 2008.
  29. ^ "Meetup.com - October 2010 Seasteading Social at the Hyatt Regency SF". Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  30. ^ "Seasteading: A Possible Timeline". Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  31. ^ a b Gramlich, Wayne; Friedman, Patri; Houser, Andrew (2002–2004). "Seasteading". seasteading.org. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  32. ^ "ClubStead". seasteading.org. 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  33. ^ Charlie Deist. "The Seasteading Institute". The Seasteading Institute.
  34. ^ "Floating City Project - The Seasteading Institute - Startup Cities". The Seasteading Institute.
  35. ^ "Start". Startup Cities Institute.
  36. ^ "Designing the Worlds First Floating City - Indiegogo". Indiegogo.
  37. ^ "DeltaSync". deltasync.nl.
  38. ^ https://www.seasteading.org/2016/09/french-polynesia-open-seasteading-collaboration/
  39. ^ Quirk, Joe (March 14, 2017). "March 2014 Newsletter". Seasteading Institute. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  40. ^ Ives, Mike (2017-01-27). "As Climate Change Accelerates, Floating Cities Look Like Less of a Pipe Dream". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  41. ^ "About Seasteading - Frequently Asked Questions". The Seasteading Institute. Retrieved 2011-06-03.
  42. ^ McCullagh, Declan (February 2, 2009). "Next Frontier: "Seasteading" The Oceans". CBS News. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
  43. ^ "Apply Seasteading Concrete Shell Structures - The Seasteading Institute". The Seasteading Institute.
  44. ^ "Floating City concept by AT Design Office features underwater roads". Dezeen.
  45. ^ a b Lee, Timothy (2011-11-29). "Startup hopes to hack the immigration system with a floating incubator". Ars Technica. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  46. ^ a b Donald, Brooke (16 December 2011). "Blueseed Startup Sees Entrepreneur-Ship as Visa Solution for Silicon Valley". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  47. ^ Slideshare- Blueseed lessons learned
  48. ^ "Oceanscraper- eVolo - Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  49. ^ "Seascraper – Floating City - eVolo - Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  50. ^ "Oil Platforms Transformed into Sustainable Seascrapers- eVolo - Architecture Magazine". evolo.us.
  51. ^ "Seasteading Institute 2008 Annual Report" (PDF). TSI. April 15, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  52. ^ "Seasteading 2009 Annual Conference". TSI. August 10, 2009. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
  53. ^ McCullagh, Declan (2009-10-11). "Seasteaders Take First Step Toward Colonizing The Oceans". CBSNews. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
  54. ^ "Huffington Post: "Seasteading Institute Convention" June 2012".
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