Somebody watched Octonauts as a kid...<p>More seriously, this seems like an elaborate troll of space settlement enthusiasts. It's far simpler and less demanding than long-term settlement in space...and you still look at it and go "WTF would anyone want to do that? Wouldn't it just be easier to send robots down"?
There's been a spate of underwater-living articles lately, and there's no doubt the ocean is an area ripe for research.<p>But to be clear, these facilities require surface support - they are not self-sustaining. Which is perfectly fine (the ISS is not self sustainable either.)<p>So this isn't "humanity moving into the sea", it's "humanity learning more about the sea". Which is certainly a worthwhile goal.
>anonymous private investor, has begun work to create a ‘permanent human settlement’ under the sea<p>This sound so preposterous as work to create ‘permanent human settlement’ in Mars.<p>But if given a choice which one to support with my money with zero probability of any returns, I will much rather supporting sea settlement than Mars.
Already done in France in 1962 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau : <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9continent_III" rel="nofollow">https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9continent_III</a>