Blueseed[1] made a lot of noise about mooring a ship off shore of Half Moon Bay, near Silicon Valley, to house developers who couldn't get US visas. They had even fancier off-shore development pictures for later phases. They had the idea that developers could live on the ship and freely visit Silicon Valley. It was mostly a tax dodge.<p>They discovered that 1) the county-owned small boat harbor at Half Moon Bay wasn't going to support them by building the on-shore facilities they needed for ferries, 2) Half Moon Bay isn't a US port of entry; anyone coming in from the boat would have to go through San Francisco, and 3) if people are going to work remotely, who needs a boat?<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blueseed</a>
Nice to see this here :-)<p>I am the one who helped them migrate their old WordPress theme to Layers (<a href="http://www.layerswp.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.layerswp.com</a>). I haven't quite finished yet, but I am pretty close.<p>Let me know if you have any feedback!<p>btw, I also helped them migrate their forum from bbPress to Discourse: <a href="http://discuss.seasteading.org" rel="nofollow">http://discuss.seasteading.org</a>
As an anarchist myself, I know better than most that libertarians are all mostly full of hot air.<p>While I don't necessarily think that seasteading is worthless as a concept, this project is pie in the sky. You don't build cities. They grow. And if you want to grow a floating city, you have to build floating homes.<p>Build a seastead that supports just one person--one!--without logistical support from any landmass, and keep it afloat for a few years, and I might consider that you would one day be capable of a floating hamlet. But a whole city in 5 years? I call bullshit. Reichee Sowa did more with Spiral Island, and he couldn't even raise $15k on Kickstarter for life jackets and fire extinguishers.
Couldn't these floating cities get completely owned by tropical storms, hurricanes, etc?<p>Due to the proximity to (warm) water, storms would be much worse than on land - and there would be nothing to affix large structures to.
Does anyone else find it ironic that they have a big page about the failure of modern democracies to protect rights and how setting out to the sea can free us from tyrannical governments with run-away spending, followed by [1]:<p><i>The Floating City Project combines principles of both seasteading and startup cities, by seeking to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation. Historically, The Seasteading Institute has looked to international waters for the freedom... However, there are several reasons we are now seeking a host nation:... b) it will be easier for residents to travel to and from the seastead, as well as to acquire goods and services from existing supply chains; and c) a host nation will provide a place for a floating city within the existing international legal framework, with the associated protections and responsibilities.</i><p>[1] <a href="http://www.seasteading.org/2015/04/podcast-is-seasteading-beyond-democracy-ask-frank-karsten-author/" rel="nofollow">http://www.seasteading.org/2015/04/podcast-is-seasteading-be...</a>
Humans are yet to master building cities on land let alone a floating one. Dealing with the logistic and infrastructure of a floating city will most likely make it too costly.<p>For small nations countries in need of land like Singapore sucking out sand from the ocean and refilling it will still probably be cheaper safer and more valuable due to the low maintanance filled land requires relative to a floating one.
It's ironic how the Bioshock games vaguely follow the Seasteading Institute's plans (Bioshock 1 with Rapture, underwater cities not quite floating islands and Bioshock infinite with floating cities : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZWirICmG8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZWirICmG8</a>)
I 'm starting to not take these people seriously. It seems to me like some libertarian billionaires do the equivalent of building dick-shaped towers in the arabian desert. Their keep planning and planning, but i never hear about how they are going to defend their cities from pirates or what will be the laws of the land.