Random Game-Changing Facts About Floating Cities & Seasteading (17 items)

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  (#1) Seasteading Is Basically the Only Way to Create New Nations from Scratch

  Want to create your own country from scratch? If you want to do it on dry land, you're out of luck: as the Seasteading Institute points out, "there is no land unclaimed by existing governments." Seasteading advocates say that living at sea is likely the only way to truly start a new nation, noting that even unoccupied islands are controlled by existing countries that exploit their fishing and mineral resources.
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  (#2) Seasteading's Biggest Financial Backers Want to "Escape from Politics"

  Seasteaders aren't just in it for the cool ocean breezes: seasteading champions such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel want to use seasteads to "escape from politics in all its forms." Many wannabe seasteaders want to create self-sufficient "libertarian utopias" by "voting with their boats" instead of reforming existing political systems. Critics note that even a "libertarian utopia" is driven by politics, just a different kind of politics.
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  (#3) Governments May Not Leave Seasteaders Alone

  The history of establishing micro-nations similar to the ones proposed by the proponents of seasteading is pretty ugly. Existing nations typically assert jurisdiction (e.g., Tonga and the Republic of Minerva) or simply use force to destroy the micro-nation (e.g., Italy and the Republic of Rose Island).

  Seasteaders could seek temporary protection by adopting the flag of a nearby foreign country and thus subject themselves to local maritime law, but those countries would probably get pretty pissed if the seastead was a success and hundreds of its former citizens were living and working tax-free just off shore.
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  (#4) Seasteads Could Be Almost Entirely Self-Sufficient

  A proposed Chinese seastead aims to be basically self-sufficient, with plans for tidal energy, on-site farms and hatcheries, and even a factory or two to create necessary goods. Residents technically would never have to leave the city and could even travel to work, parks, and various entertainment venues via submarine and electric car. The 10-square-kilometer island would even convert all its garbage into energy.
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  (#5) Some People Have Already Been "Seasteading" for More Than a Thousand Years

  Think seasteading is wildly impractical? Tell that to the Tanka people of southeast China. The Tanka "boat people" have been living in floating homes and working on seafood farms since the Tang Dynasty (around 700 AD). About 7,000 of these so-called "gypsies of the sea" currently live in the floating city founded by their ancestors as a way to flee a mainland war.
  
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  (#6) The First Full-Time Modern Seasteaders Would Have to Be Super Rich

  The first seastead prototypes will likely cost about $100,000 per occupant, which doesn't sound super pricey, but that's $100,000 in cash we're talking about. Banks likely won't accept a seastead as collateral, so it's not like buying a house.

  What does that $100,000 get you? If you're living in the seastead envisioned by Wayne Gramlich (who coined the term), only about 100 square feet of living space.
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  (#7) Seasteading's Biggest Champion Is a Donald Trump Fan

  Seasteading poster boy and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is many things: a billionaire, a futurist, a "comic-book villain" (according to Gawker), and a seeker of eternal life. He's also a supporter of Donald Trump's presidential campaign and is a Trump delegate in California.

  Why? Thiel hasn't officially commented, but it's speculated that they share views on immigration and libel laws.
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  (#8) Seasteaders Don't Want to Live Off the Coasts of Countries With UN or EU Membership

  TSI has discussed with several countries the possibility of building floating communities just off their shores, but they don't want their potential new micro-nations anywhere near countries with United Nations Security Council or European Union memberships. Countries with those affiliations wouldn't provide the necessary autonomy for a proper seastead to thrive. TSI has also ruled out countries in hurricane and cyclone zones. Which countries are candidates? Ghana, Columbia, Hong Kong, Panama, and Singapore, among others.
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  (#9) Seasteads Can't Just Be Recycled Cruise Ships

  TSI cites cruise ships as examples of the viability of the seasteading lifestyle, noting that "over thirty million people a year" already visit cruise ships and are thus familiar with life at sea. TSI thinks cruise ships are proof that the "basic problems" of seasteading engineering have been solved, but they make it clear that cruise ship life and seasteading are very different. You can't just park several cruise ships next to each other and call it seasteading: cruise ships tend to roll in choppy waters and their stabilizers only work when they're in motion.
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  (#10) The First Major Seastead Could Be a High-Tech Business Incubator

  Foreign entrepreneurs looking to sell their big ideas in Silicon Valley run into a big problem: US immigration officials limit how long they can stay in the country, thus cutting into the valuable time it takes to get their big ideas off the ground. Enter Blueseed, a proposed seastead-like business incubator off the coast of San Francisco that would allow foreign innovators to work close to Silicon Valley without government meddling.

  What about trips to the mainland? B-1 visas would allow workers to freely travel back and forth from Blueseed to Silicon Valley for business purposes and are valid for as long as 10 years.
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  (#11) The First Independent Seasteads May Be "At-Sea Trailer Parks"

  One of the founding principles of seasteading is the idea of "dynamic geography," meaning that seasteaders could just decide to up and leave if they don't like their home. It's essentially modular living, which may remind you of another mobile lifestyle: living in a trailer park. The director of engineering for the Seasteading Institute acknowledges the comparison and thinks the "at-sea trailer park" is the best seasteading approach. Critics say that economic forces would "cripple dynamic geography" and basically eliminate modular seastead living.
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  (#12) Seastead Internet Connections Would Most Likely Suck

  Seasteading is a concept that has received a ton of support from tech-savvy entrepreneurs and innovators (such as Peter Thiel and former Google software engineer Patri Friedman), so it's pretty ironic that seastead Internet service would really suck.

  How bad would it be? We're talking a 1.5 MBps satellite connection at best for seasteads built on large deep-sea platforms. That weak signal would also cost its users hundreds of dollars per month, making seasteading even more cost prohibitive.
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  (#13) Seasteaders Have Their Own "Burning Man"

  If you want a taste of the seasteading lifestyle, check out Ephemerisle, a sort of floating Burning Man-like festival that's been held off the California coast every year since 2009. TSI founded Ephemerisle as a festival with "no tickets, no central organizers, no rules" on a floating mini-city on the Sacramento River Delta.

  TSI was only affiliated with the party in 2009 and now the whole thing is community run (insurance proved to be too expensive for TSI to remain officially involved).
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  (#14) Real Estate Prices on a Seastead Would Rival San Francisco or New York

  The seasteading life won't be cheap, but it won't be prohibitively expensive, either... if you can currently afford to live in San Francisco or New York. One proposed seastead called Clubstead is estimated to be built at a cost of about $311 per square foot, which is roughly what real estate costs in those infamously pricey cities. The Seasteading Institute is confident, however, that life at sea will get cheaper as the technology improves.
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  (#15) Proposed Seasteads Resemble the HQs of Tech Giants

  No one knows for sure what future seasteads will look like - or if they will even really exist - but proposed designs so far indicate that they would likely look like high-tech office buildings occupied by the likes of Apple, Google, and Nvidia. Similar design features include geodesic domes, donut-shaped structures, modular designs, and tessellated facades. The architectural nods make sense: the seasteading mission is largely lead by former Silicon Valley bigwigs.
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  (#16) The World's First Independent Seasteaders Will Win a Prize (And a Statue)

  Actual independent seasteading - with de facto political autonomy and financial self-sufficiency - is still just a dream, but the Seasteading Institue promises to reward dreamers who make it a reality with the Poseidon Award.

  Details on the award are vague - will there be a cash prize? - but TSI says it will include a "physical monument" inscribed with the names of donors who have helped make seasteading a reality. In order to qualify, the winning seastead will also have to have at least 50 full-time residents and offer real estate on the open market.
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  (#17) Reality TV May Put Seasteading in the Spotlight

  Seasteading is still a pretty obscure pursuit, but a reality TV competition show allegedly in the works may change all that. Fusion reported in early 2015 about a casting call from the Seasteading Institute for a "new unscripted television series for a major cable network" that would depict seasteaders doing their thing. No word yet on whether or not the show will actually happen, but "Seavivor" (to quote Fusion) would definitely put seasteading in the spotlight.

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