Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Worried about rising sea levels? According to the Seasteading Institute and Blue Frontiers, the solution is a self governing libertarian network of floating cities loosely attached to French Polynesia.
A floating Pacific island is in the works with its own government, cryptocurrency and 300 houses
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Camille Bianchi
Published 5:01 AM ET Fri, 18 May 2018
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Mezza-Garcia spoke with CNBC’s Matthew Taylor about what she sees as the trouble with governments, and why she believes tech startups should head to Tahiti.
This seavangelesse is a researcher for the Blue Frontiers and Seasteading Institute’s highly-anticipated Floating Island Project.
The project is a pilot program in partnership with the government of French Polynesia, which will see 300 homes built on an island that runs under its own governance, using a cryptocurrency called Varyon.
“Once we can see how this first island works, we will have a proof of concept to plan for islands to house climate refugees,” she said.
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“There is significance to this project being trialed in the Polynesian Islands. This is the region where land is resting on coral and will disappear with rising sea levels,” Mezza-Garcia said.
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“If you don’t want to live under a particular government,” she said, “people will be able to just take their house and float away to another island.”
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The idea of regime shopping, moving to different countries to avoid mis-governance, has sound historical precedent. The USA was settled by people who were fed up with the old world. My favourite history book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers suggests the fractured politics of Renaissance Europe, and the ease with which talented individuals could relocate, forced European governments to compete for business. The restraint the risk of losing tax paying merchants and craftsmen imposed on the tyrannies of the day led to the rise of the modern world.
But I can’t help thinking the seasteading utopians haven’t fully thought through all the issues.
Polynesia is subject to some truly horrendous storms. The last place you want to be when a cyclone or hurricane hits is floating on the water.
Cyclone hits French Polynesia
updated 2/4/2010 4:25:02 PM ET
PAPEETE, Tahiti — Cyclone Oli buffeted French Polynesia on Thursday, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists to churches, schools and temples.
The archipelago that includes Tahiti was under red alert until the cyclone passes, and all roads were closed. Towering waves were buffeting buoys off the coast of Tahiti’s capital, Papeete. French television showed a naval ship pitching in the storm.
Around 3,500 people in Tahiti and Moorea who risked being swept away or inundated by lashing waves were evacuated, officials said, and about 50 homes were destroyed in Moorea.
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If climate alarmists are right, those superstorms will get worse. Bad news for floating structures.
I suspect the seasteaders will go forward despite any unresolved issues. The urge to homestead, to get some elbow room, relocate away from people who you cannot stand, is as old as humanity.
Despite the odds, and their whacky ideas about climate change, I hope the Seasteaders succeed. The risk of high value entrepreneurs relocating to seastead communities might place increased pressure on traditional governments to lower taxes and cut red tape.
Update (EW): Added a video from the Seasteading Institute website. The image at the top of this post is not necessarily one of the constructions planned by the seasteading pioneers, it is a copyleft image of a seastead. Sorry for not making this clear.
Deja Vu all over again! In the 1970s a group of libertarians thought they’d break away and start their own country by building up an atol in middle of the Pacific. They got it above sea level and the King of Tonga sailed up with a warship and took it as his property. End of island republic.
As far as armed inhabitants, there are frangible bullets which do not penetrate metal walls, but cause individuals who are struck to quit doing what they were doing that got them struck.
Ok with me as long as they completely recycle their own you-know-what and refuse. No peeing in the pool kinda thing.
Are they powered by Spindizzies (Cities in Flight for the SF-challenged)?
No, Douglas-Martin sunpower screens backed up with Shipstones.
Of course 🙂
@All- here are some more details of the planned Arkon One …
There will be a variety of cabin sizes starting at 3 by 4m, 3 by 5m, 4 by 5m, and 4 by 8. At the end of 15 years a citizen will convert his rent to ownership of a cabin. The currency will be gold and silver backed. By working 6 hours per day for 6 days a week a citizen will be able to pay for a cabin and food and saving and Healthcare and entertainment.
Sandy, Minister of Future
Why not use a floating dry-dock? Well-established technology, and there is room for a sizable village on the floor. Also a dry-dock if built in sections is capable of self-docking and self-maintenance. Of course you would have to remove the village for docking and undocking. But there is always a downside, as the man said who had to pay for his mother-in-law’s funeral.
The poor and not-so-wealthy generally need to stay where they are, but the article reported on wasn’t really written about them.
On the other hand, the wealthy can already do what she says by simply having several homes in different places.And they do. It is of zero consequence to them. They are more worried about tin-pot governments (or pirates) coming after their money, and what is the best protection. When that happens, all of a sudden they fall in love again with stable Western democracies and regulated banks. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
The problem with the rich is that they can move around and have more freedom.
can’t recall how many floating libertarian cities have been planned over the decades – and died on the drafting table
Just don’t put it in or near the South China Sea or it will become a military base. It might get seized anyway.
ONE QUESTION: Can I get flying cars with that floating city? Oh, you meant floating on the WATER. Still, … would it come with flying cars?
Let’s give international terrorists MORE easy targets like this. … and give news outlets MORE potential breaking news, as a result. Disaster is just good entertainment and good business, … for those not in it.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but given other needs of the world, this project seems like a frivolous, wealthy-person, toy project.
If they built an unsubsidized wind turbine that didn’t harm anything would you object to that?
I wouldn’t. as long as unit did not require baseload coverage.
this is why I have often thought the wind proponents should have pushed for individual rooftop/single site types to AUGMENT household usage ( with extra charging whole home battery for power failures and NOT feeding the grid as a whole) and NOT a huge install to cover whole areas as w/o baseload backup it fails.
sadly the subsidies went towards large setups and not towards individual sites so there we are…..
Ragnar,
What dmacieo said.
Don’t tell Hank Johnson about this one – he already thinks Guam is going to tip over.
It’s more sustainable than the pykrete idea from the Brits.
simpsons did it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_Already_Did_It
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Totally_Fun_Thing_That_Bart_Will_Never_Do_Again
clips
One good severe storm and these floating monstrosities will all be where they should be ……in Davey Jones’ Locker!!
“I don’t people should live in low earth orbit”
Who said anything about LEO? Read O’Neill’s “High Frontier”. Gravity at anything you like and plenty of radiation shielding. Export industry is solar power converted to microwaves.
I think people are too pessimistic about sea steading. Technologically possible but political problems. The rest of the world will claim that the thing belongs to whichever country’s citizens started/run it. Which is amusing given the world says that the Chinese artificial islands built on shoals or submerged reefs in the South China Sea aren’t legally Chinese territory. I love seeing governments contradict themselves.
I note also a complete silence by Greenpeace et al about reef destruction etc on said islands.
The one thing that leftists are good at is fantasy, you have to give them that…but where is the space for the meadow with the rolling hills where everyone can ride the unicorns?
Seasteading is a project started by Patri Friedman. Patri’s father is David Friedman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University. David’s father was the immortal, Milton Friedman.
I have seen David among the commenters at WWUT.
All of this information is interesting, but not relevant to the merits of the project.
I remember a guy doing a presentation on starting a new high-tech society on an island off California to a libertarian group I was in. It wouldn’t need much government regulation and wouldn’t have to pay for a military. What a perfect society!
I brought up that if they succeeded and created a good amount of wealth, they would be invaded and taken over by Mexican drug gangs or pirates.
He didn’t have an answer to that.
Fiji!!
It’s cold outside
There’s no kind of atmosphere
I’m all alone, more or less
Let me fly, far away from here
Fun Fun Fun, in the Sun Sun Sun
I want to lie, Shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh mango juice
Gold fish shoals
Nibbling at my toes
Fun Fun Fun, in the Sun Sun Sun
Fun Fun Fun, in the Sun Sun Sun