Heard the same rhetoric from http://oceania.org - which shut down in 1994.
Heck, heard similar from NASA: 40 years ago they were telling me I’d go to the Moon in 40 years. Now they’re promising 40 years from now.
I have high hopes for such lofty aspirations for independence - tempered by the high cost of implementation & maintenance.
I just finished reading a history of Haiti. In a close parallel, it was a near-unoccupied island with everything going for it any “libertarian paradise” could want (technically a colony, but almost as independent as practically possible). Long story short, the tremendous proven productivity potential of the island fast failed from the unwillingness of enough people to actually work that hard. Likewise, the images shown depict an artificial space (not even the benefit of square miles of natural topsoil) that will be hard-pressed to produce more value than the sunk costs to create & maintain it; in addition, that’s very little space per person.
I’ll follow the project with interest, but have my doubts (having seen many other mega projects come & go).
Until it elects a mayor, council or president