Seasteading alert!
Don’t have the time to go into it here, but it’s a very bad idea.
Back in the 90s this sort of project was the rage among Libertarians. The idea was to buy a bunch of deep sea oil platforms and link them together into a colony of sorts. Rules would have been pretty much pure Libertarian (so not a heck of a lot of them).
It didn’t, of course, ever get off the shore. I don’t really see it as likely this time either.
400 years ago these countries were called “ships” and seasteaders were called “privateers”. Each ship was run by the rules it’s captain set.
” Nobel-prize-winning “
in todays world, I would have that removed from my resume
Sounds like Admiral John Galt
Ocean waters off the Somali coast would offer a mild climate.
However, Stossel fails here. Besides my first cynical reaction of: just wait, some government or the U.N. will interfere. I find myself asking, "What is the economic case for these places?"
Unless driven by government fiat (or oppression), all major human settlement is driven by economic considerations. Heck, even the Pilgrims had to get sponsorship from capitalists in England to form their colony. So unless you can make a "business case" for sea colonies, you won't get them done by the private sector.
A rare FAIL for Mr. Stossel here.
i am constantly astonished at the creative ability of human beings. what a novel idea. it will help build a template for the eventual colonization of the galaxy. i hope this catches on. just imagine the possibilities. A brand new Botany Bay for one.the permutations are endless.
Reminds me of The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, which offers a pathway to sustained space flight - #2 Aquarius - Colonize offshore for food, energy and practice before trying to colonize another planet.
There was a company based in Tampa FL that was planning a floating city about 10 years ago. Had its own airport and floated around the world going with favorable weather and the ability to explore the entire world.
Sounds expensive, besides, stuff that is on the surface of the ocean can sink.
Sounds wonderful in concept, but in practice I could envision some serious problems that would need to be dealt with. Continuous sources of food and fresh water being among them. Too bad you can’t drink the water from the ocean, and that cattle don’t have gills. I suppose one could grow an adequate garden for a handful of people, but vegetable bearing plants tend to not like ocean water either. Such issues immediately make you dependent on someone who is on the mainland to produce something for you, just for survival. You’re also going to need something to trade for those consumables. I don’t see much in the way of revenue generation living out on the ocean, so you are gonna need a padded bank account on day one just to sustain the people living out there and the operation.
Uh...
I thought we've DONE this already?
Duh... Who's going to do all the WORK?
This has been tried before...
There was a nutty Brit who tried this in the late 60s when they tried converting an old Maunsell Forts that were built during the War as air raid defenses, into the independent Principality of Sealand. He issued passports, had a flag and coat of arms and there was even a coup on one of the platforms at one point.
I’m not sure where it all stands today, but as far as I know there are still a lot of Sealand passports floating around out there....
I have an idea. Let’s set up a free republic based on the rule of law, not of men. A nation with a moral basis, in which the purpose of government is to secure the God-given rights to life, liberty, and private property of all the people, from conception to natural death.
We could call it “America,” and its territory could extend from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean to the islands of the Pacific.
Yeah, we could do that...