Posted on 06/03/2011 1:28:15 PM PDT by SmithL
Milton Friedman's grandson Patri has a vision that might have made the economist proud: to build a floating libertarian nation 12 miles off the coast of California.
Billed as "Burning Man meets Silicon Valley meets the water," the planned nation flotilla would be constructed on a variety of barges and water platforms within sight of San Francisco. It would include everything from homes, schools and hospitals to bikes for transportation and aqua farms for food.
Despite the widespread skepticism that the project is bound to invite, Friedman already has secured more than $2 million in venture capital for the development, which strives to create a free-market society in which members are free to form their own governing structures.
"We can't experiment here because all the land is claimed - the only place left is the ocean," says Friedman, 35, a former Google engineer now working for the "seasteading" movement full-time. Construction of floating offices will, according to Friedman, begin off the city in 2012. The project, which aims to have tens of millions of residents by the time it's completed in 2040, may ultimately be floated down the Pacific toward San Diego, but for the next decade, the focus will be here.
Those in academic circles have balked. "The whole thing is so far from any kind of conventional urban planning," says UC Berkeley Professor of Architecture Margaret Crawford. "The physical premises are just ridiculous."
But that hasn't stopped Friedman and his think tank staff of 10 at the Seasteading Institute in Sunnyvale from going full steam ahead. Backed almost entirely by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, the team plans to seastead, colonize the sea beyond the reach of existing nations.
Friedman's mission is to open a political vacuum into which people can experiment with startup governments...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Waterworld lives?
Just goes to show you that good judgment is not inherited.
What kind of idiot would invest in this travesty.
Just goes to show you that good judgment is not inherited.
What kind of idiot would invest in this travesty?
Ugh. Libertarians.
Ugh. Libertarians.
Supposing this ever gets off the ground, they will have to deal with piracy sooner or later. And then, in the immortal words of Nathaniel Hawthorne:
“Oh, take my word for it, it will be the old world yet!”
Sometimes crazy actually works. Sounds a heck of a lot more plausible than colonizing Mars...and a lot more convenient.
I thought that farmed fish is considered "not green" by the Left Coast.
"I envision tens of millions of people in an Apple or a Google country," where the high-tech giants would govern and residents would have no vote. "If people are allowed to opt in or out, you can have a successful dictatorship,"
WTF?
It'll look lovely parked near the Golden Gate Bridge...
Anoreth (and her leg-breaker, James) would take the security contract, I'm sure, for an appropriate fee. She could name her gunboat The P.J. O'Rourke.
Anoreth (and her leg-breaker, James) would take the security contract, I'm sure, for an appropriate fee. She could name her gunboat The P.J. O'Rourke.
I would think they would be prepared for such a scenatio. This is going to be city, not a ship. Furthermore, pirates are less problemic than say, san francisco itself. A whole city of freakazoids THAT’S a problem. You can shoot pirates.
The USA claims sovereignty out to 200 miles as a ‘sphere of influence’ and Freidman can expect the Coast Guard to come calling to bust up the party. There’s a reef some 168 miles off of Southern California where some folks planned on building a country and the US cut them short by saying the US had rights out to 200 miles.
Yes, I know it’s arguably an illegal claim, but when you’ve got the world’s mightiest military to back you up legalities are, well, just legalities.
Realistically, wouldn’t they be subject to U.S. law unless they’re 200 miles offshore?
Already been proposed and collapsed. A nutball (or fraudster) named Lazarus Long wanted to create a “New Utopia” or something similar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Long_%28micronationalist%29
It would be nice if this did take off.
I was thinking just a medium-grade storm would cause HUGH problems!!!!
:-)
Back around 1973 or so I read an article about the WWII USS Enterprise selling for $400K for scrap. A friend and I came up with the idea of buying an old aircraft carrier, anchoring it in the Caribbean and turning it into a casino/resort. We were going to declare independance, declare war on the US, then immediately surrender and apply for foreign aid!
We also decided to name it Sodom. If it succeeded we were going to buy another one and name it Gomorrah!
We came up with some really far out ideas in those dorm room bull sessions!
Silicon Valley has long lusted after the ship full of software developers stationed in international waters...
http://oceania.org/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.