Posted on 06/02/2012 2:59:02 PM PDT by kingattax
Colonizing the oceans to free human progress from the choking grasp of regulation has drawn a wealthy group of futurists, engineers, maritime lawyers and libertarians to San Francisco this weekend.
"We've run out of frontier. All land is claimed. And our revolutions have become superficial," said Patri Friedman, who cofounded The Seasteading Institute four years ago with billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
They envision a floating city movement whose most immediate step is to launch a "visa-free" ship by 2014 to house and employ high-tech workers in international waters 12 miles off the Peninsula.
Next might be a medical tourism ship in a refurbished, $8 million casino ship recently donated to the institute, said Friedman, a Berkeley resident and grandson of the late libertarian economist Milton Friedman.
But those are just pioneer projects for "seasteaders" who want to populate the high seas with autonomous city-states that compete for the world's residents by creating the best governments.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
one word: Pirates
Oh yeah! Sounds good to me and as a bonus I believe that they should have their citizenship to the U.S. placed in suspension as long as they are at sea. There is no need in them voting here of they don’t want to live here.
I’d rather live on a 45’ sailboat. I guarantee that if I were young again, that is exactly where I would now be living.
I got news for them. Any freedom they find elsewhere is short lived unless they fight for it.
A floating city is a particularly vulnerable position.
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BET-CHA!!!
“one word: Pirates”
Yeah, conjures up visions of the “Smokers” burned out oil tanker in Waterworld!
Maybe they can bring Dennis Hopper “out of retirement” to be their “captain.”
first of al, they’d have to be outside teh 12 mile limit which exposes them to all sorts of nasties: weather/rough seas, etc.. then who do they call in the event of a fire or medical emergency? how do they stay in position? will the USCG have to respond should there be trouble?
Laurel adn HArdy made a movie: “utopia” which tells a similar story...
and with ‘no regulation’ there will be no standards of construction...
So what do they do when that ship has to go into dry dock for routine hull maintenance and engine overhaul?
They didn’t mention that part in the sales brochure.
I also wonder how they handle security. Somali warlords and all that.
Uh, a vessel at sea is probably one of the most regulated places on the planet, more akin to a dictatorship than a democracy.
Twelve miles off the P’cola coast is a rough place to be when the ‘canes come rolling in. Riding out a storm on board would not be fun, nor wise. Oil rigs are routinely evacuated when a storm approaches. During a busy storm year, you could be forced out of your home & business 3 to 5 times a year, for a week or 2 each time.
I like the hospital ship idea
12 miles beyond the Farollone Island....go for it... Be sure to brind a rescue beacon...
Especially with the rise of modern pirates, like the Somalis.
One free market idea would be building hospital ships and stationing them in international waters off all the major US cities, offering medical care that Obamacare denies.
You can bet Neptune's trident that these lubbers have never been offshore in a good blow.
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