Floating cities: Humanity's future or a billionaire's dumb dream?

Seasteading: Creating permanent, autonomous dwellings in the sea. Conceived in the 19th century and popularized in the late 1990s, the idea of floating cities is polarizing. Is it a libertarian fever dream? An achievable utopia? Mere escapism? Read on:

A 1998 essay by Wayne Gramlich caught the attention of Patri Friedman. The two began working together and published their first book together in 2001, Seasteading: A Practical Guide To Homesteading The High Seas. Later, the duo foundedThe Seasteading Institute in 2008.

Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, funded the institute with $500000 in 2008. He writes: "From my vantage point, the technology involved is more tentative than the Internet butmuch more realistic than space travel."

Three promising aspects of seasteads:

A) Autonomy: This is one of the primary attractions. Seasteading will give people the power to “leave governance they don’t like and choose governance they do.” You want a socialist seastead? A libertarian seastead? A Muslim seastead? Name your price.

B ) Economic Opportunities: From harnessing the immense stores of energy and nutrients to serving the global demand for financial, medical, and human services, seasteading promises to give rise to many 21st-century fortunes. Seasteads can be the incubators for "aquapreneurs."

C) Rise in innovative technological progress. Peter Thiel: “The specific thing that I would hope would come out of it would be more scientific and technological progress that’s too heavily regulated by the heavy hand of our existing state.” Eurekas and bureaucrats aren't friends.

Even though they were all the rage once, a majority of attempts to make seasteads real failed. A small list: the 2008 San Francisco "Baystead" plan, the 2010 California Coast's "Clubstead" plan, the 2013 Floating Water Cities Project - none of these ever came close to fruition.

Problems: The engineering complications, the political problems, the technical and the legal challenges - there were many significant hurdles in the way. Thiel’s donations dried up, Friedman changed his ambitions. The Institute continued without them, headed by Joe Quirk.

Progress ▶️ Failure. In 2017 the Seasteading Institute signed a MOU with the government of French Polynesia to build the first seasteads in its territorial waters. The plan never worked out, “There wasn’t a perfect alignment of interests" said the country's minister.

Nonetheless, as of 2023, the institute is still functioning with over 8-10 active projects. Will Seasteads be able to break the traditional Nation-State system or will they be remembered as yet another failed utopian dream? Time will tell. Follow me for more!