At times it may seem as if seasteading is still years into the future. It’s good to keep in mind that, with each passing day, we’re getting closer and closer to the day seasteading becomes a reality. Lest we lose momentum, it is also worth reminding ourselves that, as Executive Director Patri Friedman says, “Seasteading is epic!”
Anyone making a multi-million Dolar investment in building a vessel or a complete fleet of vessels is faced with a critical question: What is the business idea? This leads itself to a number of further questions:
Below is a letter from the coordinator of the Future of Free Cities conference. The Seasteading Institute Executive Director Patri Friedman collaborated on the conference and gave a presentation there on April 4, 2011.
To all speakers and participants of the Future of Free Cities conference, Roatán, Honduras, April 3-5, 2011
From April 3-5, 2011, The Seasteading Institute Executive Director Patri Friedman was at The Future of Free Cities Conference in Honduras. Patri’s presentation, “Theory of Free Cities and Seasteading” is online to view. In his talk Patri discusses the urgent need to create innovative, competitive governments.
Patri Friedman and Brad Taylor are presenting what we consider among our most important research papers at the Association of Private Enterprise Education Conference Nassau, The Bahamas, April 10-12, 2011. These updated papers explain why seasteading is a powerful lever to improve government and thus make the world better.
The oceans are not only the source of life on Earth, they still host over half of all life on our blue planet. Unfortunately, that half does not include humans. Right now, we only use the oceans to extract resources, transport goods, and have the occasional awesome party with 1,000 entrepreneurs. As Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, pointed out in his TED Talk, it’s crazy that we have better maps of Mars than we do of our own oceans – which are 55,000,000 kilometers closer.
To combine a profitable business model and a platform suitable to survive in international waters is one of the challenges of the seasteading movement. We have seen in the Sink or Swim Business Plan Contest, that aquaculture (fish farming) is one of the most promising business in international waters.
It is with great delight that I pen my first newsletter to the supporters and friends of The Seasteading Institute. At the beginning of February I joined the team as the first ever Director of Communication. When I applied for the position I knew I was on the verge of a life changing and world changing opportunity.
The Seasteading Institute is hiring a staff writer. The writer will be a critical member of our team, crafting highly visible publications that are key to our research and movement-building programs. Most of our organization’s current output is in written form, so it’s essential that the writing be of stellar quality for our work to be most effective.
When considering the economic flexibility and “freedom” created by mobile settlements, we might look to the avante-garde Walking City concept from architect Ron Herron of the Archigram group as an example. Ron’s concept is something that has been in the mind of the architects for a long time.
