From Max More’s excellent essay on dynamic optimism:
You may be against many things: crime, war, being overweight, the budget deficit, intolerance, aging. Optimists restate anything they oppose in positive terms. Rather than being against government, be for liberty and responsibility. Rather than being against your company or office manager, be for making improvements. Instead of saying no to drugs, say yes to healthy pleasures.
The DVD’s for the first Seasteading Conference are here! Couldn’t attend the conference? Now is your chance to see what you missed! The two volume set includes footage from all of the sessions:
Welcome to The Seasteading Institute’s November Update! We’ve been busy, and so there is lots of material. We are making lots of progress and, as always, needs lots of help.
A trailer is out for A View From Below, an upcoming documentary about Karl Stanley’s homebuilt submarines. (via Crasch).
Not everyone is cutting back as the economy tumbles. Or, at least, that’s the hope at Residential Cruise Line — the latest entrant into the rarefied world of super-luxe floating condominiums.
The Phoenix-based company finally opened sales this week for what’s billed as the most luxurious residential cruise ship ever — a 76,000-ton vessel that will have 210 units priced from $2.8 million to $18 million.
The line also will hold an inaugural, invitation-only sales event on Dec. 15 at Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel.
I will be watching them with interest. I hope they do well, although given the poor luck Residensea had in selling luxury units into a recession, I am a bit pessimistic. The ship will cost $1.2B, and is scheduled to sail in 2011. For the latest news, see the Magellan Website
If you’re interested in condominium cruise ships like Magellan, Utopia, and ResidenSea, check out all our posts tagged cruise condo. For more general information on how to live on the ocean, read A Brief Introduction to The Seasteading Institute.
Many of you would agree that our current forums could use some improvements. We intend to do an upgrade of some sort soon. The question is, to what?
I’ve been hoping that SF would start to pick up some of our ideas, and a recent story from David Brin called Shoresteading uses the -steading terminology, as well as including a few of our ideas:
I finally got the slides from my Vision/Paths keynote uploaded (was having problems w/ my DSL for awhile). Thanks to Sean Lynch for getting them to me. They are in PPTX format (some kind of XML PowerPoint open format), and they are 350MB, which won’t open on older computers. The Presenter Notes sections contain the rough text of the talk, so make sure to display those. With those caveats:
I am pleased to announce that we have a new, paid position available for a Development Director.
The development director will be primarily responsible for growing membership and obtaining funding for TSI through a combination of grant-writing, outreach, PR and donor development. Working in conjunction with the Executive Director and the Board, they will develop fundraising goals, schedule and plan events, identify grant possibilities and apply. In order to develop a steady base of volunteers and donors, the DD will create and maintain a membership program, and work with the Volunteer Coordinator to make sure that volunteers are rewarded and recognized for their work. Should have some experience w/ non-profit development and grant writing.
For more information on this position, see the Jobs page. Thanks to Liz for helping us with the position details.
