Title: Seasteading
1Seasteading
- Mission Possible Creating New Sovereign
Territory in Ocean Waters - By Patri Friedman
2What is Seasteading
- Definition To Homestead The Oceans
- Term coined by Wayne Gramlich
- Also refers to our specific project/approach
3Two-Part Talk
- Why to build seasteads
- Why build them at all
- Why build them our way
- How to build seasteads
- Environment, Structure, Infrastructure, Strategy
4The Book
- Seasteading A Practical Guide to Homesteading
the High Seas - Currently in draft form
- Available online at http//seastead.org/
- Commenting system
- Will be self-published real soon now
5Why Build Seasteads?
- Next frontier
- Use more of the earths surface
- Dry (?wet?) run for settling space
- Make governments more responsive and efficient
6Exponential Growth of Wealth
7Why Government Spending?
- Public Choice Theory
- Rational Ignorance
- Concentrated vs. Dispersed Interests
- Alternate View Government as an industry
- People are people - so blame the system!
- Rhetoric is not enough
8The Governing Industry
- Citizens pay taxes in return for government
services - Each government has a monopoly over one
geographic area - Citizens can switch providers by moving to
another country - Two features make it horribly uncompetitive
9The Governing Industry
High Cost of Switching Providers
- In order to change service providers, you must
- Leave job (get another)
- Sell House (get another)
- Pack possessions (move them)
- Apply for citizenship
- Cost is ENORMOUS!
- Results
- Poor market feedback
- Exploitation, not innovation.
10The Governing Industry
Huge Barrier to Entry
- Consider cost/difficulty of Iraq regime change
- Cant start fresh because all land is claimed
- Need to win an election or a revolution
- Results
- Oligopolistic market with few firms
- Limited competition
11The Governing Industry
Is Not Very Competive!
- Hard for new competitors to enter the market
- Hard for customers to switch between few existing
firms - Imagine if it cost 25,000 to switch phone
providers, and the FCC charged 100 billion for a
new license - Governments suck because of the industry structure
12Government on Modular Floating Cities
- Low barrier to entry
- Buy Land, Theyve Stopped Making It becomes
false. - Build new territory.
- Dont have to win an election or fight a
revolution to have a new country. - Build piece by piece as necessary.
- Low cost to switch
- Territory can be dynamically re-arranged
- Entire buildings can move between political
jurisdictions (the ultimate federalism) - Easy to leave means hard to exploit
- Re-enable Federalism
13Result Government Becomes a Competitive Industry
- On land we have a small number of large, static
service providers who poorly serve customers - On the ocean, we will get a large number of
small, dynamic, innovative firms competing - Competition will make government more efficient
and effectivesomehow - Politically agnostic
- Incentives, not rhetoric
- Has the potential to revolutionize this key and
backward area of human society
14Optimistic or Pessimistic?
- Raises serious doubts about how much freedom we
can get on land - Geography of space even more fluid than ocean.
- Necessary feature holds for 71 of the earths
surface and 99.99999 of the universe.
15Why Do It Our Way?
- Lots of previous ideas, ventures, attempts
- Little success
- Visionary but not realistic
- Antarctic Homesteading
Or
16Our Philosophy
- Incrementalism
- Financial Realism
- Political Realism
- Technological Realism
- No OTEC
- No Seacrete
17How to Seastead
- Ocean Environment
- Structure
- Infrastructure (Power, Water, Food)
- Strategy How to get from here to there.
18The Ocean Environment
- The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the
globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle, and fuller of
monsters, washing the very wharves of our cities
and the gardens of our sea-side residences.
Serpents, bears, hyenas, tigers rapidly vanish as
civilization advances, but the most populous and
civilized city cannot scare a shark far from its
wharves. - - Henry DavidThoreau
- Waves
- Currents
- Wind
- Politics
- Pirates (Arr)
19Waves
- Tsunamis
- Rogue Waves
- Avoiding Waves
- Pillars
- Breakwaters
- Safe Locations
- Movement
20Currents
21Trade Winds
22Ill Winds - Dangerous?
- Wind - no
- Storm surge - no
- Windborne debris - no
- Waves - yes!
23Politics/Law
- Admiralty Law
- Flags
- Boarding
- Political Zones
- Territorial/Contiguous Sea
- EEZ/EFZ
- High Seas
- Approaches
- Flag of convenience
- Flag from hands-off country
- Flagless
24Pirates (Arrr!)
- Mostly small scale
- 73 of 335 attacks in 2001 involved guns
- 20 deaths in southeast asia, 1 elsewhere
- Seasteads are not an attractive target for
organized pirates.
25Structure Designs
- Requirements
- Handle waves safely
- Provide living volume
- Provide solar area
- Possibilities
- Underwater
- On water
- Above water
26Structure Designs - Under/On
- Underwater
- On water
- Boats
- Simple platforms
27Structure Designs - Above
- Troll A gas platform
- 1500 feet tall
- Towed to operating location
28Structure Designs - Spar Platform
- Submerged flotation chamber, ballast
- Multi-level platform
- Long spar
29Design Features
- Spar presents low cross-sectional area to waves.
- Doesnt rock like a boat.
- Free-floating (can be anchored).
- Multiple platforms can be connected in a
hexagonal grid. - Ferrocement - cheap and durable.
- Cost 25-150/sq. ft. (labor, materials,
infrastructure)
30No Bobbing
31Future - Breakwaters
32Infrastructure
- Already a solved problem (think cruise ships)
- Many things will be imported.
- Lots of options
33Water
- Rain
- Reverse Osmosis
- Future Solar Distillation?
34Food
- Import
- Grow in hydroponic greenhouses
- Future Aquaculture!
35Power
- Photovoltaic panels
- Wind turbines
- Good old diesel generators
- Future Wave power
36Transportation
- Anchoring - possible but expensive
- Drifting - slowly, or in doldrums
- Active positioning - motors
- Getting there and back again
- Boats
- Helicopters
- STOL aircraft
37Misc. Infrastructure
- Communications
- Defense
- Waste Disposal
38How Not To Make It Happen
- Depend on nonexistent/undeveloped technologies
(OTEC, seacrete). - Depend on the appearance of a mysterious angel
investor. - Trying to get investment or donations with no
proof of concept. - Trying to tackle too big a problem at once.
39How To Make It Happen
- Stick to realistic and mature technologies.
- Have reasonable ideas for funding.
- Demonstrate the concept before expecting outside
money. - Incrementalism a series of small, reasonable
stages.
40Business Ideas - Land at Sea
- Cargo transshipment
- Aquaculture
- Fishing base
- Tour base
- Green living
- Marine science
41Business Ideas - Low Regulation
- Resort (amenities)
- Offshore manufacturing
- World Library (Arrr)
- Medical Research/Treatment
42Phase I - Research
- Book
- Website
- Goals
- Learn enough to plan further steps
- Get some publicity
- Build interest in next stage
43Phase II - Baystead Prototype
- 2K - 10K sq. ft.
- Moored in San Francisco Bay
- Funded by 4-10 initial residents, cost 200K -
500K. - Goals
- Test design, infrastructure
- Publicity (give tours, get articles written about
us) - Proof of concept - we are serious! This is real!
- Build interest in next stage
44Phase III - Seastead Resort
- 20K - 200K sq. ft.
- International waters (perhaps Med. Sea)
- Timeshare resort
- A few permanent residents, many vacationers
- Cost 3M - 15M, provided by residents
- Goals
- Demonstrate that its possible to build new,
sovereign land - Lots of publicity
- Become a growing community and business
- Build interest in next stage
45Phase IV - World Domination
- Getting started is the hardest part
- Economy will evolve beyond a resort
- Permanent residents will increase
- More platforms will be built
46 47Acknowledgements
- Co-authors Wayne Gramlich and Andy House
- Dan Klein and the CSI for inviting me to talk
48Questions?