Cities on the Sea

Source: Seasteading.org

“Taxation without representation” still rings true for many libertarians.  The possibility to break off from a mother country to create an autonomous self-governing city-state is a possibility that is gaining traction and funds from wealthy backers.  Since governments lay claim to all land across the globe, wealthy libertarians, like Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, and Patri Friedman, the grandson of Milton Friedman, assembled a think-tank, the Seasteading Institute, to study the feasibility of creating a floating, off-shore city that remains out of reach of national governments.  “Our Mission,” writes the Institute on their website, “to further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems."

Source: Seasteading.org

The Seasteading Institute explores cruise-ship style offices, apartments, and retail centers, which unfortunately cannot withstand the storms of the high seas.  Oilrigs provide other platforms, but can cause seasickness when they rock with waves.  And cities built above small island foundations raise problems with international law, as these would fall within the grey area of countries’ territorial waters (12 miles offshore) and their exclusive economic zones (200 miles offshore).

A futuristic shipyard in outer space
Source: OnRPG.com

While libertarians are quickly written off as fanatics who wish for the yesteryears of 1776 colonial rebellion, those who dream of cities in space are accepted by society as sci-fi futurists – yet the two concepts are extremely similar.  A leading presidential candidate has even suggested the building of "a massive new program to build a permanent lunar colony to exploit the Moon's resources."  Ocean city designs would most likely draw ideas of self-sustaining agriculture and energy uses from prior outer space living competitions.  Likewise, future space cities would adopt successes and note failures of condensed sea living.  While the libertarian city on the sea dream attempts to break barriers to free market concepts (like the uninterrupted movement of labor that could be lubricated with the elimination of visa or immigration laws), those idealists ignore the more cost effective existing terrestrial zones that already cater to libertarian freedoms.

Source: The Economist

Pushing political views aside and looking at cities on the sea from the Seasteading Institute’s point of view as a creative exercise, these think tanks get funding to conceptualize what it would take to build a new country from scratch in the modern era.  They also get to explore designs of how to feed and sustain populations disconnected from traditional terrestrial living.  While floating metropolises may be only slightly more realistic at this point than building a real life Death Star in space, ocean-based cities rethink traditional models of urban living.  At the very least, the Seasteading Institute’s studies will demonstrate ways to integrate sustainability techniques with underlying urban infrastructure.

For more on Seasteading and floating communities, read The Economist's Seasteading: Cities on the Ocean.

Cities on the Sea