Seasteading

Seasteading is the creation of permanent dwellings in international waters, so-called seasteads, that are independent of established governments. No structure on the high seas has yet been created and recognized as a sovereign state. Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platforms, and custom-built floating islands. The Seasteading Institute says seasteads can "provide the means for rapid innovation in voluntary governance and reverse environmental damage to our oceans ... and foster entrepreneurship." Some critics fear seasteads may function primarily as a refuge for the wealthy to evade taxes or other national legislation. While seasteading may guarantee some freedom from unwanted rules, the high seas are regulated internationally through bodies of admiralty law and law of the sea, and nationally through flagging registration. The term seasteading is a blend of sea and homesteading, and dates back to the 1960s.

History

Background

Nomadic ocean life has been practiced for millennia by so-called sea nomad peoples, particularly around Southeast Asia.

Historic inspiration for seasteading includes Venice, which, while built on stilts like similar settlements to its North, East or South, is not only a longstanding maritime settlement, but also center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice.

Other inspirations include Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco with connected artificial islands built around it – Mexico City now entirely covers the lake's basin – and floating communities such as the Uru people on Lake Titicaca, the Tanka people in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, and the Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria.

More recent inspirations include:

The Republic of Rose Island, a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy Pirate radio stations anchored in international waters, broadcasting to listeners on shore The Principality of Sealand, a micronation formed on a decommissioned sea fort near Suffolk, England

Smaller floating islands in protected waters, such as Richart Sowa's Spiral Island The non-profit Women on Waves, which operates hospital ships that allow access to abortions for women in countries where abortions are subject to strict laws.

Contemporary advocacy Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut, Paolo Soleri and companies such as Shimizu, Ocean Builders and E. Kevin Schopfer. Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas. A 1998 essay by Wayne Gramlich attracted the attention of Patri Friedman. The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001. Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008. As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperation with an existing nation on prototype floating islands with legal semi-autonomy within the nation's protected territorial waters. On 13 January 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone" for a prototype but political changes driven by the French Polynesia presidential election led the country to back out of the project and permanently cut ties with Seasteading on 14 March 2018. The first single-family seastead was launched near Phuket, Thailand by Ocean Builders in March 2019. Two months later, the Thai Navy claimed the seastead was a threat to Thai sovereignty. In April 2019, the concept of floating cities as a way to cope with rising oceans was included in a presentation by the United Nations program UN-Habitat. As presented, they would be limited to sheltered waters.

Contemporary concerns Critics of seasteading argue that some projects resemble "techno-colonialism" or risk displacing coastal communities, and advocates of seasteading understate the political and economic difficulty of establishing autonomous governance at sea. Other critics have also noted the difficulties of remoteness and cost of offshore living, potential environmental impacts, and the likelihood of interference by nearby states, such as what happened in Thailand in 2019.

Specific proposals

The Seasteading Institute

The Seasteading Institute is a nonprofit organization with seed capital by tech billionaire Peter Thiel which has held several seasteading conferences and started The Floating City Project, which is proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation. The Seasteading Institute also seeks to develop formal classifications for a variety of seasteads located in international waters to make them compatible with flagging registries, marine insurance needs and UNCLOS.

Jounieh Floating Island project (JFIP) A proposal to build a floating island with a luxury hotel in Jounieh north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, was stalled as of 2015 because of concerns from local officials about environmental and regulatory matters.

Blueseed

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland but as of 2014 the project was "on hold", and was later described as "failed" due to lack of investors and possible trouble with the Startup Visa Bill before the US Congress, which would make the concept obsolete.

MS Satoshi

The cruise ship MS Satoshi was purchased (as Pacific Dawn) in 2020 by Ocean Builders Central to become a floating residence in the Gulf of Panama. However, after failing to obtain insurance for the proposed operation, the ship was resold in 2021 for cruise operations.

Dogen City A Japanese consortium called N-Ark has a proposal to build a floating "healthcare city" to fit 10,000 people, with hopes to start construction by 2030.

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