seasteading, modelled after the term homestead, is the concept of creating permanent settlements at sea outside the territory and jurisdiction of any state.

the concept has been championed by many at silicon valley, being seen as potential floating petri dishes. the steadsteads would work as ‘hacks’ for any number of bugs prevalent in society at large. they would be a place for innovation and advancement across numerous fields, places where alternative forms of governance and society can be tested and trialled. when everything it seems is open to silicon valley disruption, why should government and the state be any different?

“when seasteading becomes a viable alternative, switching from one government to another would be a matter of sailing to the other without even leaving your house,” – patri friedman

seadsteads could act as a controlled environment used to test new, emerging technologies. but for all the techno-utopianism, there is also plenty of skepticism. many worry that the seasteads would be nothing more than artificially ‘perfect’ societies for the uber-wealthy to escape the problems and realities of wider society. a place where they can hide away their wealth and avoid paying tax.

it is unsurprising that the idea of self-governing floating islands is popular with libertarians. one of the biggest advocates of seasteading has been libertarian co-founder of paypal peter thiel. in total thiel has invested $1.7m into the non-profit, the seasteading institute.

earlier this year, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the institute, and french polynesia, an overseas collectivity of france, to begin work on the legal frame work that would allow a seastead to be established within its waters. the seastead would have a measure of autonomy. it is the high cost of engineering in open waters that has led the institute to focus their efforts on working within the territorial waters of a host nation.

in addition to the high engineering costs, the idea has hit a number of other roadblocks. many, including patri friedman co-founder of the seasteading institute, have acknowledged the difficulty of establishing a government, and legal system from scratch.

“i didn’t go into it thinking that it would be easy to write the perfect laws or that regulators don’t try… but when i first started out, i kind of naively thought there would be legal hacks. – patri friedman

another factor in the dampening of enthusiasm for seasteads is a recognition that for its many flaws, government infrastructure and regulation is often beneficial to those looking to innovate and found new companies.

“i can guarantee that if you don’t have a legal structure you will not have innovation… why do people feel perfectly comfortable forming a startup when they know that 90 percent of them fail? because they know that corporate laws and bankruptcy laws protect them from personal liability. they know that they won’t lose their house if the company goes bust.” – jim dempsey, executive director, berkeley center for law and technology

it seems therefore that the idea of a truly self-governing seastead is still a way off.

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source: https://www.wired.com/2015/05/silicon-valley-letting-go-techie-island-fantasies/