A friend recently pointed me to this interesting article on The Seasteading Institute. The article is skeptical without being at all dismissive. I’d even call it encouraging.

I’d heard the term “seasteading” but hadn’t yet looked into it.

Murray Rothbard dismissed such schemes as “anarcho-zionism,” emphasizing that libertarian goals had to be pursued in the world of industrial-level division of labor, but I find this article’s pirate-radio introduction compelling.

The point isn’t necessarily “a place to escape the state” so much as it is, as the article says, a lowering of the barriers to competition. It would be nice if “government” could become a voluntarily acquired service in the context of competition, rather than the coercive territorial monopoly of the nation-state.

I understand why Rothbard discouraged the science-fictional fantasies of lifestyle libertarians, but I’m not ready to dismiss these schemes, especially as they become ever more focused on practical issues.