The Seasteading Institute and its for-profit spin-off, Blue Frontiers, have racked up some real-world achievements in the past year, Nature (!) reports:
They signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of French Polynesia in January that lays the groundwork for the construction of their prototype. And they gained momentum from a conference of interested parties in Tahiti in May, which hundreds of people attended. The project’s focus has shifted from building a libertarian oasis to hosting experiments in governance styles and showcasing a smorgasbord of sustainable technologies for, among other things, desalination, renewable energy and floating food-production. The shift has brought some gravitas to the undertaking, and some ecologists have taken interest in the possibilities of full-time floating laboratories.
But the project still faces some formidable challenges. The team must convince the people of French Polynesia that the synthetic islands will benefit them; it must raise enough money to actually build the prototype, which it estimates will cost up to US$60 million; and once it is built, the group must convince the world that artificial floating islands are more than just a gimmick. Producing solid science and broadly useful technology would go a long way towards making that case.
Laughable. The pirates are drooling.
Seasteading is one of those ideas dreamt up by people living in Ruling Class cocoons, completely isolated from the violent world by multiple layers of military and police. Floating around the tropical oceans, they will be easy prey for pirates of all sorts, some of them national militaries.
If a vortex engine works then this is the single most interesting way to build not only an Island but a whole country. Big enough to house all humans on Earth with USA level and better energy usage and food.
http://jimbowery.blogspot.com/2014/05/introduction-extinction-of-human-race.html?view=sidebar
I think this could be easily defended. It would have a huge chimney, thick walls and could be build really large.
Have you ever heard of the phrase,”If Whites had their own country it wouldn’t be like this”? Well there’s at least one billion Whites on Earth. If each one gave two dollars in return for a apartment could $2 billion dollars be enough to kick off a new White country? At $200 a piece you would only need 100 million. I think this could be done. In return you get an apartment in a building unfinished and citizenship on the collective vortex powered country. I do have reservations about depending on just the vortex. We could have lots of backup massive flywheels burners of some sort to power the vortex or maybe some nuclear power plants. Some Islands could be sold to non-Whites for revenue.
Bob,
Singapore has a formidable defense against pirates. If the islands reach the scale to float a few tens of millions strictly for naval defense they would be hard targets for casual Somalia-style pirates.
Dave,
And yet there are pirates all over the East Indies, all around the coast of Africa, and in the Caribbean. They are now pretty much a low level threat, but Seasteads would be such rich targets that a sharp increase in piracy can be predicted.
Of course, if the Seasteads could acquire automatic weapons and rocket lauchers they could defend themselves, but that would make them mini-states, which the international community would not tolerate