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Seasteading |
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (August 2008) |
Seasteading is the concept of homesteading the sea. The appeal of such a project is often the considerably lighter legal requirements in international waters. Seasteads have been based on various types of sailing craft; in the last century most functional seasteads have been modified cruising vessels.
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Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman, founders of the Seasteading Institute, have been working on a new approach involving cities floating above the sea in spar buoys, similar to oil platforms. The project will start small, using conventional techniques as much as possible, and trying to find viable, sustainable ways of running a seastead. Innovations that enable full time living at sea will have to be developed.
Outside the Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km) countries can claim are the high seas that know no other sovereignty than the flag a ship flies. Examples of organisations using this possibility are Women on Waves, enabling abortions for women in countries where abortions are subject to stricter laws than the Dutch laws, and Radio Veronica, a pirate radio station sailing the North Sea that was aimed at The Netherlands during the sixties. Like these organizations, a seastead might be able to take advantage of the looser laws and regulations that exist outside the sovereignty of nations and be largely self-governing.
One proposed design for a seastead is a floating dumbbell in which the living area is high above sea level, which minimizes the influence of waves. During the last couple of years the results of research have been documented in an online book [1] that covers living on the oceans. On April 15, 2008, Peter Thiel gave the project a headstart by pledging $500,000. The newly founded Seasteading Institute will be focusing on three areas: building a community, doing research and building the first seastead in the San Francisco Bay.1
There have been many previous attempts to create new countries by building artificial islands. The Seasteading Institute provides an extensive review of similar projects[2]. An list of similar projects also appears below:
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