Why haven’t seasteads been built yet?

Robert Ballard, famous oceanographer who discovered the RMS Titanic, reminds us every time we talk to him that the technology for stability on the high seas is the RV FLIP, which has been repeatedly deployed on the high seas since 1962.

What’s with the 54-year delay? Why, asks Bob, did we walk on the moon almost a half century ago, but we haven’t built FLIP-like homes on the sea?

The answer is simple.  It’s still too expensive for a middle-class family.

Our former Managing Director at the Seasteading Institute, Chris Muglia, an experienced seaman, set out to solve that problem. He developed a business plan to radically lower the cost of constructing FLIP-like structures using 3D-printing technology.

Is Chris crazy?  I decided to put him on the spot.

I got Chris on the phone with Bob, turned on the recorder, then challenged him to pitch his idea for 3D-printed seasteads to the world’s most famous oceanographer. Bob famously told astronaut Buzz Aldrin he was full of baloney on National Geographic TV. If Bob isn’t afraid to tell Buzz Aldrin what he really thinks, he’ll tell Chris Muglia.

I think you’ll be amazed by the results of their conversation.

If you subscribe to podcasts on iTunes, you can find this podcast and all of our other podcasts on our iTunes page. While you’re there, how about giving the podcast a five-star review so we can reach more potential seasteaders?

For a future of liberation at sea,

Joe Quirk, Seavangelist

How does a Naval Officer become an advocate of voluntary market solutions?

This Free Cities Podcast starts with Anthony Caprio – a former Surface Warfare Officer in the Navy – interviewing Joe Quirk, then the roles switch and Joe interviews him. Anthony tells harrowing stories about minesweeping for the navy. Joe talks about aquapreneurs currently working to develop 3D-printed upside-down seascrapers.

As a former engineering officer, Anthony asks: How will seasteads deal with waves? What materials will seasteads be made of? What industries could pay for the cost of seasteads? Can seasteads provide better healthcare for the US? What about the developing world?

Anthony Caprio, besides his former role in the Navy, has been a headmaster of a private grade school, and a project manager for a large electrical power generation company. He’s a writer for The Daily Anarchist and Liberty.me, author of several articles including “Maritime Defense.”

Anthony grew up on a cattle ranch, narrates audiobooks, and is a 3D printer hobbyist. He and his wife are raising three amazing kids.

This podcast originally was originally recorded for and published at www.freecitiespodcast.com If you subscribe to podcasts on iTunes, you can find this podcast and all of our other Seasteading Today podcasts on our iTunes page.

We’ve switched things up for this installment of Seasteading Today. Rather than have Joe Quirk interview a seasteader, our accomplished Board member Susanna Dokupil interviewed Joe.

This podcast is an excellent primer on the fundamental world view of seasteading. Joe shares and defends several core tenets of why human capacity is better spent pioneering new societies at sea in contrast to trying to change big, old governments through the standard political process.

Susanna resides in Houston, Texas where she co-chaired the National Finance Committee for Ted Cruz’s Senate win in 2012. She serves as the treasurer of the Texas Conservative View, and serves on the advisory board of The Texas Review of Law & Politics. Previously she served as Special Counsel to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, as an Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, as well as two years in private practice. She has authored over 75 articles and op-eds for prestigious publications.

She did all this and more, and is raising four children. I’m honored she agreed to join our Board of Directors and provide us insight on policy matters.

If you subscribe to podcasts on iTunes, you can find this podcast and all of our other podcasts on our iTunes page.

Randolph Hencken

Why don’t we hear about private security guard brutality at Disneyland and on cruise ships?

Where does law come from? How do people cooperate enough to get law started in the first place?

Did the birth of the modern economy arise from a collapse of Dutch government and the rise of private governance?

How do rules govern civil society in the absence of government? We asked a scholar and a gentleman.  Economist Edward Peter Stringham is the author of Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life and more than 60 journal articles, book chapters, and policy studies, and he asks:

“What can’t private governance do?”

Edward Stringham shows that most of our cherished legal conventions arose with no support from any state. Commercial law, merchant law, tort law, and complex financial transactions evolved amid polycentric legal dynamics that guided commercial activity for centuries before they were later monopolized by state governments.

In fact, private governance continues to create order all around us, especially at sea.

Consider that one quarter of the world economy operates as a stateless black market, and nearly half the earth’s surface operates where no state makes a claim, yet 90% of our goods comes from the ocean economy.

How does it all work?

Ed shows us that what’s most miraculous about social order is what’s going on right in front of our eyes. If you subscribe to podcasts on iTunes, you can find this podcast and all of our other podcasts on our iTunes page.

What if a nation sinking below sea level became the innovation hub for floating cities?

What if you could float the infrastructure of Holland to the slums of Bangladesh?

What if the future of floating cities is in 3D printed technology?

Dutch architect Koen Olthuis is the co-author of Float! Building on Water to Combat Urban Congestion and Climate Change with David Keuning. Koen founded Waterstudio which designs many components of floating cities, including schools, golf courses, hotels, and even stadiums, and he co-founded Dutch Docklands which plans gorgeous projects for the Maldives.  In 2007, Koen was chosen at Time Magazine‘s “most influential people of the year,” and the French magazine Terra Eco chose Koen in 2011 as one of the 100 greenest persons who will change the the world.

Koen Olthuis initiated a project to transform shipping containers into Floating City Apps to upgrade living conditions in coastal slums by providing “plug-and-play” schools, kitchens, health centers, internet cafes, and water purification units.

Should seasteads establish political independence first, and then change the world? Or should floating cities set humanitarian examples, win hearts and minds, and then seek independence? Koen and I discuss the strategies and agree to partner on a shared goal.

I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did. And if you subscribe to podcasts on iTunes, you can find this podcast and all of our other podcasts on our iTunes page.

Joe Quirk

Seasteading emerged from shared belief that applying philosophy to practical action requires exiting most accepted institutions.  I thought it was about time I turned on the recorder to capture one of these conversations.

Mike Gibson and Reid Spitz started as philosophy students and became venture capitalists and staunch seasteaders. Can philosophy ignite action? Reid and Mike explain why that’s its only function.

John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin all had very bad things to say about democracy.

Winston Churchill said that “democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried.”

Is there anything better to try?

I ask Frank Karsten, co-author with Karel Beckman of the short, breezy read, Beyond Democracy, Why Democracy Does Not Lead to Solidarity, Prosperity and Liberty– but to Unrest, Runaway Spending and a Tyrannical Government.

 

Wait, doesn’t democracy enforce the will of the people? Who are “the people”? How does “will” get enforced? Is democracy how majorities enforce their will on minorities?

There’s got to be a better way. We talk about why seasteading is more democratic than democracy.

Here’s to thinking outside the land-based box,

Joe Quirk, Seavangelist

The day before I was going to speak at Libertopia, an engineer and writer named Michael Eliot came over and plunked a cube on the table in front of me.

“Geopolymer concrete. It should last hundreds or thousands of years in seawater.”

I was so excited I asked Michael Eliot to write up a report, and he delivered “The Case for Geopolymer Concrete in Seasteading,” which we’re proud to publish on our website. It’s such a fascinating read, I had to follow up with a podcast interview.

We think Michael Eliot’s paper and podcast will spark productive discussion on our new improved forum.  Mike is adept at answering questions at any level of understanding.

He writes, “I have quite a collection of source papers and references by now, the best of which may be the US Airforce investigation of geopolymer concrete for their own use. If you have any questions about claims made please don’t hesitate to ask. I will update you with results of the ocean-endurance tests in the months to come.”

Join the forum, and let’s build seastead prototypes!

For Seasteading,

Joe Quirk, Seavangelist

Want to help seasteading? Please make a donation today and support our forums, operations, and Floating City Project.

Respect for property rights

Predictable laws

Open unrestricted trade

Suppose through careful investigation you discovered that these are the key elements that allow societies to prosper. How do you embody these values in an actual legal structure?

More complicated yet, how do you insert such a legal structures into a larger more powerful legal structure that may have different ideas? How do you render these jurisdictions secure to convince investors it’s safe to build and hire there?

You can bet this process requires a specialist.

Shanker Singham works to create Enterprise Cities, zones with regulatory autonomy from their host governments. He brings decades of experience to his role as Managing Director of the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project at Babson Global, where he works with entrepreneurs and government officials to establish the pre-conditions required for developing cities to flourish.

He thinks such cities can change the world.  We’d like to make some float.

What drives him? Why does he care so much?  Let’s hear what Shanker has to say about forging the legal frameworks for free Enterprise Cities.

Joe Quirk,

Seavangelist

Want to help seasteading? Please make a donation today and support our forums, operations, and Floating City Project.