Seasteading: (Floating Cities) On The Hunt For A Location

Posted by Robyn Gee on June 6, 2011

Patri Friedman has a vision. Since all land is claimed by existing countries, Friedman, who is the son of economist Milton Friedman, is looking to the sea for room to experiment. He founded the Seasteading Institute – a project that is working to develop floating cities that will, “allow the next generation of pioneers to peacefully test new ideas for government,” according to the website. The Seasteading project was recently funded by the Peter Thiel Foundation, co-founder of PayPal.

The Seasteading team doesn’t think of this as a completely new idea. Oil rigs, gas rigs, and cruise ships are examples of floating communities or entities that have existed for a long time. But Friedman’s cities would simply have a different purpose: to try out new government structures and socio-economic policies in a peaceful way – as opposed to a violent government coup, according to the website. Basically, these floating cities would be in international waters, and therefore under no country’s jurisdiction. (See their Faq sheet for answers to questions about pirates and legality.)

We reached out to the Seasteading Institute, but they were unavailable to comment, so we contacted Professor and GIS Specialist Jerry Davis, at San Francisco State University to ask about the feasibility and location choice of the seasteads. “It’s easy to imagine that we could use the oceans to expand upon the human footprint, but the oceans have been abused for so long,” said Davis.

GIS Specialists usually work on modeling and site suitability for either habitats or development sites – and usually water sites are habitats. “I’ve never seen site suitability for a development in the water – it would probably include some habitat modeling,” said Davis.

There are two things that a GIS Specialist would assess for a seasteading development: the impact of the development on its surroundings and the viability for success in a certain location. Davis said they would  make separate models to analyze different aspects of the project, such as environmental models, economic models, and social models. The specialist would insert data into each model, and run each model separately to make their assessment.

In terms of impact, Davis said it would be important to look at threatened species and sensitive habitats in the specific sea location, as well as take into consideration the human impact of the sea location – for example whether a large fishery also used that spot.

“It’s better to be farther away from land [in terms of impact] because the food sources are coastal. In deep ocean water, the species diversity is less. In terms of viability, however, there is big water movement and it would be harder to get supplies, which would probably result in a greater cost,” said Davis. “There may not be a balance that works,” he said.

Deeper water would also be better for avoiding natural disasters. “Earthquakes won’t be a major concern. Tsunamis break on shallow water. They travel across the ocean with almost no effect, but when they approach land they start building. Hurricanes are a concern in parts of the waters though,” said Davis.

However, Davis said that making models still might not give you a perfect location for seasteading. “Models are simplifications of reality. This is the best technology to do this – but that still doesn’t mean you’ll have a great answer. You have to challenge the results of your model,” he said.

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