Seasteading: How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians

by Joe Quirk, Patri Friedman (With)

Overview

In these “thought-provoking visions of the future” (The Wall Street Journal), Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman of the Seasteading Institute explain how ocean cities can solve many of our environmental, technological, and civic problems, and introduce the visionaries and pioneers who are now making seasteading a reality.

Our planet has been suffering from serious environmental problems and their social and political consequences. But imagine a vast new source of sustainable and renewable energy that would also bring more equitable economies. A previously untapped source of farming that could produce significant new sources of nutrition. Future societies where people could choose the communities they want to live in, free from the restrictions of conventional citizenship. This extraordinary vision of our near future as imagined in Seasteading attracted the powerful support of Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel—and it may be drawing close to reality. Facing growing environmental threats, French Polynesia has already signed on to build some of the world’s first seasteads.

Joe Quirk and Patri Friedman show us how cities built on floating platforms in the ocean will work, and they profile some of the visionaries who are implementing basic concepts of seasteading today. An entrepreneur’s dream, these floating cities will become laboratories for innovation and creativity. Seasteading “offers hope for a future when life on land has grown grim” (Kirkus Reviews), proving the adage that yesterday’s science fiction is tomorrow’s science fact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451699289
Publisher:	Free Press
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Joe Quirk serves as “Seavangelist” at the Seasteading Institute. He has taught at Lekha School of Creative Writing in San Jose and served as a freelance science humor consultant at Pixar. Quirk co-leads a team working to establish the first seastead with unprecedented political autonomy in the waters of a host nation. He lives in Oakland, California. Visit him at Seasteading.org.

Patri Friedman founded The Seasteading Institute in 2008 with seed funding from PayPal founder Peter Thiel. He also founded the annual Ephemerisle floating festival. Friedman, the grandson of economist Milton Friedman, currently works at Google, runs a micro-venture capital fund, and lives with his family in San Jose, California. Visit him at Seasteading.org.

Read an Excerpt

Seasteading

Table of Contents

Prologue xv

I Seavilization Now

1 Home: This Isn't Planet Earth 3

2 Houses: Cities That Clean the Seas 39

II Environment

3 Food: Feed the World with Greenhouse Gas 63

4 Fish: Farms That Swim with Fish 101

5 Fuel: The Ocean Is a Solar Panel 141

III Economy

6 Wealth: The Miracle of Start-up Societies 183

7 Health: Faster, Cheaper, Better, Fluid Care 219

IV Freedom

8 Fear: War, Waves, Pirates, Pollution, Price! 255

9 History: Rights Flow from Frontiers 277

10 Flow States: How to Double Global Wealth 293

Appendix 303

Notes 305

Thank You 347

Index 349

Editorial Reviews

Really disruptive, definitely visionary, and even more proof that tomorrow will look nothing like today. Seasteading is a grand adventure in sustainability and possibility and it’s definitely a trip worth taking!

Steven Kotler

Seasteading is an enormous opportunity for humanity. Not only will these sea-based communities be able to try new sciences and technology . . . they will allow new forms of community with a fresh start, and an ability to experiment as to form. . . . Anyone willing to work for a living can come and go from a seastead. People can finally be citizens of the world.

Timothy Draper

Passionate and convincing. The idea of individual sovereignty could finally come true with floating ocean cities.

Titus Gebel

"Seasteading provides some thought-provoking visions of the future. Messrs. Quirk and Friedman introduce us to some very interesting people experimenting with some very interesting technologies, all having to do with living and working on the sea.

The Wall Street Journal - Shlomo Angel

Today a new set of futurists is envisioning the next iteration of the floating city. . . . Quirk and Friedman’s book also serves as a manifesto for the movement.

The New Republic - Rachel Riederer

This energetic and enthusiastic book gives a fascinating glimpse of the blue revolution to come, as human beings experiment with more sustainable ways of managing the biology of the sea — and experiment with more sustainable ways of living and governing ourselves as well, free from the constraints of land-based governments.

Matt Ridley

Passionate and convincing. The idea of individual sovereignty could finally come true with floating ocean cities.” ---Titus Gebel, Founder & CEO of Free Private Cities Ltd.

From the Publisher

01/01/2017
Quirk (communications director, the Seasteading Inst.; Exult) and Friedman (founder, Seasteading Inst.) introduce a radical new concept in homesteading: seasteading, or making a home on the sea. Written with entrepreneurs, or aquapreneurs, in mind and reading more like a marketing pitch than a scientific inquiry, this book examines the ideas behind this undertaking. Many of the principles of seasteading are still being explored, though the authors claim that living on floating cities will solve an array of societal and environmental issues. However, their descriptions of the seasteading lifestyle seem exploitative of the oceans; for instance, the title discusses harvesting nutrition from the water, focusing on the benefits to humans but failing to address the effects on sea creatures. Proponents of seasteading include Royal Caribbean International as well as the oil and gas companies Chevron and Shell, which has built the world's largest offshore floating platform off the coast of Australia. VERDICT For those interested in business and entrepreneurship.—Venessa Hughes, Buffalo, NY

Library Journal

2017-01-10
The founder and communications director of the Seasteading Institute make a case that the survival of the planet depends on moving out from the land onto the sea.Venture capitalist Friedman, the grandson of economist Milton Friedman, and novelist and science writer Quirk (Call to the Rescue: The Story of the Marine Mammal Center, 2009, etc.) present an optimistic if biased argument for the many advantages to be gained by setting up floating cities outside of the control of any current national governments. The most intriguing of these arguments involve environmental concerns. For example, the authors suggest that massive farming of seaweed for food and energy will help to slow or reverse the effects of climate change, and they describe a new approach to fish farming, pioneered by the Velella Project, in which large, open cages for fish are circulated through ocean eddies, allowing waste to be deposited on the deep ocean floor. While their suggestions are encouraging, they also depend on global consumers making the choice to switch to eating seaweed and fish such as kampachi, "the placid sheep of the ocean." Their libertarian arguments are more problematic: suggesting that the world's population will distribute itself more equitably outside of conventional governments is overly idealistic, and proposing that medical institutions operate offshore to avoid government regulation raises as many problems as it solves. Their vision of floating cities, complete with "upside-down floating skyscrapers—seascrapers," is tantalizing, though aspects of it are far-fetched. The use of insider jargon—"seavilization," "aquapreneurs," "bluetopia"—can be off-putting, as can the constant plugs for their institute. In the useful and concise concluding chapter, the authors address possible reader fears such as tsunamis, rogue waves, trash disposal, pollution, and piracy. While the authors' enthusiasm should be taken with more than a grain of salt, they raise ideas worth considering and offer hope for a future when life on land has grown grim.

Kirkus Reviews