seasteading

File:Hong Kong (27971979830).jpg Yau Ma Tei shelter of house boats for Tanka people typhoon refugees.]]

Nomadic ocean life has been practiced for millennia by so-called sea nomad peoples, particularly around Southeast Asia.{{cite web | title=Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia: From the Past to the Present | website=NUS Press | date=2021-08-13 | url=https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/sea-nomads-of-southeast-asia | access-date=2024-07-30}}

File:Santa Maria della Salute (50428075772).jpg, while built on stilts, has been identified as an early example of seasteading, not only as a long standing maritime settlement, but also as the center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice.{{cite web | last=Eveleth | first=Rose | title=‘I rule my own ocean micronation’ | website=BBC Home | date=2015-04-15 | url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150414-i-rule-my-own-ocean-micronation | access-date=2024-07-30}}]]

Historic inspiration for seasteading includes Venice, which while built on stilts like similar settlements to its North, East or South, is not only a long-standing maritime settlement, but also center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice.{{citation |last=Erichsen|first=Kirk|title=Venice – The Seasteading Prototype|url=https://www.seasteading.org/venice-the-seasteading-prototype/|access-date=13 November 2024|date=22 August 2024}}

File:Painting of Tenochtitlan-Tlatelolco on Lake Texcoco (9755215791).jpg, the capital city of the Aztec Empire.]]

Other inspirations include Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco with connected artificial islands built around it – Mexico City now entirely covers the lake's basin – and floating communities such as the Uru people on Lake Titicaca, the Tanka people in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, and the Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria.

File:Uros-floating-islands-puno-peru-aerial.jpg Uru peoples build floating settlements on floating islands, on Lake Titicaca.]]

Recent inspirations include:

• The Republic of Rose Island, a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy
• Pirate radio stations anchored in international waters, broadcasting to listeners on shore
• The Principality of Sealand, a micronation formed on a decommissioned sea fort near Suffolk, England{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0919/1221689998534.html|title=Explorers in the Valley still charting new territory|date=19 September 2008|newspaper=The Irish Times}}

File:Sealand.jpg of Sealand, at the bay of the Thames Estuary, based on an abandoned United Kingdom military sea fort.{{cite web | title=Sealand | website=The Journal of Wild Culture | date=2013-03-14 | url=https://www.wildculture.com/article/sealand/1111 | access-date=2024-08-01}}]]

• Smaller floating islands in protected waters, such as Richart Sowa's Spiral Island
• The non-profit Women on Waves, which operates hospital ships that allow access to abortions for women in countries where abortions are subject to strict laws.

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,{{cite web|url=https://vincent.callebaut.org/object/080523_lilypad/lilypad/projects|title=Vincent Callebaut Architect Lilypad|work=callebaut.org}}{{cite web|url=http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=76356_0_42_0_C|title=LILYPAD feature|work=archinect.com}} Paolo Soleri{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/aug/25/architecture.ethicalliving |title=The man who saw the future |last=Rose |first=Steve |date=25 August 2008 |work=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=23 May 2010}} and companies such as Shimizu, Ocean Builders{{Cite web|url=https://oceanbuilders.com/|title=Ocean Builders|website=Ocean Builders}} and E. Kevin Schopfer.{{cite web|url=https://www.meretdemeures.com/es/news/slides-floating-cities-oasis-for-the-future/|title=Floating cities oasis for the future|work=Meretdemeures.com}}

Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

A 1998 essay by Wayne Gramlich attracted the attention of Patri Friedman.{{Cite magazine |url=http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/seasteading-the-great-escape|title=Seasteading: the great escape|last=Fingleton|first=Eamonn|date=26 March 2010 |magazine=Prospect Magazine |access-date=31 January 2017}} The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001.{{Cite web |url=http://www.gramlich.net/projects/oceania/seastead2/ |title=Getting Serious About SeaSteading |last1=Gramlich |first1=Wayne |last2=Friedman |first2=Patri |date=2002 |others=Andrew House |access-date=31 January 2017}} Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit The Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008.

As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperation with an existing nation on prototype floating islands with legal semi-autonomy within the nation's protected territorial waters. On 13 January 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone" for a prototype,{{cite web

|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/oceantop-living-in-a-seastead-realistic-sustainable_us_584c595ae4b0016e50430490

|title=Oceantop Living in a Seastead – Realistic, Sustainable, and Coming Soon

|publisher=Huffington Post

|access-date=25 January 2017

|date=10 December 2016

|last=Carli

|first=James

}}

{{cite news

|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38647174

|title=French Polynesia signs first floating city deal

|work=BBC News

|access-date=25 January 2017

|date=17 January 2017

}} but later that year political changes driven by the French Polynesia presidential election led to the indefinite postponement of the project.{{Cite web|url=https://www.seasteading.org/active-projects/|title= The Seasteading Institute Projects|website=seasteading.org|date= 28 January 2020|language=en-US|access-date=1 March 2020}} French Polynesia formally backed out of the project and permanently cut ties with Seasteading on 14 March 2018.{{Cite news |title=An island nation that told a libertarian 'seasteading' group it could build a floating city has pulled out of the deal|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/french-polynesia-ends-agreement-with-peter-thiel-seasteading-institute-2018-3 |last=Robinson |first=Melia|work=Business Insider|access-date=27 May 2020}}

The first single-family seastead was launched near Phuket, Thailand by Ocean Builders in March 2019.{{Cite web|url=https://reason.com/2019/03/01/first-seastead-in-international-waters-n/|title=First Seastead in International Waters Now Occupied, Thanks to Bitcoin Wealth|date=1 March 2019|website=Reason.com|language=en-US|access-date=29 May 2019}}{{YouTube |title=THE FIRST SEASTEADERS 4: Living the Life |id=8bceePdFruU}} Two months later, the Thai Navy claimed the seastead was a threat to Thai sovereignty.{{Cite news |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-21/thai-navy-boards-seasteading-couples-home/11034376 |title=Seasteading couple charged as Thai navy boards floating home |date=21 April 2019 |work=ABC News|language=en-AU|access-date=21 April 2019}} In 2019, Ocean Builders said it will be building again in Panama, with the support of government officials.{{Cite web|url=https://mailchi.mp/4efaaf51a92b/ocean-builders-is-moving-forward-with-the-next-phase|title=Ocean builders is moving forward to a new location|website=Mailchi}} As of 2022, the project's status is uncertain.

In April 2019, the concept of floating cities as a way to cope with rising oceans was included in a presentation by the United Nations program UN-Habitat. As presented, they would be limited to sheltered waters.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/floating-cities-could-ease-global-housing-crunch-says-un/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407192252/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/floating-cities-could-ease-global-housing-crunch-says-un/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 April 2019 |magazine=National Geographic |title=Floating cities could ease global housing crunch, says UN}}

{{Main|The Seasteading Institute}}

File:Stead.jpg

A nonprofit organization that has held several seasteading conferences and started The Floating City Project, which is proposed to locate a floating city within the territorial waters of an existing nation. Attempts to reach an agreement with French Polynesia ended in 2018.[https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/351420/french-polynesia-sinks-floating-island-project RNZ: "French Polynesia sinks floating island project" 3028]

A proposal to build a "floating island" with a luxury hotel in Jounieh north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, was stalled as of 2015 because of concerns from local officials about environmental and regulatory matters.[https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/culture/authorities-block-worlds-first-floating-island-lebanon-680931568 Middle East Eye: "Authorities block floating island"][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUUUxgpclLg Report about project on MTV Lebanon television (in Arabic)]

File:Blueseed - Two Habitat Units 1.jpg

Blueseed was a company aiming to float a ship near Silicon Valley to serve as a visa-free startup community and entrepreneurial incubator. Blueseed founders Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija met when both were employees of The Seasteading Institute. The project planned to offer living and office space, high-speed Internet connectivity, and regular ferry service to the mainland{{cite news|last=Lee|first=Timothy|title=Startup hopes to hack the immigration system with a floating incubator|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/startup-hopes-to-hack-the-immigration-system-with-a-floating-incubator.ars|access-date=30 November 2011|newspaper=Ars Technica|date=29 November 2011}}{{cite news|last=Donald|first=Brooke|title=Blueseed Startup Incubator Could Sail Past Immigration Law|url=https://www.wired.com/2011/12/blueseed/|access-date=28 June 2022|newspaper=Wired|date=13 December 2011}} but as of 2014 the project was "on hold",{{Cite web|url=https://www.slideshare.net/dandv/blueseed-lessons-learned-four-years-later|title=Startup Ducks Immigration Law With Googleplex of the Sea|date=26 October 2015}} and was later described as "failed" due to lack of investors and possible trouble with the Startup Visa Bill before the US Congress, which would make the concept obsolete.

A project which got as far as the purchase of a ship was MS Satoshi, purchased (as Pacific Dawn) in 2020 by Ocean Builders Central, to become a floating residence in the Gulf of Panama; however, after failing to obtain insurance for the proposed operation, the ship was resold in 2021 for cruise operations.

A Japanese consoriuim called N-Ark has a proposal to build a floating "healthcare city" to fit 10,000 people, with hopes to start construction by 2030. [https://www.n-ark.jp/en/dogen-city N-Ark: Dogen City]

File:AnthonyLing.jpg

Cruise ships are a proven technology, and address most of the challenges of living at sea for extended periods of time. However, they're typically optimized for travel and short-term stay, not for permanent residence in a single location.

Many proposals have been made for seasteading retrofits of cruise ships, although none have succeeded. Examples include:

• MS Satoshi{{Cite web|title=Live, Work and Play on a Residential Cruise Ship|url=https://www.prweb.com/releases/live-work-and-play-on-a-residential-cruise-ship-857428733.html|access-date=13 October 2020|website=PRWeb}}
• Blue Seed retro-fitted cruise ship.{{cite news|last=Donald|first=Brooke|title=Blueseed Startup Sees Entrepreneur-Ship as Visa Solution for Silicon Valley|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/blueseed-startup-sees-ent_n_1153300.html|access-date=12 March 2011|newspaper=Huffington Post|date=16 December 2011}}
• Freedom Ship{{Cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/real-estate/world-floating-city-back-article-1.1531843|title=World's first floating city back on course|newspaper=NY Daily News|access-date=7 February 2017|language=en}}

Platform designs based on spar buoys, similar to oil platforms.

{{cite news

|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/next-frontier-seasteading-the-oceans/

|title=Next Frontier: "Seasteading" The Oceans

|publisher=CBS News

|date=2 February 2009 |access-date=28 June 2022

|last=McCullagh

|first=Declan

}}

In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.{{cite web

|url = http://seasteading.org/seastead.org/commented/paper/index.html

|title = Seasteading

|publisher = seasteading.org

|date = 2002–2004

|access-date = 28 February 2009

|last1 = Gramlich

|first1 = Wayne

|last2 = Friedman

|first2 = Patri

|last3 = Houser

|first3 = Andrew

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090210031619/http://seasteading.org/seastead.org/commented/paper/index.html

|archive-date = 10 February 2009

}}

Proposals include:

• TSI Clubstead{{cite web|url=https://www.seasteading.org/detailed-engineering-reports-for-clubstead-are-available/|title=ClubStead|year=2009|publisher=seasteading.org|access-date=28 June 2022}}

• Evolo retrofitted oil platform {{cite web|url=http://www.evolo.us/competition/oil-platforms-transformed-into-sustainable-seascrapers/|title=Oil Platforms Transformed into Sustainable Seascrapers- eVolo – Architecture Magazine|work=evolo.us}}
• SeaPod{{Cite web|title=Ocean Builders|url=https://oceanbuilders.com/|access-date=28 June 2022|language=en-US}}

There are numerous seastead designs based around interlocking modules made of reinforced concrete.{{cite web|url=http://seasteading.org/interact/forums/engineering/structure-designs/apply-seasteading-concrete-shell-structures|title=Apply Seasteading Concrete Shell Structures – The Seasteading Institute|work=The Seasteading Institute|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100710053754/http://www.seasteading.org/interact/forums/engineering/structure-designs/apply-seasteading-concrete-shell-structures|archive-date=10 July 2010}} Reinforced concrete is used for floating docks, oil platforms, dams, and other marine structures.

Proposals include:

• The Floating City Project / Blue Frontiers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.seasteading.org/floating-city-project/|title=Floating City Project {{!}} The Seasteading Institute|website=www.seasteading.org|date=17 December 2015|language=en-US|access-date=5 February 2017}}
• Evolo Oceanscraper.{{cite web|url=http://www.evolo.us/competition/oceanscraper/|title=Oceanscraper- eVolo – Architecture Magazine|work=evolo.us}}
• AT Design Office floating city concept.{{cite web|url=http://www.dezeen.com/2014/05/13/floating-city-at-design-office/|title=Floating City concept by AT Design Office features underwater roads|work=Dezeen|date=13 May 2014}}
• Freedom Haven[https://freedomhaven.org/ Freedomhaven.org]

A single, monolithic structure that is not intended to be expanded or connected to other modules.

Proposals include:

• Evolo Seascraper{{cite web|url=http://www.evolo.us/architecture/seascraper-floating-city/|title=Seascraper – Floating City – eVolo – Architecture Magazine|work=evolo.us}}
• SeaOrbiter{{Cite web|url=http://www.popsci.com/article/science/spaceship-sea|title=A SPACESHIP FOR THE SEA|last=Raj|first=Ajai|date=14 June 2014|website=Popular Science|access-date=4 February 2017}} proposed oceangoing research vessel.

Seasteading has been identified as "techno-colonialism", continuing settler colonialism at sea.{{cite book | last=Veracini | first=Lorenzo | title=The Settler Colonial Present | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK | publication-place=London | date=2015 | isbn=978-1-137-39404-0 | doi=10.1057/9781137372475 | page=}}{{cite journal | last=Hughes | first=Tristan | title=The political theory of techno-colonialism | journal=European Journal of Political Theory | date=2024-05-05 | issn=1474-8851 | doi=10.1177/14748851241249819 | page=}} Others argue that building a new government is much more difficult than advocates realize.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2015/05/silicon-valley-letting-go-techie-island-fantasies/|title=Silicon Valley Is Letting Go of Its Techie Island Fantasies|last=Denuccio|first=Kyle|newspaper=WIRED|language=en-US|access-date=1 February 2017}} Also, seasteads would be at risk of political interference from nation states.{{cite news|title=Cities on the Ocean|url=http://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2011-12-03|access-date=6 December 2011|newspaper=The Economist|date=3 December 2011}}

On a logistical level, without access to culture, travel, restaurants, shopping, and other amenities, seasteads could be too remote and too uncomfortable to be attractive to potential long-term residents. Building seasteads to withstand the rigors of the open ocean may prove uneconomical.

Seastead structures may blight ocean views, their industry or farming may deplete their environments, and their waste may pollute surrounding waters. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the nearby population. Others fear that seasteads will mainly allow wealthy individuals to escape taxes, or to harm mainstream society by ignoring other financial, environmental, and labor regulations.

Governments have become increasingly concerned that Seasteading poses a threat to national security and opens the door for individuals or groups to create independent states.{{Cite news |last=Yarm |first=Mark |date=2025-04-15 |title=The Techno-Utopians Who Want to Colonize the Sea |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/magazine/seasteading-libertarian-ocean-living.html |access-date=2025-04-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} One such case made international headlines in 2019, when Thai officials seized a seastead 14 miles off the coast of Phuket citing national security concerns.

Seasteading has been imagined many times in novels, including: Jules Verne's 1895 science-fiction book Propeller Island (L'Île à hélice) about an artificial island designed to travel the waters of the Pacific Ocean; Freezone, a seventeen square mile platform similar to Las Vegas positioned 100 miles north of Morocco in the Eclipse Trilogy of the 1980s, and the 2003 novel The Scar, which featured a floating city named Armada.

It has been a central concept in some movies, notably Waterworld (1995), and in TV series such as Stargate Atlantis, which had a complete floating city. A two-episode sequence of the show Silicon Valley featured a seastead positioned at the International Date Line.{{Cite web |last=Quirk |first=Joe |date=2014-05-13 |title=Hit HBO Show Silicon Valley Climaxes with Seastead Cliffhanger |url=https://www.seasteading.org/hit-hbo-show-silicon-valley-climaxes-seastead-cliffhanger/ |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=The Seasteading Institute |language=en-US}}

It is a common setting in video games, forming the premise of the Bioshock series, Brink, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II; and in anime, such as Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which takes place mainly on a traveling city made of an interconnected fleet of ocean ships.

A satirical take on seasteading in the context of human extinction is depicted in the Love, Death & Robots episode "Three Robots: Exit Strategies".{{Cite web |last=Flagg |first=Spencer |date=2022-05-23 |title=Love, Death, Robots & Seasteading! |url=https://www.seasteading.org/love-death-robots-seasteading/ |access-date=2024-03-04 |website=The Seasteading Institute |language=en-US}} In the Archer episode "Cold Fusion", a villain attempts to melt the polar ice caps to promote his floating city development company.

{{div col |colwidth=15em}}

• Floating airport
• Floating island
• Intentional community
• HavenCo
• Houseboat
• Mobile offshore base
• Ocean colonization
• Operation Atlantis
• Pneumatic stabilized platform
• Russian floating nuclear power station
• Underwater habitat
• Very large floating structure
• Wolf Hilbertz

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web|last=Gramlich|first=Wayne|year=1998|title=Seasteading – Homesteading on the High Seas|url=http://gramlich.net/projects/oceania/seastead1.html}}
• {{Cite book|last=Neumeyer|first=Kenneth|title=Sailing the Farm|year=1981|publisher=Ten Speed Press |isbn=0-89815-051-5}}

{{Wiktionary}}{{emerging technologies|topics=yes|architect=yes}}

Category:Artificial islands

Category:Floating islands

Steading

Category:1960s neologisms