By the seastead, by the seastead, by the beautiful seastead

That Peter Thiel!

Every time I pick up a mag, there he – cofounder of PayPal, co-funder of Facebook - be.

First, it was The New Yorker profile. Then it was an article in The Economist on “seasteading”, of which Thiel is a big proponent. As are many libertarians.

Where next? People?

Well, enough about Peter Thiel.

The post operative word for today is seasteading.

Forget ‘Go west, young man, go west.’ We’re talking ‘Go wet, rich libertarian. Go wet.’

Seasteaders want to establish brave new sovereign worlds at sea, where meddling, greedy, nosey-parker governments can’t have at them.

Seasteaders face a number of challenges – technical (got to watch out for that ‘huff, and puff, and blow your house down’ kind of weather); political (unless you can figure out a way to be 100% self-sufficient, you’re going to have to have some congress with those meddling, greedy, nosey-parker governments, no matter how far offshore you get); and practical (whose really going to want to live in a no-exit environment without much by way of creature comfort, varied scenery, cultural amenities, fine dining…).

I’m not denying that the idea of living in an enclave of like-minded doesn’t have some appeal. Personally, I would prefer not to live in a mullah-run theocracy, thank you very much. But for those that want to live that way, well, have at it. Unfortunately, there will typically be some type of captive audience who are not all that happy with the status quo, whatever status that quo is.

So it’s hard for me to imagine this working out, other than on the most minute and granular scale.

Look where like-with-like has gotten us.

Partition in India, the Balkans, Israel? I really can’t come up with any examples of where the creation of uniform societies has been an unalloyed success.

Of course, this is different. I guess. A bunch of libertarians aren’t going to get their shorts all in a knot about the types of differences that cause run-of-the-mill cultures to get their shorts in a knot. But how do you protect against those who just can’t stand the thought of a group whose way of life, ideology, modus vivendi, whatever is different than theirs? Who feel so threatened by the “other”, who are so convinced that theirs is the only way one can possibly conduct their affairs, that they have to convert the “other” or wipe them off the face of the earth. (Hmmmm. Where have we seen this before?)  Seasteaders beware!  For some group, the very existence of a seastead that allows decadent westerners to sit around pot-smoking and attending gay weddings, when they’re not rapaciously chasing wealth, will no doubt be a war cry.

So methinks that the seasteaders better be prepared to arm up.

The Seasteading Institute – founded by Milton Friedman’s grandson, co-founded by (ta-da) Peter Thiel - has thought through a lot of the attending issues, and it’s an interesting read. They have thought things through in furtherance of their mission:

…the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems.

…We're opening this new frontier because humanity needs better ways to live together to unlock our full potential.

They’re all for a post-nationalism-as-we-know-it-now world. Forget countries. It’s the economy now, stupid.

With seasteading, they envision “a vibrant startup sector for government”, where different ideas compete for citizens. And speaking of post-nationalism. Since, in the beginning, the seasteaders will have to be citizens of somewhere, they suggest shopping around for getting citizenship – buying it if you have to – in the countries with the best tax advantages. No flag-waving Americans, they!

I’ll have to give them credit for anticipating, in their FAQ, the first question that came to my mind:

Are seasteading enthusiasts just a bunch of rich guys wanting even more freedom?

The seasteading community is broad and will only become broader over time. We don’t believe that wealth accumulation is the primary motive for seasteading, although we do recognize viable trade will be a key ingredient to seasteading’s success.

Well, it may not be their primary motive, but it sure does seem to be a motive. C.f., shopping around for tax-free citizenship.

People who venture off to seasteads will do so for a variety of reasons, and for many it will be to find more freedom. They may be desperately poor people searching for opportunities and escape from oppression. Or they may be entrepreneurs with valuable ideas. We’re eager to see over time what kind of new innovative governments arise from the experiment on seasteads.

Hmmmmm.  “Desperately poor people searching for opportunities and escape from oppression….Entrepreneurs with valuable ideas.”

I know we’ve got our problems, but doesn’t this sound like the good old U. S. of A.? Or at least what it used to be, before we noticed that a disturbing proportion of those desperately poor people and entrepreneurs with valuable ideas were brown-skinned.

And, while I think of it, where are those “desperately poor people” going to get the scratch to buy-in to a seastead?

Nope, sounds to me like a bunch of rich guys looking for more freedom and more money.

There are worse things to spend your time and money on.

Like buying someone a Lexus for Christmas. (I do so despise those ads…)

Anyway, I wish the seasteaders success. Come the melting of the perma-ice, we’ll probably all be living in seasteads. Better a seastead thought up by Peter Thiel and Patri Friedman than a Waterworld raft with Kevin Costner.