Seasteading: A Working Definition
Seasteading: Boondoggle or Reality
There is this word that we have heard bandied about by certain parties, for roughly the past 20 to 30 years, that I am aware of, that has talked about building a completely new kind of community, independent of any of the existing nations or territories of the world....
That word is Seasteading.
While the original concept harks all the way back to the 1895 science fiction work of Jules Verne, called Propeller Island (AKA The Floating Island and The Pearl of the Pacific), where he describes in great detail a giant man-made floating island, occupied solely by millionaires, that floats around the Pacific, the "modern" discussion has been going on for over 30 to 40 years, the necessary technologies have existed for at least the last 20 to 30 years, the "sales" campaigns have been going on almost continuously almost as long, and new proposals are added to the heap, year after year.... Always promising an ideal Elision-like lifestyle.... Always aimed at the 1%ers.... Always looking for the big bucks.
And, as yet (other than the sole existing exception of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers), none of these "floating cities", not one, have actually come to fruition as viable, self-sustaining communities on the open seas. Projects like "Freedom Ship" have managed to be promoted for as long as 20 years, only to implode like an old star.
Yet on the internet, these are the only examples we can turn up when we do online searches on that term.
https://www.google.co.jp/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=seasteading
So who are the REAL seasteaders?
So, who are the REAL Seasteaders, the people who ARE actually living on the oceans of the world? Where do we find these individualistic, independent pioneers that actually DO live a truly sustainable lifestyle?
Well, first of all, they do, indeed, exist, out there.... not only in the hundreds, but in the thousands. They come originally from different countries, different walks of life, different classes and economic circumstances, but they have one thing in common: They have created and maintained a viable lifestyle on the open oceans of the world.
They are cruising sailors.... Individuals, couples, and families who have chosen to live on a boat, one that serves as both home and vehicle, that have chosen to, by whatever means best suited to their own situation, build the dream they had long been told was un-available, un-affordable, un-reachable.
These cruising people have simply chosen to live the dream.
But wait, you say.... What about that business about "communities"?!?!
In order to more easily understand the real Seasteaders, you have to remember that, historically speaking, "communities" were NOT automatically synonymous with villages, towns, and cities.... Nomads had very dynamic communities that were always on the move, always connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting in new locations, as their own needs and local circumstances or resources demanded. For the nomad, community was built on communication, not location, and the very same thing can be said for the typical (if there is such a thing!) cruising sailor.
Thanks to a wide range of new technologies, it is possible for today's nomads to be nearly 100% self-sustained, collecting and using electric power generated directly by the sun and wind, growing (aquaponics) or collecting their own food, desalinating their own fresh water, with a nearly zero fossil fuel-based carbon foot print.