Homesteading is so 19th Century

A week in profiling interesting groups from Freedom Fest would not be complete without mentioning The Seasteading Institute (TSI). Led by visionary Patri Friedman, the grandson of Milton and son of David, TSI is a libertarian movement for “creating permanent dwellings on the ocean – homesteading the high seas. A seastead is a structure meant for permanent occupation on the ocean.” As their website explains, “the world needs a new frontier, a place where those who wish to experiment with building new societies can go to test out their ideas. Unfortunately, all land is already claimed. Enabling the ocean to be the next frontier, allows for startup societies to bring experimentation and innovation to political, legal, and social systems.” In other words, a true experiment in societal public choice will be made possible on the ocean.

The idea sounds far off, but the group cites innovations like modern cruise ships as indication that living off the high seas is quite possible with enough planning and infrastructure. They also believe in incremental approach to every area of seasteading or “breaking [their] ambitious visions down into small steps, and taking things one step at a time.” Patri and his team are constantly solving potential problems, finding funding, and devoting time to researching sustainable business models that can survive on the ocean. Though they can cite donors like Peter Thiel, the man behind PayPal, TSI is also intent on creating a substantive group of people interested in seasteading. This manifests itself in socials and lecture events, but also Ephemerisle, a festival meant to showcase the potential culture of seasteading. Next year, they will (appropriately) be collaborating with Reason for a cruise in the Caribbean. I, for one, will be in attendance.