Name for an agglomeration of seasteads
May 5, 2008 by admin
We need a good name for a collection of seasteads attached together to form a village or city. "A pod of seasteads" (like a group of whales) has been suggested, but I’d like to hear your ideas. "An independence of seasteads"? We could take the name from my proposed festival: "An ephemerisle of seasteads".
Or if one is pessimistic, perhaps "A target of seasteads" 
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©2012 The Seasteading Institute
10 comments
ha ha. That’s not pessimistic. "abandoned navigation hazard" is pessimistic.
There’s always the snowcrash answer….Raft.
A "school" of seasteads?
Or perhaps a "reef" or an "atoll"?
Arcologies
A stand of seasteads?
I find a target of seasteads amusing. But is there any irony in trying to assign a collective noun to a multiformity of individualists?
1. Just call it an "Island." It’s simple, to the point, and sounds pretty good and whereas a single seastead is more technically a ship, when several of them get together they will have more of a fixed feeling.
2. Call it a "Rendezvous." In the 19th century, mountain men, who lived most of their lives in relatively self-sufficient seclusion would get together once a year to trade goods and socialize. They called this annual get-together a Rendezvous. Since the idea of seasteading is to create stable but flexible communities that will naturally stay in a state of flux, I think this would be a fitting term.
I am thinking it would be fun to call it a Gaggle of Seasteads – then if the Seasteads have to move it can be called a Skein of Seasteads while in transit.
Plus it would be a nice pun considering the military slang meaning.
Especially as Wikipedia says,
A gaggle is a term of venery for a flock of geese that isn’t in flight; in flight, the group can be called a skein.
In military slang, a gaggle is an unorganized group doing nothing. In aviation, it is a large, loosely organized tactical formation of aircraft.[1]
Bambi
I suppose if you wanted to be more grammatically ambiguous you could just call it "a steading"?
Having a personal affinity for corvids I suggest an "unkindness" (the proper name for a flock/group of ravens) of seasteads, or perhaps a "murder" (the proper name for a flock/group of crows) of seasteads. Chances are that either of these will be rejected for sounding harsh or antisocial, but we were asked and so I respond with my preferences.
Keeping with the theme of Seasteading, one of openess, fairness, creativity, innovation and equality, I believe that imposing a structured naming convention would go against the grain. I would tend to lean to a common class structure and allow for the individual groups to provide unique names once formed. Thinking of various common naming conventions, one that popped in my head was Community-Family-Member-Unit. Each Seastead would be a member with numerous units. Each member Seastead would be able to name themselves. Likewise, a grouping of members would be a Seastead family. They too would be able to provide a unique name to their grouping of Seastead members. And keeping within the Millenial generation and internet lingo, a grouping of families would be a Community. The Community is the grouping of one-to-many, independantly governend, Seastead families operating under a common vision and set of values.
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