The Seasteading Institute

Phillip Greenspun has [a long review](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2009/03/16/how-rich-countries-die/) of [The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300030797/theseastinsti-20), written by Mancur Olson in 1982. As you can see from this review excerpt, Olson’s model is quite relevant to seasteading. Continue reading →

We recently posted a [possible seasteading timeline](http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dck5q6sr_11fcftn966) and [asked for feedback](http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dck5q6sr_11fcftn966) on it. At some point, we intend to create a timeline reflecting a more optimistic scenario, showing how quickly seasteading might grow if circumstances line up extremely well. Continue reading →

From our PR volunteer Basia Montauk comes an overview of last week’s press coverage:

Original stories:

* [City floating on the sea could be just 3 years away](http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/09/floating.cities.seasteading/), By Shelby Erdman, CNN, March 9, 2009
* ABC radio (Australia), [Life on the ocean waves](http://www.abc.net.au/rn/futuretense/stories/2009/2509637.htm), March 12, 2009, Antony Funnell interviews Patri Friedman
* The Sunday Times, “[Welcome aboard a brand new country](http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5901235.ece)”, Alex Pell, March Continue reading →

What: [March Seasteading Social](http://www.meetup.com/sfbay-seasteading/calendar/9966024/)

When: March 28, 2009 12:00 PM

Meetup Description: Come out and socialize with your fellow seasteaders! [The Starry Plough](http://www.meetup.com/sfbay-seasteading/calendar/9966024/) in Berkeley has graciously offered to host us from 12-4. We’ve got the place to ourselves, so we’ll have plenty of room.

Thanks to our excellent new volunteer Tyler, who found us this location!
Continue reading →

[Welcome aboard a brand new country: A utopian project part-funded by a dotcom tycoon aims to build a giant platform off the coast of San Francisco where people can live free of government regulation](http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5901235.ece)

> _It sounds like the plot of a pre-Daniel Craig Bond film: an internet tycoon invests part of his vast fortune to fund a fiefdom afloat in international waters. Continue reading →

As [ClubStead](http://seasteading.org/strategic-areas/engineering/clubstead) gets wrapped up, I’ve been pondering the next steps for our structure development. ClubStead demonstrates that a spar platform seastead can be built which can endure the worst storms in a fixed location of California, at a certain price point. But we don’t want to demonstrate just via [engineering reports](http://seasteading.org/files/MIandT040_08_R1_Seastead_Exec_Sum.pdf), we want to do it by building prototypes. Continue reading →

There has been a long and active debate about the relative merits of different structures for seasteading, such as [spar platforms](http://seasteading.org/book_beta/Above%20Water.html#floatingsparplatform), [breakwaters](http://seasteading.org/book_beta/On%20The%20Water.html#breakwaters), SFS (ranging from SWATH to spars to Water Walkers), sailing ships, or retrofitted cruise ships. Continue reading →

You can now follow [seasteading updates on twitter](http://twitter.com/seasteading), thanks to our new PR volunteer [Basia](http://seasteading.org/members/basiamontauk). Continue reading →

Now that it’s scheduled (Oct 2-4), I’ve been talking to many people about [Ephemerisle](http://seasteading.org/seastead.org/ephemerisle/index.html) – my idea for a festival of boats and platforms in international waters. Continue reading →

Wed: Yale – good. Had dinner w/ ~12 students beforehand, ~25 came to talk (during midterms week, not bad). Seemed to like it. Several enthusiasts who want to come to Ephemerisle. New parts of talk (what does TSI do, ranting about libertarianism) went over pretty well. Should have an MP3 up sometime.

Thu: NYC. Met w/ book agent, I got the feeling she gets pitched at a lot. She had some good advice – the wider the potential audience, the more publishers will be interested, and pioneering will sell better than politics. Continue reading →