“There’s many, many exciting and important things you could do that you just can’t do ’cause they’re illegal or they’re not allowed by regulation. And that makes sense, we don’t want our world to change too fast. But maybe we should set aside some small part of the world … I think as technologists we should have some safe places where we can try out some new things and figure out: What is the effect on society? What’s the effect on people? Without having to deploy it into the normal world. And people who like those kinds of things can go there and experience that.”

We created a petition for our community to signal their support of Page’s sentiment, and to encourage his collaboration on seasteading and startup city projects. Please sign our Change.org petition to Page telling him, “I Support Your Idea for Free-Experimentation Zones… on Land & Sea!”

Here is the full text of the petition:

Change.org petition to Larry Page, CEO of Google:

The last great advance in governance technology was the American experiment with democracy more than 200 years ago. While democracy has brought health, wealth and happiness to billions of people, we also sense that modern governments are slowing down meaningful reform with one-size-fits-all policies. The clash of old rules and rapidly evolving technology leads us to believe that innovative systems of governance could serve humanity better than modern governments do today. We believe a new frontier is needed to once again test out new ways of living together.

In his keynote address at Google’s I/O event on May 15, the company’s CEO and co-founder Larry Page said, “There’s many, many exciting and important things you could do that you just can’t do because they are illegal or they are not allowed by regulation. And that makes sense, we don’t want our world to change too fast. But maybe we should set aside some small part of the world … I think as technologists we should have some safe places where we can try out some new things and figure out: What is the effect on society? What is the effect on people? Without having to deploy it into the normal world. And people who like those kinds of things can go there and experience that.”

We applaud Page’s call for the creation of safe places for experimentation, and seek to promote two viable options: seasteading and startup cities. For five years, The Seasteading Institute (www.seasteading.org) has been conducting research into the potential for permanent, innovative communities – floating at sea. At the same time, The Seasteading Institute’s allies have been working to develop startup cities in existing nations where experiments in governance will be welcomed.

We welcome Page’s voice in the call for a new frontier where innovators can chase their dreams. We encourage Page to invest resources into advancing these initiatives by collaborating with The Seasteading Institute and/or by assigning a team at Google to investigate and advance free-experimentation zones.

Are you ready to take the leap toward the blue frontier? Do you crave personal freedom, and the chance to be a part of the first community at sea? Or perhaps you simply seek a fresh start, new economic opportunities, and the peace and solitude of an ocean community. If any of these prospects appeals to you or someone you know, please take a moment to submit your response or email the survey link to others.

We hope to make seasteading accessible to as wide an audience as possible, but recognize that the earliest communities will comprise financially independent individuals with the means to afford an upscale residence in a major metropolitan area, either living at sea full time or as a timeshare. Gathering data from interested people who meet our criteria is part of a broader, comprehensive seastead plan, investigating common denominators of the majority of respondents. This plan is rooted in the belief that the seasteading movement is ready to advance to the next level. We are ready to make this dream come true if you are.

The Institute was happy to encourage their efforts, particularly in light of the fact the George Petrie, our Director of Engineering, works from an office located just north of Houston. During weekly meetings throughout the fall semester, Petrie advised on the pros and cons of different strategies until the students finally settled on a three-phase approach to the project. Their primary business model was based around offering proven but non-FDA-approved medical treatments on a floating medical facitlity located just beyond the territorial waters of the United States, utilizing a ship as a platform. This first phase was intended to demonstrate the economic viability of the business model, setting the stage for a more ambitious second phase, which envisioned the conversion of a decommissioned offshore drilling rig to house a more ambitious scope of medical treatment and a variety of research facilities. A third phase envisioned construction of a purpose-built floating platform to support a full-on tourist destination complete with hotel, casino and all the trappings of a seaside resort. These phases were written up and presented in a series of storyboards (see below), with the third phase visualized in the form of a 3D video rendering.

Imagine a platform, located off the coast of Southern California, miles out to sea. This is not your standard drilling rig, but rather a state-of-the-art “seasteading” platform. The facility would also house doctors, their families, a research facility, and experimental researchers themselves.

We can sometimes feel lonely as seasteaders – separated from all the talk of conventional politics, the ‘blame game,’ and standard prescriptions of democratic reform. Our fundamental principles of peace and voluntarism, taken to their logical end, often lead us to surprising, and indeed radical conclusions. In this video, seasteading board member James O’Neill reminds us of the importance in striving to see through the endless contradictions of modern discourse, even when this leads us to disruptive truths.

The Seasteading Institute April 2013 Newsletter

Dear Friends of The Seasteading Institute,

In celebrating our five-year anniversary, we have been reflecting on the many milestones we have already achieved, and accelerating our efforts to enable the development of seasteads in the near future. Please join us in celebrating five years of seasteading by making a generous donation and entering our raffle before the end of the month.

I trust this newsletter update will reflect our renewed sense of commitment to empowering a dedicated community with the knowledge and connections necessary to venture out to the high seas. While Blueseed and other seasteading-related undertakings are edging closer to a move offshore, the Institute’s capacity for inspiring new audiences has never been stronger.

On Tuesday, April 16, our co-author on the seasteading book and I will be appearing on the Glenn Beck Program for a full episode centered around seasteading and free cities. Recently, Beck has been exploring concepts of alternative governance, with a specific set of ideals he envisions for a model municipality, Independence, USA. We are excited that Glenn has taken up the call for small experimental governance, and we plan to enlighten he and his viewers on the advantages of creating experimental cities at sea, rather than the Texas location he has chosen. To watch the program online, you can sign up for two weeks of trial access to The Blaze TV network, or buy a subscription.

Also of importance, we are seeking aspiring seasteaders with the financial capacity to own or lease a unit on a seastead for qualitative interviews. We are conducting research to determine what common denominator exists among the pioneers so we can design a seastead that will meet their needs. If you would like to live and/or operate a business on a seastead, and you are financially secure, please send an email to volunteers@seasteading.org.

In celebration of five years,

Randolph Hencken, Executive Director

P.S. We are grateful for all of our supporters who have donated already this month, but we can only achieve our of vision with the broad support of our community. Please join us and make a donation today, which automatically enters you into our raffle.

• Celebrate 5 Years of Seasteading and Enter our Raffle!
• Watch Randolph Hencken and Joe Quirk on Glenn Beck Program this Tuesday
• Seeking Aspiring Seasteaders for Survey Research
• Sea Farming Project Submitted to USAID Development Innovation Ventures
• Podcast: Legal Advisor O.Shane Balloun Explains Recent Supreme Court Ruling and Its Impact on Seasteading
• Book Manuscript Submitted – “Seasteading: How Ocean Cities will Save the Environment, Cure Diseases, Feed the World, and Launch Millions out of Poverty”
• Blueseed Update
• Joe Quirk Speaks at TEDx Burning Man
• New York Magazine Gets It Wrong
• Keith Rutledge Joins Engineering Board of Advisors
• Conference Highlights: James O’Neill on Non-Violence
• Featured Ambassador Tal Tsfany
• Ephemerisle 2013 – Year of the Art Boat

 

 

We are entering everyone who donates between now and April 30 into our anniversary raffle, giving our community members the chance to win either an autographed copy of “How to Start Your Own Country” by Erwin S. Strauss (priceless) or a brand new ASUS 21.5″ LCD monitor ($175 value).

Five years ago, the Institute set out to illuminate a practical course to overcoming the legal, economic, and technical obstacles of seasteading. What began as an online open-source thought experiment, moderated by Patri Friedman in his spare time, has progressed into a worldwide movement of technology enthusiasts, humanitarian entrepreneurs, and maritime professionals. We are now on the verge of creating seasteading technology capable of revolutionizing the way that rules evolve and governments operate. But we can only accomplish our dream with the support of our community. Please commemorate the Institute’s five-year anniversary, and help fulfill our vision with a generous tax-deductible donation.

 

Watch Randolph Hencken and Joe Quirk on Glenn Beck Program this Tuesday

This Tuesday, April 16, at 5PM ET, Executive Director Randolph Hencken and Author/Seasteading Spokesman Joe Quirk will appear on The Glenn Beck Program on The Blaze TV network. The Blaze can be viewed on the Dish Network or online with a subscription; for people wishing to view the program who don’t have a subscription or Dish TV, The Blaze offers a free 2 week promotional subscription. The segment will be archived on The Blaze’s site for several days after airing.

Our understanding is that the hour-long episode will primarily focus on seasteading and the free cities movement. Beck featured seasteading on his program in 2008 when he was on CNN, in an interview segment with Joe Lonsdale, an early seasteading supporter and original member of the Institute’s board.

More recently, Beck has been exploring concepts of alternative governance, with a specific set of ideals for the model of municipal moneyness he envisions, Independence, USA. While the Institute is intent on maintaining a neutral position with regard to the internal policies in a particular seasteading experiment, we are glad to promote the discussion in front of a very large audience. This is an unprecedented opportunity for us to attract thousands of new people to our community. We hope to sway viewers from a conservative or libertarian ideology towards our more fluid conception of innovative governance, while discussing the process of developing a free city at sea.

Please tune in and hear more about our seasteading vision.

 

Seeking Aspiring Seasteaders for Survey Research

We are currently conducting interviews with potential future seastead residents and business owners as a first step toward assessing the most suitable design, location, and other criteria for a comprehensive seastead plan – a roadmap to the first seastead platform. The survey is aimed at individuals with a strong interest in making an actual seastead their place of residence and/or business headquarters. Survey participants must have the financial means to afford an upscale residence in a major metropolitan area (our first ClubStead report estimated that costs of living on a seastead would be comparable), and the capacity to conduct business at least a short distance from the mainland.

If you think you fit this description, please send an email to volunteers@seasteading.org explaining your present circumstances and we will get back to you to schedule an appointment.

 

Sea Farming Project Submitted to USAID Development Innovation Ventures

Last November, Institute staff worked with senior aquaculture specialist Ricardo Radulovich and ambassador Ryan Garcia to submit a letter of intent to Development Innovation Ventures, a program of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID DIV supports breakthrough solutions to the world’s most intractable development problems. Our proposal is to bring Dr. Radulovich’s decades of sea farming experience in a systematic fashion to four impoverished coastal regions around the world, using easily replicable models of profitable, aquatic food production. We believe this method of distribution and avenue of funding can accelerate another agricultural revolution – at sea.

After reviewing our letter of intent, USAID invited us to submit a full application. On April 4, we submitted a proposal describing how seaweed farming and complementary aquaculture production can greatly improve conditions for small fishing populations currently facing food shortages and insecurity due to climate change and overfishing. The application emphasizes primary productivity of seaweed, cultivated in coastal and near-coastal waters, as the best way to increase food production on a global scale. Production sufficient amounts of food on land is becoming increasingly difficult, due to the lack of available new land, the global deceleration in crop yields per acre, and erratic weather brought on by a changing climate.

Radulovich’s simple yet innovative primary production method involves tying seaweeds to long ropes and mooring the ropes with sandbags or concrete blocks. Secondary production of shellfish, filter-feeders, and larger herbivorous fish only require minimal additional materials, which are readily available in the developing world. Fishermen who are now struggling to earn a livelihood could use their fishing equipment and familiarity on the ocean to master the sea farming trade with ease, making it a perfect fit coastal nations facing extreme hunger shortages.

If our application is selected, the program would distribute approximately $1.75 million across four tropical developing nations: Costa Rica, Panama, Thailand and Tanzania. Dr. Radulovich’s has colleagues from prestigious research institutions who are already engaged in various humanitarian seaweed farming projects, and will lead the efforts in their respective home countries. We are eager to spearhead this combination of ocean stewardship and innovative, low-cost technology in the untapped frontier of coastal waters. By doing so, we will be positioning ourselves as future leaders of responsible ocean habitation in deeper waters, further ashore.

In summary, we are proposing nothing short of a Blue Revolution – we hope the evaluators at USAID will grasp the full power and practicality of our vision.

 

Podcast: Legal Advisor O.Shane Balloun Explains Recent Supreme Court Ruling and Its Impact on Seasteading

Click to Listen [mp3]The recent Supreme Court case of Lozman v. The City of Riviera Beach sparked a flurry of news coverage on what technically counts as a vessel under United States law. Justices sided 7-2 with Fane Lozman, the former owner of a floating home seized by the Riviera Beach government under the rules and remedies of US admiralty law. A branch of US Federal Law applying exclusively to vessels in navigable waters, admiralty law pertains not only to internal waters within US territory, but also covers ships in international waters. This means that admiralty law will be of concern to seasteads, as offshore structures which may or may not be categorized as “vessels,” depending on their design. Reversing the lower courts’ actions, the Supreme Court’s decision refined their definition of a vessel to exclude structures like Lozman’s home from now on, and limit the future applicability of admiralty law to only cover structures clearly designed to transport people and objects across water.

[7 out of 9 Supreme Court justices agree – just because it floats doesn’t make it a boat!]

Research & Communications Coordinator Charlie Deist spoke with O.Shane Balloun, one of the Institute’s legal advisors, to talk about the details of the case, and the bearing of the new definition on our legal strategy going forward. We recorded the conversation in podcast form for the benefit of our community. Balloun is the author of the original legal strategy document, The True Obstacle to the Autonomy of Seasteads: American Law Enforcement over Homesteads on the High Seas. He practices admiralty law in the state of Washington, and is one of the most qualified commentators on seasteading legal strategy.

 

Book Manuscript Submitted – “Seasteading: How Ocean Cities will Save the Environment, Cure Diseases, Feed the World, and Launch Millions out of Poverty”

In 2002, our founder and chairman of the Board Patri Friedman began to pen an informal online manuscript detailing a practical strategy for creating startup countries at sea. Up until then, such endeavors seemed locked in a tragic boom-and-bust cycle, leaving supporters perpetually wondering, “What could possibly have gone wrong?” Answers to this question, cased in a freshly polished vision, will be forthcoming early next year when a seasteading book for a mainstream audience hits the shelves under the title *Seasteading: How Ocean Cities will Save the Environment, Cure Diseases, Feed the World, and Launch Millions out of Poverty*.

In the intervening decade since the webbed draft was started, the manuscript has been continually revised – eventually, it was superseded by The Seasteading Institute’s website, complete with professional research into the myriad challenges of seasteading. Last year, the book format for inspiring practical seasteading ventures was given new life, when Patri teamed up with co-author Joe Quirk under a deal with publishing powerhouse Simon & Schuster. The duo has been combining their talents, overhauling the original tone and structure, to produce an informative yet highly entertaining manuscript, which they submitted to the publishers for initial review last month.

We see huge potential in the latest draft, and initial feedback from the publisher has provided further cause for optimism. Although the book is not due out until next year, we are already squirming with anticipation of the response it will yield among independent thinkers who have yet to hear this vision pitched in such compelling and realistic terms.

 

Blue Seed Update

Since our update last year, much has happened at the commercial seasteading venture, Blueseed. With constant press coverage in practically every major US outlet, and in numerous international ones, Blueseed has kept advancing the notion of ocean communities while racking up financial support.

More than 400 startup companies, totaling about 1,300 entrepreneurs from 67 countries, have expressed interest in locating on the ship. Besides customers, Blueseed has amassed an impressive portfolio of strategic, capital, and pipeline partners, including renowned law firms Fenwick & West and Pillsbury; the marine division of Rolls Royce; Startup Weekend (organizer of hundreds of startup events per year, around the world), Start-up Chile and many international startup accelerators; plus partners in maritime security, waste handling, helicopter transportation, and coworking space management.

 

Blueseed’s greatest achievement has been garnering investor support. In December 2012, Blueseed closed a seed round of funding from Floodgate Fund (Mike Males), Correlation Ventures (Trevor Kienzle) and Xu Xiaoping of Chinese angel fund ZhenFund.

To accelerate the launch of the ship, Blueseed pivoted from buying and retrofitting a used cruise ship, to chartering an existing ship, with minimal retrofits. The launch cost has been brought down to $27M, with a planned date around Q3 2014. Of the $27M, $9M is currently reserved for an investor based in Silicon Valley.

Recognizing the desire of many investors to participate in the venture for smaller sums, Blueseed applied to and was accepted by AngelList, an online investment community for taking micro-investments as small as $1,000. For more information, check out Blueseed’s AngelList profile.

 

Joe Quirk Speaks at TEDx Burning Man

Have you heard Joe Quirk, co-author of the upcoming seasteading book, talk about what drives progress? If not, this short video from last year’s TEDx at Burning Man will give you a taste of the proactive social, political and environmental agenda we’re spearheading under the banner of startup seastead communities.

The incredible outburst of applause at the end demonstrates that our vision of competitive governance is no longer just for political theorists and libertarians – it is finding brand new support among a much wider audience of independent thinkers.

With his characteristic knack for making complex topics more relatable, Quirk asks the audience of “Burners” to imagine a world in which localized governments spread across a desert must compete for citizens living in mobile homes, a la Burning Man. Once the connection to mobile, modular communities on the ocean clicks, he begins highlighting actual entrepreneurs from our community seeking to turn the tide on climate change with innovative aquaculture and renewable energy ventures. This message is part of our broader strategy to tie seasteading to existing traditions of civil society, and show how progress on key global issues can be accomplished apart from increasingly bitter and divisive political battles. If you are ready to stop arguing and start advancing humanity through peaceful cooperation and technological innovation, please share this video with your political friends and foes alike.

 

New York Magazine Gets It Wrong

Dan Amira, a writer for New York Magazine, apparently picked up on the Washington Times angle to seasteading, featuring our mission alongside plans for four other so-called conservative utopias. While the label of conservative can be fairly applied to a concept like “The Citadel,” which explicitly discourages liberals from applying to their walled-compound-with-mandatory-militia-training, we wish to reiterate what differentiates seasteading from the conservative or even avowedly libertarian efforts that populate the rest of Amira’s list.

Most importantly, while other movements exposit a single ideology or set of rules for improving society, our stance is that the ideal form of governance in a rapidly changing world cannot be known a priori. However, we do know that current systems are not delivering sufficient solutions to major issues such as financial stability, regulation of advanced medical technologies, and environmental sustainability. To find something better, we have to try many new ideas, and observe what works, i.e., what attracts the most citizens through innovative political and social systems.

Amira comes closer to the truth than many authors in recognizing that we seek to enable experimentation with a wide variety of political ideas, but he still can’t resist applying labels that mischaracterize the seasteading movement. Finally, although we see serious problems with the state of governance on land, our vision is not rooted in escapism. Instead we seek solutions that will improve the functionality of government on land and at sea, through the demonstration of best-practices and innovations.

We’re curious to know what our community thinks – is seasteading libertarian? And what does it mean to be inspired by libertarian ideals? Leave a comment on our blog post, or on Amira’s article.

 

Keith Rutledge Joins Engineering Board of Advisors

Our new engineering advisory board member Keith Rutledge graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1976 with a BA in international relations and a minor in engineering. He holds a California Community College lifetime teaching credential in engineering and has taught architectural and energy design, drafting and construction courses. In 1978 he co-founded a renewable energy contracting company and a nonprofit educational and scientific organization specializing in renewable energy training programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the past 35 years Keith has maintained professional activities in renewable energy and clean air transportation fields as a contractor, administrator, project manager, sales manager, financier, trainer and designer. He is a co-founder, director and CFO of Smart Hybrid Systems, Inc., a small energy appliance developer and manufacturer, contracting with entities such as Sempra Utilities, Southern California Gas Company and the Electric Power Research Institute, demonstrating hydrogen fuel cells with combined heat, power and storage capabilities. He is co-owner and managing member of Greenstone Renewables LLC, developing utility scale solar farm projects. He is a co-founder and director of the Renewable Energy Development Institute, promoting sustainable and renewable energy and transportation. Keith holds two US Patents in the hydrogen energy area and has utilized hydrogen generated from solar energy for power, heat, and cooking. He designed and built his off-grid passive solar home in 1984 utilizing photovoltaics for power and solar thermal collectors for space and water heating. Keith sees opportunities for sustainable and renewable seasteading developments in power, water, transportation, aquaculture, manufacturing and chemical applications that are cost-effective and good for the planet.

We are thrilled to welcome Keith to the team, and look forward to applying his years of engineering and business expertise to critical seasteading challenges!

 

Conference Highlights: James O’Neill on Non-Violence

We can sometimes feel lonely as seasteaders – separated from all the talk of conventional politics, the ‘blame game,’ and standard prescriptions of democratic reform. Our fundamental principles of peace and voluntarism, taken to their logical end, often lead us to surprising, and indeed radical conclusions. In this video, seasteading board member James O’Neill reminds us of the importance in striving to see through the endless contradictions of modern discourse, even when this leads us to disruptive truths.

 

Featured Ambassador Tal Tsfany

Tal Tsfany joined the ambassadors team in February, with big plans to bring the vision of seasteading to his personal and professional networks. His deep connections in the realms of political philosophy as well as business and technology make him a powerful addition to our movement. Tal is currently a Vice President of Amdocs, a leading global telecommunications IT and software provider. He is also a board member of a fast-growing startup, Base, which is working to redefine the world of customer relationship management (CRM). A 42-year-old husband and father of three, Tal moved from Israel to Atlanta, Georgia in 2006. By the age of 27, he was the CEO of a 650-person test preparation company.

Next month, Tal will be representing the Institute at ATLOSCon, an annual weekend-long meeting of Objectivists from the Atlanta area. Tal’s entrepreneurial spirit and successes will undoubtedly bolster the credibility of our audacious mission and win new minds to our cause.

“Seasteading could be the next step towards a securing a future of total individual freedom for my kids and many other kids. I believe that with the intellectual power that can be recruited and the technologies that can be leveraged, this vision has a good chance of materializing in the mid-term future.”

 

Ephemerisle 2013 – Year of the Art Boat

Ephemerisle, the self-organizing annual floating festival initiated by The Seateading Institute in 2009, is once again taking place this summer from July 10-14, on the Sacramento River Delta. We are proud of the traditions that have emerged and the community that has grown up around the small-scale seasteading simulation. Our staff looks forward to reuniting with old friends, and making new ones this year, in the “Year of the Art Boat.”

For more information on Ephemerisle 2013, visit the Facebook page. General information on the event and experiences from previous years can be found on the Wiki page.

We are entering everyone who donates between now and April 30 into our anniversary raffle, giving community members the chance to win either an autographed copy of “How to Start Your Own Country” by Erwin S. Strauss (priceless) or a brand new ASUS 21.5″ LCD monitor ($175 value).

Five years ago, the Institute set out to illuminate a practical course to overcoming the legal, economic, and technical obstacles of seasteading. What began as an online open-source thought experiment, moderated by Patri Friedman in his spare time, has progressed into a worldwide movement of technology enthusiasts, humanitarian entrepreneurs, and maritime professionals. We are now on the verge of creating seasteading technology capable of revolutionizing the way that rules evolve and governments operate.

The media spotlight on the Institute, a result of our movement building, has put pioneers with actual business plans in touch with one another. Acting in isolation, a potential seasteading entrepreneur has some small chance of success. Empowerment and a much higher chance of success comes from collaboration with a team of enthusiastic seasteaders and expert advisors. This has taken place through events like our 2012 Seasteading Conference, attended by 100 forward thinkers with backgrounds in engineering, ocean law, aquaculture, and high-tech innovation.

Research on the ocean’s legal and physical environment, which would cost millions of dollars or be completely unavailable, is now available freely to all. Our most comprehensive legal paper, The True Obstacle to the Autonomy of Seasteads, by O.Shane Balloun, was recently published in the University of San Francisco Maritime Law Journal. The theoretical foundations of our mission have been promoted to the realm of rigorous academic debate, with publication of Patri Friedman and Brad Taylor’s Seasteading: Competitive Governments on the Ocean, in the leading economics journal Kyklos.

Our 50+ member ambassadors team is engaging ever wider circles from around the globe, speaking at TEDx, hosting large public events, and establishing relationships with prominent figures in fields relevant to seasteading.

We are already nearing the critical mass of talented and experienced individuals who believe that seasteading is not only desirable, but eminently achievable. Even more excitingly, we have the potential to create thousands of new seasteaders next year when Simon & Schuster publishes the long-awaited book, Seasteading: How Ocean Cities will Save the Environment, Feed the World, Cure Diseases, and Launch Millions Out of Poverty, authored by Patri Friedman and Joe Quirk.

With your help, we are breaking through to the Blue Frontier sooner than we imagined was possible. We hope we can count on your donations to ensure that the next five years bring major change, with the Institute positioned at the helm of a powerful movement of innovators and entrepreneurs.

This is the last in a three-part series of guest blogs by Josh Taylor, a UK based 22-year-old social entrepreneur who specializes in creative science and technology projects that inspire innovation and stimulate global awareness. You can read about his latest project from part 1 and part 2 of this series and on www.JoshingTalk.com.

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In my last post, I wrote about the technology I plan to use to send a submersible to over 8,000 metres beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Despite pre-conceived ideas of what’s possible for an amateur, we managed to design and are now building this submersible without using the multi-millions of pounds needed in the past to attempt this frontier’s exploration. In fact, the overall cost of the complete submersible will end up being less than the cost of travel to Puerto Rico, plus lodging and chartering of a boat to take us out to the Milwaukee Deep.

The Finish Line

As we finish the build of the submersible, my focus is on trying to finalise a date for launch. Currently, I am aiming to make this happen by June. This depends not only on how the submersible testing goes, but also how willing people are to collaborate with me on the project. So here is what I’m looking for to complete the project:

• Flights from London, UK to Puerto Rico and back for up to four people.
• Accommodation for one week in or near Puerto Rico.
• A boat capable of taking us 70 miles north of Puerto Rico to the Milwaukee Deep for an estimated 5-hour deployment of the submersible.

Of course, I aim to offer value in return to those who help me out. Usually, the media attention my projects attract makes collaboration a fantastic way for a company to advertise or generate brand awareness. My track record includes project exposure in the United States, United Kingdom, China, South Africa, New Zealand and across the Internet in numerous articles or blog posts.

I make high quality YouTube videos of the projects that are generating daily hits, even after the project has finished (see my original weather balloon project). The challenge from Sir Richard Branson and ties to the Virgin group have given me connections that would be powerful for businesses looking to network.

A global audience is following the project, and it will only take a few more people or businesses to help secure the project launch!

Most importantly, this will be a historic step towards the inevitable settling of the oceanic frontier. No one has ever accomplished this feat with an amateur submersible alike to mine or with the way we have approached funding and executing the task. It would be great to have you on board – to join me in undertaking a year’s worth of hard work and a lifetime of ambition as we epitomise the human right of daring to dream and exploring new frontiers.

If you can help me, please email me at joshingtalk@gmail.com. I have written up a mission statement and budget report available for anyone to view. Any other way, I need your help spreading the word about what I’m doing – please tell your friends and family and let others know of the JoshingTalk Submersible project and do follow the journey!

Follow me on Twitter or Facebook

JoshingTalk Website: www.joshingtalk.com

This is the second in a three-part series of guest blogs by Josh Taylor, a UK based 22-year-old social entrepreneur who specializes in creative science and technology projects that inspire innovation and stimulate global awareness. You can read about his latest project in part 1 of this series, and on www.joshingtalk.com.

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In my last post, I talked about my DIY weather balloon projects, which attracted the attention of Sir Richard Branson, and culminated in him challenging me to send something similar down to the ocean deep. The selected location for this mission is the Atlantic Ocean’s deepest trench – the Milwaukee Deep – and so I set out to find the equipment to accomplish the more than 8,000-meter dive.

The Technology

I have been working alongside Trident Sensors, specialists in GPS navigation systems with a strong background in marine technologies. We have designed and are in the process of building the submersible to consist of a glass sphere, 7 inches in diameter and pressure rated to 10,000 psi. Inside the sphere will sit a camera, pressure sensor, iridium GPS and magnetised drop weight system.

• The camera is likely to be a GoPro or similar competition. This is because they are small but powerful in film quality and provide good storage space and battery life.
• Lighting will consist of LEDs with their own special casing, likely to be made of titanium to withstand the pressures. They will be placed outside the sphere to help illuminate the dark journey down to over 8,000 metres.
• The drop weight system will be triggered by a switch and will unlock when the submersible hits the bottom, increasing the buoyancy and allowing it to ascend back to the surface.
• The GPS will function by standard satellite communication. This piece is vital, as the specific coordinates will be a huge help when I am trying to recover a soccer ball in the middle of the Atlantic ocean….

As we are in the build stage at the moment, we are still finding that ideas and design options change as we aim for the highest probability of making this work.

There are many benefits that I’m bringing out of this project including raising awareness of plastic pollution in our ocean environment and trying to inspire others to have the confidence to explore this frontier. But perhaps the most unique aspect of the project is that nearly anybody can get their hands on the components of the submersible, without vast amounts of financial backing. I think it’s vital that people have the confidence to change the way we go about exploration, which is why all my projects use technology already available to the consumer market. I collaborate with businesses and use their resources in return for their brand exposure that I generate through my unprecedented projects, but even without their support, the cost of equipment is not exorbitant.

We are lucky to live in this day and age where technology is quickly developing to allow more people to make groundbreaking discoveries. If an amateur like me can compete with elite research institutions and multi-million dollar industries in underwater craft, it can only be a matter of time before the platform technology required for seasteading ventures becomes accessible to the average entrepreneur. The great work and enthusiasm shown here at The Seasteading Institute is proof that they are leaders in pioneering these activities.

In this guest blog series, we meet Josh Taylor, a UK based 22-year-old social entrepreneur who specializes in creative science and technology projects that inspire innovation and stimulate global awareness. Josh is currently working on a project to get a submersible to the bottom of the deepest Atlantic ocean trench- the Milwaukee Deep. You can support and follow the project at www.joshingtalk.com.

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Back in 2011, a garage DIY experiment of mine was launched to international recognition after I sent a weather balloon to 118,000 feet and captured the curvature of the Earth on camera (video).  I decided to make use of this exposure by attempting a new project to create a piece of art in near space, using the same weather balloon technology to fly to over 100,000 feet while ink solutions from inside a payload fell onto the canvas by the power of gravity. Much to my satisfaction, the project went very smoothly and the bind between art, science and Mother Nature produced a truly unique piece of art, which I recovered 40 miles from launch site in a field after its 2-3 hour journey. Yet again, the glowing response from the international media prompted me to think about my next project….

Image of France, the Channel and the South of the UK from my first weather balloon project.

The Challenge 

The JoshingTalk Submersible challenge all started one evening, when I wrote a blog post addressed to Sir Richard Branson. I had grown up watching him break world records and take on massive challenges and now I wanted to turn the tables. I wanted him to challenge me to my next project.

Within a few weeks, Branson had replied with his own blog post, issuing me the challenge to see how deep under the ocean I could explore.

April 23, 2012 – the day I received my challenge.

Since that day in April of last year, I have been working hard to create a submersible capable of reaching the bottom of the deepest Atlantic ocean trench – the Milwaukee Deep. Now, you might be thinking, how hard can it be to sink an object to the bottom of the sea? For a helpless, heavy object (or sinking ship), the answer is “not very.” Documenting the feat with sophisticated technology and sensitive equipment, however, is a different story. The environment at the bottom of the trench is far from hospitable, even alien, making it explorable only by extremely expensive underwater robots in the past. Water pressure at depths of over 500 metres would instantly crush any electronic devices made for the consumer market. Furthermore, it’s dark, meaning a typical camera flash won’t get you very far at 100 metres, let alone 500, if your mission is to explore. Now consider this as I attempt to adventure to over 8,000 meters beneath sea level….

In my next post, I’ll talk about the new technology that is making my project feasible on an amateur’s budget. Underwater ocean exploration has been the exclusive domain of elite research institutions and multi-billion dollar offshore industry for long enough. The possibilities for average, curious people have never been greater.