The Seasteading Institute

Reply To: admiral doty

I don't have a problem with keeping the dialog regarding SOBIZ here, on this thread, as long as we start moving it towards achieving anything other than just words...Yes, without somebody on the ground there, I think we are just speculating.

Reply To: admiral doty

What you just described above resonates with most of my ideas. My original MMK project was suposed to be a 4 houseboats ecotourism "thing" close to the Florida's Key reef. Something like this http://www.keylargohouseboat.com/ but on the water.

"The new thread would be for posting info on available sites from real estate listings, itemizing business costs, planning infrastructure, developing a business plan, and developing an organization." Totally agree. That's what I also had in mind.

The Alligator Cay now,...we might not share the same oppinins about it. But it is a good deal for the money. $99k for 10 acres and in fact $50k for 5 acres that are solid and dry, right on the reef ?... hard to beat that for a better location as a diving-snorkeling eco-resort. In Fiji would be $1 Mil.

In terms of Belize, the ONLY thing Belize has going now, it is THE REEF! In the last 2 and a half year since this forum was up and running, Belize economy went down the drain, with 40% unemployment as we speak. Also, politicaly and socialy it got worst. http://www.belizetimes.bz/2011/10/14/something-is-wrong-belize-seriously-wrong/

But one man's junk is another man's treasure. From a business prospective investing in Belize feels very appealing now, sort of like buying into a decent stock at the very bottom. Real estate prices and labor are dirt cheap and plentiful. I personally belive that with a decent amount of cash and the right concept something nice can be done in Belize.

Other than that, it seems that this forum somehow has transcended its original designation. Belize or Honduras or Panama, etc, are just places in space and time. What matters is the concept behind it: organize a real seasteading community and find a decent location for it to dwell on and start building and floating out seasteads.

Which, by most standards would sound simplistic enough, but so far, not at all simple :)

Reply To: admiral doty

[quote=admiral doty]

[quote=ellmer]

[quote=admiral doty]

Ocean Farms has put a lot of design into their mooring systems ...

[/quote]

The mooring sistem looks like a version of the "tendon concept" (frequently seen in Oil/Gas platforms). Where a floating device (buoy, spar) holds a tendon under tension.

This concept was suggested for mooring of floating breakwaters, floating tunnels... if the tendon is a buoyant polypropylen line, the sistem can work in depths[/quote]

Yes, it is similar to a tension leg platform, but designed for the cables to go sideways to the submerged sphere, allow the cables to spin with the sphere, and allow the shere to move vertically to different depths or surface. The neutrally bouyant tendon/anchor line is a clever idea so the line doesn't need to support its own weight.

The tension leg was originally my preferred mooring system for a seastead city. An array of these connected in a spaceframe or tensegrity truss, with submerged floats and second set of floats at the surface for wave power generation would support a city above the maximum wave height.

Then, later it seemed preferable to have a more mobile, megaship based plan. I had thought of a fleet of permanently moving ships going in a circle along the coasts, with modular housing using shipping containers, light industrial for onboard manufacturing, and port facility on the stern for ferrying cargo, living units, and people to and from shore. There can also be land based habitats where the shipping container units can stay until they are ready go back to a ship to live and move on. Also, the megaships would have a modular design so they could expand while travelling and split into two ships, multiplying like cells.

When I was a teenager, I use to dream of living in an underwater city and travelling in a live-aboard sub like Captain Nemo, but then caught the space bug. Thanks, Wil, for showing that living in an underwater city or mobile sub can be feasible after all.

[/quote]

They certainly have quite a bit in common. The engineering for deep water habitats and Venus surface structures are virtually identical:

[quote]The atmospheric mass is 93 times that of Earth's atmosphere while the pressure at the planet's surface is about 92 times that at Earth's surface—a pressure equivalent to that at a depth of nearly 1 kilometer under Earth's oceans.[/quote]

source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Atmosphere_and_climate

The two go hand in hand in my opinion.

Reply To: admiral doty

[quote=admiral doty]

Windward is an intentional community which has been developing self sufficiency for quite a few years. There is a lot of good information on techniques which would be applicable to Seastead Outpost. Their members spend an average of two hours per day on work for Windward, which supplies the group with its basic needs and expands their infrastructure. They are free to pursue their own businesses and interests the rest of the time. One of their members, Walt, posted to the Nation Builders list. Interestingly enough, they started out with the intent of eventually building a floating colony. They have recently started intern and apprentice programs, who spend an extra 2 hours on group projects and 4 hours on personal projects. The apprentice program charges $400-$500 per month depending on time of year. This leads to a Steward position in the community. Overall, they look like a proven model to use as a reference for Outpost.

http://www.windward.org/

[/quote] Thanks, I keep meaning to post a link to Windward. They do seem like an excellent resource for an outpost interested in self-sufficiency. I have corresponded w/ Walt by email and he is a good guy. I think one of the technologies they are working on is generating biofuels from wood chips and other organic waste via some sort of methane process.