dArtagnan | Short Bio: - Age: early 40s
- Professional background: blend of computing (emphasis on database design and administration) and finance
- Education: B.S. Business (Logistics & Transportation), B.A. Spanish, MBA
- Political philosophy: libertarian w/ some anarchist tendencies
- Value system/religion: Devout Mormon, but willing to follow our 11th Article of Faith (“… let [others] worship how, where, or what they may.”) See http://scriptures.lds.org/en/a_of_f/1 for the complete text. Also willing to rely on persuasion, example, and teaching to help others assimilate my values (as opposed to the threat of force used by our gov’ts today).
- Languages: Fluent English, Spanish, and Portuguese; rusty conversational French
- Married, 4 kids – one serving mission for church, two just getting ready to leave the nest, and one almost-16 yr old.
- Useful seasteading skills: Could help run financial end of things and have some experience w/ aquaponics. Read extensively and can help analyse different ideas. I tend more towards the practical short-term incremental type changes. Will post more over coming weeks on ideas for that.
- Personality: tend towards procrastination and putting too many things on my plate at once. This can make me a partner that is less-than-desirable. Working on overcoming these traits, so will not commit to do anything else (including w/ TSI) for now, other than write from time to time. Also interest waxes and wanes in different projects at different points in time, so don’t be surprised to see me drop off for weeks at a time – don’t worry, though, I’ll be back! Otherwise, helpful, loyal, conciliatory and understanding but not afraid of conflict, friendly, and generally enthusiastic.
- One of first 2000 FSPers (saw Nicolas is in FSP), but haven’t made move to New Hampshire. May do so once youngest graduates from high school, but given the fact that at the current rate of increase in membership, it will take over 18 more years before the 20K sign up, and then we have 5 more years to move, I think I have a little while I can think of moving to a seastead.
- Current location: Missouri, USA – pretty far from the ocean. Short-term goal is get nearer the ocean. Have lived/traveled extensively in North and South America, some in Europe and Africa.
- Believe firmly in personal responsibility for actions/inactions and in non-initiation of force/coercion – struggling to make that a part of my child-rearing, so I understand that actions of firm believers sometimes fail to match what they say. I use that understanding in my relationships with others, as I hope they do with me.
- Finally, I’m glad to be here and look forward to making DG a reality in whatever form it takes. Hats off to Patri, Wayne, et al for all the hard prep work and willingness to share.
dArt (short for d’Artagnan) |
nicolas1776 | Hey there! I too tend to bite off more than I can chew. This is also something I’m working on.. learning to say “no” to people and to myself. However I’m in my mid 20s with no children.. your considering seasteading at all is to be commended. I sincerely hope this lifestyle can be made as similar to one on land (at least for the things that are desirable) so it can appeal to the broadest possible segment of the population. I think you’ll find a number of FSP participants on this forum. After all, those willing to pick up their lives and go live on a tiny floating scrap of metal in the middle of the ocean in an effort to escape political pressures are probably willing to relocate to New Hampshire, United States of America  Of course, even though the goal of those FSP seasteaders are mostly the same in both instances, they are probably correct in seeing seasteading as the final destination and the FSP as an intermediary one. For one, as you mentioned, the FSP won’t reach critical mass for a while. There are a number of efforts underway to make people move sooner rather than later, but from what I’ve seen it’s still very slow (although I should be there by the end of the year and haven’t signed anything yet.. so the numbers are definitely not accurate). It is being said that even a small number of core activists is making a difference there.. personally I haven’t seen much to back that up yet (a lot of anti-freedom legislation has been passed since I first heard that one.. and more is coming). They might be slowing it down to some extent.. and at least they’re very active and committed. But eventually they have this huge huge huge problem we won’t have to deal with on a seastead (namely an existing population with values mostly hostile to our own). Changing people is much more difficult and time intensive than re-shaping one’s environment. I think Patri put it best: changing a political problem into an engineering one! Even though I am less than thrilled by the prospects of living in the middle of the ocean on the aforementioned scrap of metal that somehow sticks out of the sea… I still believe it to be my best shot at “liberty in our lifetime“. |
dArtagnan | One of the things that really struck me about seasteading is the fact that is really is changing a lot of the political problem into an engineering problem. Granted that we will never be fully free of the other gov’ts on this earth, but the more we can resolve the engineering issues enabling us to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle us (from the US Declaration of Independence), the more we can have liberty in our lifetime. Issues ranging from interconnectivity to defense are at the heart engineering issues allowing people with diverse views to explore more fully the range of options they desire. To me, one of the stickiest engineering issues to resolve (beyond the actual surviving gracefully at sea) is Internet access. We will never reach a critical mass if that issue is not resolved. Whether it involves setting up repeater buoys every league or so between us and a landlink or whether it involves a group purchasing a portion of a satellite, this issue must be resolved in order for most of us to give up land, and even more importantly, to convince those not yet with us to give up land. While I am, by nature, an optimist, I know that things will have to get radically worse for most people to make that move, and if we can’t provide creature comforts, that level of discomfort that must be reached will be exponentially higher prior to many making the move. I’ve been discouraged by the inability of the FSP to not only attract more people to move to NH, but even people who are willing to say that at some indefinite point in the future they will move. This is to me an indication that things just aren’t bad enough (at least in the US) for most people to make a commitment like that. On the other hand, I work closely with the Hispanic communities wherever I live, and am constantly humbled and strengthened by the fact that people will spend thousands of dollars (which equals a years earnings or more), endure days of hardship at great risk to their lives, just to get into this country where they have to wear out their lives under constant fear of arrest just to make a better living. In my mind, communities such as these are ripe for our efforts, especially if opportunities can be afforded for them to make enough. These are the people truly yearning to breathe free. I admire efforts such as Rich Sowa’s and the other floating villages around the world. In fact, I’ve been looking at the islands built of reeds in Lake Titicaca, and other efforts to create artificial islands, and am in discussions to purchase a place on Lake Nicaragua in about 3-4 years where I can do some experimentation, both w/ floating islands and with a Lakestead (hoping we’re at that point by then). Am also researching halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) with the view of creating a salt-water aquaponics system to try the feasibility of growing food on rafts in the middle of the ocean (as opposed to on the top of the deck). While I think it will be 10-20 years before we’re really ready to make a full-fledged community effort on the high seas, I think the more incremental efforts we can make in that regard, the better off we are. Maybe get some people onto floating islands just off the shore, others on houseboats, others start sailing around the world, others working to develop low-latency, high-bandwidth, ship-to-shore communication, and eventually it will all come together. I applaud the establishment of TSI to help bring many of these efforts under the same roof and really act as a sounding board for entrepreneurs and individualists to combine some efforts and refine other, more individual efforts. dArt |
thebastidge | Get enough congent genrearion by people at sea, and the latency and low bandwidth to shore won’t be as much of a problem. But that’s an issue of network effect scalability, not technology. Physics says that it’s never going to be as easy to communicate from a disconnected platform to a wired-in network. |
dArtagnan | Didn’t understand “congent genrearion” but agreed re physics. I’ve even thought of trying to build a seastead within spittin’ distance of a trans-oceanic fiber optic cable and see if I can somehow convince them to let me tap in for a price (back to your corporate scenario). I don’t know about anybody else, but this is the one issue that will keep me on land/ within sovereign waters until resolved. I know very little about the technical challenges needing to be surmounted, but am willing to work with those who do to help resolve. |
thebastidge | Sorry: “content generation” |
thebastidge 1440 days ago.
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