Between the individual and the seastead.

Syndicate replies to “Between the individual and the seastead.” topic Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:58 — Herman Melville

The seasteading proto-book proposes seasteads wherein one hundred people share a variety of facilities, live the majority of their lives in close proximity to one another—essentially in the same small building—and generally are subject to a degree of communal intimacy unknown in contemporary Western culture.

Will this fact of seasteading life not therefore constitute the most severe obstacle to its growth and popularity? Is it not conceivable that the majority of humanity much prefers the anonymity of the city, the impersonal character of its laws and politics, and the easy access it affords them to a multiplicity of diverse people and businesses?

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Tue, 05/27/2008 - 11:48 — Jesrad

Hotel analogy

Many people don't object to spending a week or two in a hotel abroad, in the very same social conditions you describe. The book makes mention of this, pointing out that permanent inhabitants will constitute only a fraction of a seastead's population initially. Also, I do not think seasteads will all have to be sized for 100 persons, at all. The basic design in the book is, IIRC, presented as a 5-16 person habitat.

Tue, 05/27/2008 - 12:00 — Carl Pålsson

Will this fact of

  • Will this fact of seasteading life not therefore constitute the most severe obstacle to its growth and popularity?
  • Yes, in the beginning. In the long run seastead communities will increasingly look and work like normal cities. Some drawbacks and differences will probably always remain though. But given the advantages, I´m sure there will be plenty of people interested of living and working there.
  • Seasteads will not all be "communal". Many will be commercial. This will make sure there is anonymity and business to go around :).