The Seasteading Book

Read the Reviews

“This energetic and enthusiastic book gives a fascinating glimpse of the blue revolution to come, as human beings experiment with more sustainable ways of living and governing ourselves as well, free from the constraints of land-based governments.”

— Matt Ridley

author of  How Innovation Works, The Evolution of Everything, and The Rational Optimist

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“Really disruptive, definitely visionary, and even more proof that tomorrow will look nothing like today. Seasteading is a grand adventure in sustainability and possibility, and it’s definitely a trip worth taking!“

— Steven Kotler

author of the The Rise of Superman and coauthor of Bold and Abundance

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“Seasteading is an enormous opportunity for humanity. Not only will these sea-based communities be able to try new sciences and technology . . . they will allow new forms of community with a fresh start and an ability to experiment as to form . . . Anyone willing to work for a living can come and go from a seastead. People can finally be citizens of the world.”

— Timothy Draper

founder of Draper Fisher Jurvestson

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“Passionate and convincing. The idea of individual sovereignty could finally come true with floating ocean cities.”

— Titus Gebel

founder and CEO of Free Private Cities Ltd.

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“It’s one of the most interesting and inspiring books I have read in years … more people should be paying attention to this idea’s potential.”

— Robert Zubrin, The Federalist

“Quite simple: Come if you like, be nice to one another, and then, if you don’t like it, you can leave. Floating cities with the best rules thrive. Those with deranged rules quickly perish. This is a new incarnation of active evolution, based on the principle of the survival of the fittest, the fittest being the city with the best rules: “A market of competing governments, a Silicon Valley of the sea, would allow the best ideas for governance to emerge peacefully. . . . A process of trial and error on a fluid frontier will generate solutions we can’t even imagine today.” Floating dystopias, like the “Waterworld” of film, will have no staying power. People will just abandon them. And the familiar banes of human society—the corruption, zealotry, bigotry, oppression, ignorance, exploitation, brutality, abuse, or unfairness that our civilizations are finding so hard to restrain—would never have the time to take hold. You could always avoid them by simply sailing away.”

— Shlomo Angel, The Wall Street Journal

“Wow! Wow! Wow! Best book I’ve read in a decade. SEASTEADING is the grand masterpiece I’ve long sought to write, bringing together the essential essence of ideas, people and organizations toward the Blue Revolution. I’ve mostly only pontificated. Joe and Patri, with the help of Peter Thiel and many others, are well on their way to making the crucial difference so necessary to bring reality from concept. I congratulate them for their vision and effectiveness. Let me know how Blue Revolution Hawaii and I can be of any assistance.”

— electrochemical engineer Patrick Takahashi, leader of OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion)

“With a wide range of topics, and a very different flavor from most libertarian books, ancaps should read Seasteading and keep it on hand. It has good lessons and good ideas that can be shared with those excited about the sea. Quirk says that the greatest evil is the superstition that people belong to governments that they didn’t choose. He states that people should be able to opt out of governments. And he places great emphasis on having a diversity of experiments, testing, and breaking away from the bloody military empires of the 20th century.

“An informative and occasionally hilarious book about bringing anarcho-capitalism to the high seas. Five Murrays.”

— Rothbard.com

“Both a prediction and call to arms, the book plans for self-organized communities characterized by liberal economies capable of enticing the finest minds and technologies. They are simultaneously modern arks and social experiments.”

— Kabeia Rineaki Brock Allen Sutton, Strata

“Fascinating and convincing.”

— Brian Doherty, Reason

“Quirk raises ideas worth considering and offer hope for a future when life in land has grown grim.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Radical … written with entrepreneurs, or aquapreneurs, in mind.”

— Library Journal

“When I first read the title of Joe Quirk’s book, I laughed…

“I figured Quirk must have been overselling the prospects a bit with that title. Joe Quirk is a guy who likes to joke around, so I assumed the title was a lighthearted exaggeration. A hyperbolic hook.

“By the time I finished the book I was utterly convinced that seasteading will save the world.”

— Joe Jarvis, The Daily Bell