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    Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

    Seasteading Institute city design (Anthony Ling)Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.

    Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

    "There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

    The Seasteading Institute's Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later.

    Thiel made news earlier this year for putting a portion of his $1.5 billion fortune into an initiative to encourage entrepreneurs to skip college.

    Another tech titan, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced in June that he would be funding the "Clock of the Long Now." The clock is designed to keep ticking for 10,000 years, and will be built in a mountain in west Texas.

     
    • lal  •  9 mths ago
      Maybe they shouldn't have hired a MRF city planner.
    • max  •  9 mths ago
      does this mean i have to buy a boat? crap.....
      • john w 9 mths ago
        YES! It seems that it would be a prerequsite to living on the ocean! And there would have to be a minimal government otherwise it would BE 'Water World'. An example of such a government is presented in the constitution of the Oceanic Citizens Republic.
    • Zixxth  •  9 mths ago
      LCS-123 can buy now NAVY old
    • My Opinion  •  9 mths ago
      I have heard of this place from one of my friends that brokers investments on very large scales. My husband is an inventor and they want some of his inventions for this island. It is actually built on a product sort of like floating concrete. In the air though not on water. I have no clue how but thats just what I have been told. Weither it is fact or fiction or even a different island I am not sure nor do I wish to challenge something I have never seen.
      • Benjamin Mendresse 9 mths ago
        I am a Polymer Technologist and it is true but still working on other Mechanical Factors that could compatible with the Earth and could withstand the Seismic reactions or Cyclones or other disasters that take place on and under the Ocean sea water zones .Even if it is commercialized i.e mid stage of production and final stage of marketing , then the process is under way .It is just Initial stage of Idea generation and concept otherwise , Holland and some Scandinavian countries are already building homes that could float on water surface .
      • john w 9 mths ago
        There are many, many different design ideas out there. Most of the better ones have been hashed out on the Seasteading.org web site. As for how these places would be governed and example of one such government can be found presented in the Constitution of the Oceanic Citizens Republic.
    • celticbabe_1  •  9 mths ago
      also what about crime and medical care,it just sounds so odd to me,I guess I wont have to worry about it because it sounds like it will just be for the very rich and Im not even meagerly rich,lol
    • mrsyntax3  •  9 mths ago
      Mark: Can I call you on your typhone?.... j/k you made a good point.
    • daisiesplease  •  9 mths ago
      interesting
    • Larry R  •  9 mths ago
      Looser building codes on a 'manufactured' island... Can't wait to see how that one turns out for them. Let's see - Indian and Russia have looser building codes. I don't think the world goes a week without seeing some building in either of these two collapse and with loss of life.
      • Sparticus 9 mths ago
        What are the building codes in India and Russia?
    • My Opinion  •  9 mths ago
      It is possible they already have achieved similar smaller scale structures. The only part they have to worry about is the international waters amd if any country will stop the rich. I doubt they wil as who truly owns all these countries anyways.
    • Paul  •  9 mths ago
      water world!
    • GILLIAN  •  9 mths ago
      Are they gonna pump their sewage into the ocean?? What about those regulations? Poor fish :(
    • UozAhm  •  9 mths ago
      An interesting prospect. Will have to watch this as it develops.
    • behehe  •  9 mths ago
      the union of bubble boy and sim city
    • Cringle  •  9 mths ago
      these are just ideas that these billionaire fools have, they are very interested in pursuing, but its not a reality.
    • toolm8kr  •  9 mths ago
      What does he mean people won't try to stop us until it's too late? Too late for what?
      • Cringle 9 mths ago
        what do you mean by people wont try to stop us.........are you one of them?
      • My Opinion 9 mths ago
        It states there would only be a few restrictions on weapons, and they have none of the same laws of the rest of the world to abide by. In my opinion this a notion of a terrorist threat.
      • Mace 9 mths ago
        lol ^ are you serious?
    • Manny  •  9 mths ago
      This is interesting because they will have their own self rule and their own army to command and do as they please. Sounds like a fine idea if you are a rich person.
      • true canadian 9 mths ago
        is it not what the governments do now??????????????????????
      • Cringle 9 mths ago
        lets pray they dont harbor terrorists.
    • Mark  •  9 mths ago
      Expo '67 was built on trash.However I think this is an idea that will sink before it really gets started..They should put a tow line on it and transport the island around the world (off shore).Instead of vactioning in and island-have the island(country) come to you!!
    • A Yahoo! User  •  9 mths ago
      Thiel is a crook and a charlatan, his Paypal is a massive fraud that is not subject to any banking rules and now no doubt neither will this island of idiots. It is the way forward for a Gaddafi type Oligarchy. Avoid this guy he still owes me money along with a lot more people who has had their accounts frozen by him.
    • Maxman  •  9 mths ago
      I know a few have already commented on it but again.....................LOOSER BUILDING CODES? HUH?
    • bigrex  •  9 mths ago
      I have an idea for an island........just get a big ship and drop out the anchor in international waters....hope this billionaire with too much money sends me a cheque for this great plan...lol
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