The 'Floating City' of the Silicon Valley's Dreams

The country of French Polynesia is on the verge of permitting a floating city, funded by wealthy Silicon Valley interests and sustained by utopian dreams.

October 8, 2016, 11am PDT | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

One iteration of the seasteading concept.

The Seasteading Institute

Melia Robinson reports on a radical development proposal from the Seasteading Institute: a floating city, located in the South Pacific.

The idea behind the Seasteading Institute is to construct a "floating city that would serve as a permanent, politically autonomous settlement," according to Robinson.

The Seasteading Institute was founded in 2008, but made news recently by finding a state partner to help build the project: French Polynesia. "[President Édouard] Fritch is currently reviewing a memorandum of understanding, a document that would cement the government's intent to work with the Seasteading Institute," according to Robinson. "The government has not begun drafting the legislation that would permit the seastead's development."

Robinson quotes Seasteading Executive Director Randolph Hencken throughout the article, but Seasteading is also notable for its famous co-founders: a particularly famous billionaire, Peter Thiel, along with a Google software engineer with a very famous last name, Patri Friedman.

The article includes more discussion of utopian and futurist concepts that motivate the project proposal.

Full Story:

Silicon Valley's dream of a floating, isolated city might actually happen

Published on Wednesday, October 5, 2016 in Business Insider