Floating Cities

A familiar theme in science fiction is the idea of floating cities – independent, self-sustaining nation-states at sea where start-up societies work to redesign society and government and don’t have to fight over who owns the land.  The concept even has a name:  seasteading.

In recent years, the idea has evolved from pure fantasy to something approaching reality.  These days, there are companies, academics, architects and even one government working to create the first prototype seastead in 2020.

The Seasteading Institute is a non-profit organization founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco.  It has been working for a decade to promote the idea of seasteading and to convince people that not only is it not crazy, but it is actually practical.

Earlier this year, the government of French Polynesia agreed to let the Seasteading Institute begin testing these ideas in its waters.  The Floating Island Project off the coast of Tahiti will be built by a new company called Blue Frontiers.  The island will be considered a “special economic seazone” which has considerable autonomy.  Funded in part by something called an initial coin offering, the goal is to build about a dozen structures by 2020, including homes, hotels, offices and restaurants.

With sea levels rising because of climate change and political unrest increasingly common, seasteading has a growing attraction for many people.  The long-term vision is for thousands of floating cities around the world, each of them offering different styles of governance.

Although maritime law suggests that seasteading may have a sound legal basis, it remains to be seen how real governments might respond to having new neighbors floating offshore.  It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.  Sometimes the stuff of science fiction can become part of reality.

**********

Web Links

Floating Cities, No Longer Science Fiction, Begin to Take Shape

Photo, posted April 19, 2009, courtesy of Evelyn Kamilaki via Flickr.

‘Floating Cities’ from Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.