Cheers,

Bob
***

Cheers,

Bob
***

I remember being impressed a few years ago by an article somewhere about how Japan was turning old ocean oil platforms into solar powered hydrogen plants.

I’m torn between escaping to an island and creating co-operatives on the mainland. There are pro’s and cons in either case. I will carry on in Wales, UK but keep an eye on what others are doing elsewhere. Hydrogen (and oxygen) can both be created from seawater and liquefied and shipped to customers in tankers that run on hydrogen or that are wind powered (or wave powered like the power generation to make the hydrogen and oxygen) This would pay for the artificial island that has floats that bob up and down to generate power. The wind drives the waves and the swell can be very powerful in the middle of the Atlantic. A large platform could even grow its own food and have a hotel. There are so many good ideas, that many of us have thought of, but we need to start lots of co-ops to start generating the money, and the interest to expand and expand until eventually all the businesses in the world are co-ops and there are no pure capitalists any more.

Cheers,

Bob
***

It’s an interesting concept and I’m glad to see that it is being taken seriously by so many folks.

I’d be interested to know of any sub-groups who may be considering taking on a spot (Island?) within the framework and planning an attempt at a money-less nation. I guess it would be money-less within its borders and would have to have some form of financial dealings with other nations (selling hydrogen created from seawater or something), at least until there are a few more money-less nations offering necessities we could barter for.

I had this idea myself about fifty years ago, and I am a member of Seasteading. Their conference is only days away.

This is from their email to me today:

Have you taken a look at the latest additions to the speaker lineup? Do you have any questions about the schedule of events and directions for the weekend? We’ve been updating the conference website with all kinds of new information, so you can start to plan how you’ll get the most out of the weekend.

We’ve also released a limited number of tickets to the Saturday evening Bay dinner cruise, for $150 each. Pick one up for a partner, a friend, or an associate who is interested in seasteading, but is unable to attend the other conference programming. In addition to live music from Farouche, a delectable spread of food, and an open bar, the cruise will give you one last chance to bid on several silent auction items, including an America’s Cup yacht sailing adventure, a Las Vegas weekend getaway with VIP tickets to Cirque du Soleil, and a Great White Shark experience in the San Francisco Bay. You can bid on any of these items during the conference and all of the proceeds directly support The Seasteading Institute and the future of the seasteading movement.

See you in 18 days!

The Seasteading Institute

Cheers,

Bob
***

What I’m sharing below may seem at first glance to go against our common dream of a society in which a person’s value is not based on monetery net-worth and that there are higher goals and achievements open to us if we can rid ourselves of the chains of capitalism, but I find that this concept may be interesting to us for a number of reasons.

It seems that Peter Thiel, billionare co-founder of PayPal,
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel ] has financially seeded a non-profit institute to attempt to jump-start the concept of building “artificial islands that host sovereign nations in international waters”, with the intent that these new and as yet government-free nations will then be able to explore the infinity of ways to govern that we as a race have not yet explored. While Thiel’s personal ideas tend toward libertarianism, the concept is obviously and intentionally left open for the residents of these new nations to concieve of and practice social methods of their own choosing and/or creation.

Some of you may know of my interest in “Intentional Communities” which is based in the same desire to create pockets of society in which alternative social methods can be put to the test, but I’ve never concieved of actually creating new lands where the autonomy needed to realize these methods would be so complete.

Theils “Seasteading Institute” [ http://www.seasteading.org ] also appears to going about the whole project with some solid foresight and awareness of the same difficulties we have discussed here, that any start-up of this kind would have to allow for some kind of transitional pathway from capitalism to (in this case) whatever form of ‘Group Agreement’ may then evolve, if for no other reason than to get the darn things built and populated.

The stated vision of these floating nations is to allow for a multitude of new, peaceful, self-sustaining and politically free pocket societies which might then if successful, in time, show themselves to the rest of the world to actually be superior ways of living together, and hopefully alert the folks of the world to the dangers and negativity of our current ways.

In additon, the fact that these are new ‘lands’ and are not being taken from anyone else or posing any kind of immediate threat to the current way of life anywhere, perhaps these communitiess will be given the time and political space needed to actually grow some positive ideas to fruition, while at the worst suffering only the expected media ridicule.

Give a look; http://www.seasteading.org/about/visionstrategy/

I’m REALLY looking forward to the conference. At the moment, I care for an 83 year old parent who suffers from Dementia so I am not able to live the life of Community just yet, but I do look forward to finding and sharing in a community that understands the importance of egalitarianism and a non-monetary system.

If I ever find myself out your way again, I’ll be sure to check in with you and hopefully spend some time learning about your community.

Until then, let’s keep up this terrific conversation!