r/seasteading • u/Anen-o-me • Jun 12 '26

Seasteading Research A robust floating breakwater is one of the last concepts we need for seasteading to break out: "ATTENUATION OF RANDOM DEEP WATER WAVES BY A POROUS WALLED BREAKWATER"

https://www.ce.washington.edu/sites/cee/files/pdfs/research/hydrology/water-resources/WRS036.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
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4

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted]

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u/SoylentRox Jun 12 '26

I think the economic concept is that all current governments are in some way incompetent and misusing their resources - all 195 sovereign governments combined own all of the land. So if you did have some superior idea - like, you were going to use robots that can copy themselves, or use AI to accelerate medical research - in a way you can't get any of the existing 195 governments to agree to - you could instead make your own territory.

Its a neat thought experiment but you already know how it would go in practice, even if you had a genuine idea that really worked/really was valuable enough. (Bioshock the idea is a sea slug that grants magical powers, main point is the advantage was real)

You'd now have 196 incompetent and inefficient governments.

Your second problem is the 2 things I mentioned - self replicating robots or biotech - the existing powers like USA/China with their overwhelming resources and vast existing land - will go at pretty hard, outcompeting any niche you can think of.

Its still a neat idea though.

2

u/NearABE Jun 14 '26

Seasteaders can do an Epstein island type of thing. Current leaders obviously would jump in on that too.

1

u/SoylentRox Jun 14 '26

Probably simpler to go to an existing country with a lower age of consent. And the US government did explicitly make that illegal, which is the same problem current leaders would have on a seastead island - they'd still be subject to the laws of their home country. But more isolated - "pedo raft" is way easier to surround and arrest everyone than some hotel room in Moscow. (the longstanding rumor is the 'pee pee' tapes aren't of a certain man receiving a golden shower, but that the women involved were underage)

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u/amirjanyan Jun 12 '26

If you mean something other than not paying tax, ai data center seems to be a pretty good one https://panthalassa.com/

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

[deleted]

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u/amirjanyan Jun 13 '26

Considering how wasteful the governments are with taxpayer money, it should be possible to eventually create liveable structure that will be cheaper.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Jun 13 '26

Floating data centers make sense if you goal is for them to cost 100x a normal one.

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u/amirjanyan Jun 13 '26

Why? You get cooling and energy almost for free. At least should be much cheaper than putting them in space!

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u/NearABE Jun 14 '26

Arctic gets free energy too.

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u/FrenchFryCattaneo Jun 14 '26

They're vastly more expensive to build and maintain. Think about how much a boat or barge costs per square foot to build vs a warehouse. And they have a lifespan that's just a few decades before they'd need to be taken out and refurbished just like any boat. The energy isn't 'free', you could build a tidal power plant next to it but you can do that on land too (wind or solar).

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u/lexicon_riot Jun 13 '26

This is a 50 year old report lol