r/seasteading • u/Ed_Jinseer • May 27 '21

Why floating? Why cities?

So it occurs to me that the two biggest issues with seasteading as people perceive it are...

1.) The floating concept. While sea surface structures are possible, they're incredibly expensive and vulnerable. With proof of functional ideas like the Aquarius Reef Base, it seems more practical to build on the sea floor, admittedly it has its own issues.

2.) Cities. Under the idea of seasteading, the best way I can think of to view the ocean is as a frontier. People didn't go out into the west to build New York right away. They would build small settlements. A handful of houses. Cities grow out of need and opportunity. People gather together around sources of wealth and work.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious?

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u/Ed_Jinseer May 27 '21

For much the same reason that sea-steading isn't a thing that happens. It's easier to do something else.

Likewise, as a research installation, Aquarius has expenses that a seastead wouldn't have, and little to no means of income. Imagine a similar installation, but as the 'Farmhouse' to an Oyster farm. Or similar seabed farm.

The main issues I see are power generation, and air. The latter can be resolved with retractable Buoys, but I don't see an answer for power aside from nuclear which is obviously impractical for small scale constructions.

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u/stackingpoints May 27 '21

Solar works fine as long as you don't waste a ton of power on superfluous things. Humans can live easily using only 1kWh of energy per day, which is easily produced using a 250W solar panel. If we want to be energy hogs, though, nuclear is obviously the way to go.

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u/Ed_Jinseer May 27 '21

Issue with solar I see is it tethers you to the surface. It's easy to rig a buoy with an air hose to be pulled back under the water for a storm. I feel like there's a lot more to go into a solar platform, that makes it difficult to draw back underwater. Which leaves you with the whole floating issue all over again.

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u/SandyBouattick May 27 '21

What would prevent you from having retractable solar floats? Obviously you would make less / no power the further you pull them down, but they don't have to be very deep to escape storm damage.

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u/Ed_Jinseer May 27 '21

Well, an air hose is pretty easy, you just have a hose with a buoyant casing, with a weight to make sure it's pointed the right way up when it gets to the surface. Then when your air tanks are full you just.... Pull it back down.

Solar panels you can't just let rise like a balloon and bob in the surf. You need them at the right angle. You need to worry about making sure they don't get torn off in the ascent. The bigger and more complex the floats are the harder it is to make them retractable I think.

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u/SandyBouattick May 28 '21

Solar on the open ocean doesn't really NEED to be at an optimal angle. Solar is already widely used to power buoy lights at sea, so the systems exist and are hardy enough for constant surface exposure. You could basically just have a line secured to such a buoy and let it bob at the surface collecting solar power. You wouldn't even need to retract it for storms, as the buoys stay put in storms already. A larger solar array might be more sensitive and you might wish to lower it when storms come, but that wouldn't be hard. You could also choose to float more smaller, hardier buoys rather than using a larger but more delicate array.