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Seasteading is the creation of permanent dwellings in international waters, so-called seasteads, that are independent of established governments. No structure on the high seas has yet been created and recognized as a sovereign state. Proposed structures have included modified , refitted , and custom-built floating islands.
Some proponents say seasteads can "provide the means for rapid innovation in voluntary governance and reverse environmental damage to our oceans ... and foster entrepreneurship." Seasteading.org: Why Steastead? Some critics fear seasteads may function primarily as a refuge for the wealthy to Tax evasion or other national legislation.
While seasteading may guarantee some freedom from unwanted rules, the high seas are regulated internationally through bodies of admiralty law and law of the sea.
The term seasteading is a blend word of sea and homesteading, and dates back to the 1960s. Oxford English Dictionary: seasteading
Historic inspiration for seasteading includes Venice, which while built Stilt house like similar settlements to its North, East or South, is not only a long-standing maritime settlement, but also center of the historic independent state of the Republic of Venice.
Other inspirations include Tenochtitlan, the capital city of the Aztec Empire, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco with connected artificial islands built around it – Mexico City now entirely covers the lake's basin – and floating communities such as the Uru people on Lake Titicaca, the Tanka people in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, and the Makoko in Lagos, Nigeria.
More recent inspirations include:
Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book , with several color plates illustrating his ideas.
A 1998 essay by Wayne Gramlich attracted the attention of Patri Friedman. The two began working together and posted their first collaborative book online in 2001. Their book explored many aspects of seasteading from waste disposal to flags of convenience. This collaboration led to the creation of the non-profit Seasteading Institute (TSI) in 2008. As an intermediate step, the Seasteading Institute has promoted cooperation with an existing nation on prototype floating islands with legal semi-autonomy within the nation's protected territorial waters. On 13 January 2017, the Seasteading Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French Polynesia to create the first semi-autonomous "seazone" for a prototype but political changes driven by the French Polynesia presidential election led the county to back out of the project and permanently cut ties with Seasteading on 14 March 2018.
The first single-family seastead was launched near Phuket, Thailand by Ocean Builders in March 2019. Two months later, the Thai Navy claimed the seastead was a threat to Thai sovereignty. In 2019, Ocean Builders said it would be building again in Panama, with the support of government officials. As of 2022, the project's status was uncertain.
In April 2019, the concept of floating cities as a way to cope with rising oceans was included in a presentation by the United Nations program UN-Habitat. As presented, they would be limited to sheltered waters.
Many proposals have been made for seasteading retrofits of cruise ships, although none have succeeded. Examples include:
In this design, the platforms rest on spars in the shape of floating dumbbells, with the living area high above sea level. Building on spars in this fashion reduces the influence of wave action on the structure.
Proposals include:
Proposals include:
Proposals include:
On a logistical level, without access to culture, travel, restaurants, shopping, and other amenities, seasteads could be too remote and too uncomfortable to be attractive to potential long-term residents. Building seasteads to withstand the rigors of the open ocean may prove uneconomical.
Seastead structures may blight ocean views, their industry or farming may deplete their environments, and their waste may pollute surrounding waters. Some critics believe that seasteads will exploit both residents and the nearby population. Others fear that seasteads will mainly allow wealthy individuals to escape taxes, or to harm mainstream society by ignoring other financial, environmental, and labor regulations.
Governments have become increasingly concerned that Seasteading poses a threat to national security and opens the door for individuals or groups to create independent states. One such case made international headlines in 2019, when Thai officials seized a seastead 14 miles off the coast of Phuket citing national security concerns.
It has been a central concept in some movies, notably Waterworld (1995), and in TV series such as Stargate Atlantis, which had a complete floating city. A two-episode sequence of the show Silicon Valley featured a seastead positioned at the International Date Line.
It is a common setting in video games, forming the premise of the Bioshock series, Brink, and ; and in anime, such as Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which takes place mainly on a traveling city made of an interconnected fleet of ocean ships.
A satirical take on seasteading in the context of human extinction is depicted in the Love, Death & Robots episode "Three Robots: Exit Strategies". In the Archer episode "Cold Fusion", a villain attempts to melt the polar ice caps to promote his floating city development company.
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