Seasteading
Mark Twain: “Buy land. They’ve stopped making it.”
Seasteaders: “Production Resuming.”
Do you want to go back to the
land without being under the sway of the federal government? If
so, the Seasteading Institute
suggests you should instead go back to the water. They envision
intentional homesteading colonies constructed on floating platforms in
international waters. Out there on the sea frontier, you can do
whatever you want since no nations' laws apply.
The nonprofit is founded
by libertarians, and they bill seasteading as
a method of testing out new political systems. I can also see the
appeal of building your own nation from an entirely nonpolitical point
of view --- homesteaders everywhere wrestle with restrictive building
codes that don't allow them to build strawbale houses or composting
toilets. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to choose environmentally
sustainable options without jumping through months of hoops?
Mark's response was,
"One word: pirates." (Though
the Seasteading Institute thinks that pirates wouldn't be a big deal.)
And, granted, I'm far too attached to my hills to leave the land for
the sea. Still, I thought you all might be interested.
After all, the first colony is planned to go live in 2015.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.