User:Vincecate/SeasteadingViews

Patri suggested that I try to write down my views on Seasteading as a sort of manifesto. I said I think my wiki home page and the links from there sum up my views. He said it could be good to have it in one place. So here goes.

1) I think the combination of business model and engineering of the structure are the only problems we should focus on at this point. These two are tied together, as the business model will put requirements on the structure design and a structure puts constraints on the business model.

2) I think wavetanks or natural waves let amateurs test how models will react to waves with accuracy comparable to what professional engineers can do. Scale models are really good for testing ideas. All you need to do is slow down the video by the square root of the scaling factor. So for 1:25 scale models you want to slow the video down by 5.

3) So I think we want to encourage amateurs to explore the designs space. Probably the best way to do this is to have contests and prizes. Some day when we are ready to build a full scale structure we should have a real engineer work over the design to make sure it is strong enough and will last.

4) I think seasteads need to "beat a boat" for some combination of price/living-area, safety, comfort, ease-of-use. They can sacrifice speed to win in other areas. If they don't beat a boat, then there is no reason for a seastead structure, a boat is better.

5) I think it is easy to beat a boat in the single-family size range. Small boats are not that safe, stable, or roomy. I think in the cruise ship size range it is very hard to beat a boat. So the area I think we can win in is single family seasteads.

6) The wind and currents will be trying to push your seastead. Seems the best thing to do is have a migratory route where this push moves you in the direction you want to go. Then you are not fighting the wind and currents. It also lets you use a kite to pull you along. And a good route can avoid the places/seasons with bad weather in the same way that birds avoid winter storms and hurricanes by migration.

7) Most of the stuff inside a seastead, sinks, water makers, showers, beds, fridge, solar panels, generators, etc. will be just stuff that regular boats use and are easy to buy. Discussions of anything that you can just buy on westmarine.com seem like a waste of time. Only the structure is different from a boat, not the kitchen sink.

8) The single family seasteads can travel around as regular flagged boats till there are enough of them that you start getting stores and other things. Then some won't bother going to land any more. Then after some size people will want to form some joint security. And there will be need for a counsel to arbitrate problems. And it will be like a government.

9) This can start small. Maybe my family would kick it off. Then if it works we can get plenty of publicity in magazines and TV. Could probably do a reality TV show if we had a design that worked. So once the engineering is such that we beat a boat, the rest will follow.

10) I think 3 of the single family seastead designs I have would be more comfortable in large waves and be able to handle larger waves than ClubStead (WaterWalker, TensionCircle, BallHouse).

11) It would be nice if single family seasteads could tile together, and I think WaterWalker could. But computers controlling the position is probably good enough to make a community. We can work out ways to go between two seasteads that are very near each other.

12) I laugh when I see a new country plan with 10 steps where step 1 is "raise a billion dollars". I laugh 1/5th as much when I see a plan where step 1 is "raise $0.5 million" and step 2 is "raise $200 million". But deep down I am thinking, infinity divided by 5 is infinity. Things have not really improved. I also don't think there is a realistic business model that evolves into a new country for a large structure. They are too easy a target to mess with. For example, California might just say "no boats can go from California to that evil seastead structure because they are smuggling drugs" and cut off all your customers.

13) There are many families that would like to travel around on a boat for a year if they could afford it. If a seastead makes that more affordable it will have a market. Some people after living for a year will want to keep living on a seastead.

14) After you get enough people, life in the flotilla will be interesting enough that you won't need to keep dropping in on islands to make life interesting. With enough people staying far from land you can experiment with new types of governance.