3 replies to this topic

[alex]

How many of you have heard of Marshall Savage's "The Millennial Project"? The other day I was rereading my copy and as always I stared at the pictures with longing and envy. It's fascinating how the author describes constructing a floating island, it seems straightforward and can easily be undertaken by any organization with sufficent funds.

It got me to thinking, such a habitant would be an excellent place for transhumanists to relocate to and be able to conduct research free from regulations and restrictions of their native countries. One can imagine a chain of those floating inhabitants stretching around the equator offering premium services developed from top-notch research.

Or is it all just a fantasy? What about establishing a cosortium for developing such plans?

[A941]

Great Idea!
Months ago ive sugested such an idea in a german Transhumanist-Forum,
but Such an Island would be really expensive from where should we take the money?

[ocsrazor]

Hi Gang,

There have been a number of attempts to construct small island nations. Unfortunately many of them have been associated with shady financial deals. Probably the one that has gotten the most press is New Utopia New Utopia and they keep claiming they are going to start construction real soon (for about ten years now).

Also see Oceania for an interesting attempt that was technologically sound but never generated enough interest

In the late 60's/early 70's there were two viable attempts to construct artificial islands in international waters both of which were destroyed by neighboring countries (Italy and Tonga).

See the Wikipedia Micronation page for further info Micronations

Eventually somebody will probably do it, but the biggest hurdle may be political more than economic. There have also been a number of proposals to establish nations on extremely large cruise ships. See Freedomship

Best,
Peter

Edited by ocsrazor, 17 June 2003 - 09:50 PM.

[Discarnate]

Also see Extropian mailing list www.extropy.org for recent discussion (and humor!) regarding buying a retired aircraft carrier and using it as an extranational science research vessel...

The best is the Sandberg/Yudkowsky/et al reactor powerup sequence, thanks to the genius of Robert Bradley...

Oh, yeah, there's also much realistic/practical stuff about why it'd be a rather difficult venture, for many many reasons...

-Discarnate

Edited by Discarnate, 17 June 2003 - 11:06 PM.