Once the realm of sci-fi, the possibility of having cities floating in international waters and acting as independent, self-sustaining nation-states at sea has come within reach. A team of companies, academics, architects, and the French Polynesian government are all collaborating to produce a floating island prototype by 2020, and possibly thousands of similar drifting cities by 2050.
Recent strides in the seasteading movement have been made by the Seasteading Institute, founded in 2008. The current project is funded by an initial coin offering, allowing them to raise money by creating and selling virtual currency. A separate company called Blue Frontiers has been created for the sake of building and maintaining the floating islands in French Polynesia. The projects currently slated include the construction of homes, hotels, offices, and restaurants. The Institute has budgeted these expenses as roughly $60 million, while simultaneously incorporating such eco-friendly features as living roofs, local wood, bamboo and coconut fiber, and recycled materials. The Dutch engineering firm Blue21, the designers of Rotterdam's Floating Pavilion, will create the island's "sustainable modular platforms," essentially linked boxes with infrastructure and environments on the top. The chain will be protected by a huge breakwater to create a safer harbor. The Institute hopes the first model will be fully sustainable, able to house 300 people, and free from any established government.
The seasteading project comes at an opportune time. Sea levels are rising due to climate change, and the threat of populism to the status quo in many countries make independent island nations seem like an increasingly viable and desirable option. Furthermore, transitioning to floating islands may present a valuable alternative for islanders already affected by rising sea levels. Additional benefits to having floating islands include the ability to tow the structure outside of the range of tropical storms.In early 2017, the French Polynesian government gave the Seasteading Institute permission to begin prototype testing in its waters. Construction is due to begin shortly, with a small nucleus of a city ready to launch within a few years. The French Polynesian government has created a special economic zone for the experiment. The Tahitians of French Polynesia hope to benefit from this project through increased jobs in clean tech and blue economy, economic growth, environmental resiliency, and incentives for younger generations to remain in French Polynesia, rather than emigrating for better jobs.
Practical concerns include the Seasteading Institute's ability to conduct an environmental assessment to prove that their efforts will not detrimentally affect the health of the ocean and seabed. Once practical concerns are address, a special governing framework will be developed. The Institute hopes to blend French Polynesia's unique geopolitical location with unique regulatory opportunities that are calculated to lure potential investors.The seasteading model might readily be adapted for a diverse array of people and conditions. Maritime law research shows that seasteading may have a solid legal foundation. This does not mean that seasteading nations will be free of all the concerns that plague land-bound nations: floating nations might have to deal with floating neighbors. And reality may prove more complex and difficult than the founder's hyper-utopian vision.