I was reading an article on seasteading in the English Times and it brought to mind the whole Kentucky gambling website situation and moving off-shore. Seasteading is the idea of creating communities at sea and that can include being outside the reach of government regulation and law. The term covers many ideas including communities on floating or fixed platforms, on ships and under the sea. I thought it might be interesting to write about and for those brave speculative domainers who might move off-shore, it also comes with its own terminology which are possible domain names.
Seasteading
Seasteading, at its simplest, is creating a permanent living space at sea. This can be anything from a sailboat to a full floating city. You are probably already familiar with houseboats which are usually permanently moored usually in harbors or lakes and serve as homes. The concept has been around for a long time but has gained more interest from the eco movement as a novel method of sustainable living.
Coaststeading
Coaststeading is seen as an early step towards seasteading where the community remains in close proximity to land to address some of the hurdles with seasteading including resupply. Issues that need to be addressed include power supply, fresh water, medical emergencies and safety. Proponents point to cruise ships which they say are floating communities for a limited time. However cruise ships have had problems with all of the issues mentioned and seasteading requires much longer periods at sea.
Freedom at sea
Outside the Exclusive Economic Zone of 200 nautical miles (370 km), which countries can claim, the high seas are not subject to the laws of any sovereign nation other than the flag under which a ship sails. I remember when Women on Waves visited Ireland in an effort to provide abortion services to women. Women on Waves sails under the Dutch flag and their ship visits countries that have stricter abortion laws, providing abortion services to women in those countries.It is also argued that new forms of government can be tried and even that individuals or families can leave one seastead and join another if they have modular units or boats.
Eco-friendly living at sea
It has also been proposed that living at sea can be eco-friendly without the crowding and pollution that land based communities bring. Similar to living off the land, seasteaders can live off the sea and minimize their environmental footprint.
Experiences with cruise ships up to now has not shown that they are eco-friendly. Though the dumping of raw sewage at sea is not illegal, recent studies showed that cruise ships produced three times more CO2 per passengers than airplanes. Having a permanent community at sea will require extraordinary measures to ensure it does not pollute its surrounding habitat.
Aquabases as research and tourist destinations
Aquabases are a type of seasteading where there may be a fixed or floating platform but also an underwater extension to permit viewing of sea life. These could serve as research stations or as tourist sites as well as homesteads. Oil rigs are already used by marine scientists to study sea life. Proposals have also been put forward to convert old oil rigs into research stations.
Current options to live at sea
It seems the closest thing to living at sea is a ship called The World. This is a large cruise ship that allows you to buy or rent on of their 165 private residences and to permanently live on board. There are also less permanent holiday destinations and Askmen.com have listed the top ten floating resorts.
More information on seasteading from the Seasteading Institute
Domaining options
Coaststeading remains unregistered as of time of writing.It does seem interesting to imagine a community of gambling domain and website owners living on a floating community, presumably somewhere warm!
Standard Warning: predictive domaining is inherently risky. Only invest what you can afford to lose.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
The whole idea while appealing at first is nonsensical in reality. Oil rigs are kept to the sea bed at huge ongoing operating cost. Same with old ships, they become rust buckets unless maintained and painted frequently again at huge cost. Communal living at sea of any kind is only for the super rich indulging childhood fantasy. For the rest of us we will have to indulge in coaststeading or what it has been known for years as coastal living.
Jim,
I mostly agree with you. I can see research stations as a possibility in the near term. I believe the Seasteading Institute estimated it costs about $300 per sq foot to live in Los Angeles and their platform would be about $400 per sq foot so it is very expensive. So land price would have to go way up and even then people could move inland.
From a domaining/website point of view though, I think this captures peoples imagination and so a blog or website might do quite well because of the novelty. Whether that traffic is sustainable and can be converted is another story though eco-products and books might work.