I’m a sucker for Seasteading. That is, I can’t resist articles about what’s called “homesteading on the high seas” – tiny floating communities based in international waters and thus, happily free from government interference. This is not just a kind of hippyish utopia, there are serious public policy issues at play too! Wired has a fun piece – “Live Free or Drown” – on Patri Friedman’s (grandson of Milton) vision for the future:
Anyone can build a game-changing social-network platform or a virtual community or a set of open APIs. But the people here want to start a nonmetaphorical revolution by creating their own independent nations. In the middle of the ocean. On prefab floating platforms…. Friedman launches into what he calls “my standard rant”—a spiel about government’s shortcomings and why they’re so hard to repair. In his eyes, government is a sclerotic monopoly that can count on high customer lock-in thanks to inertia and the lack of alternatives.
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