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Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

Arkan

By Arkan
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Arkan

Arkan

Posted
Posted

Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

 

Silicon Valley Billionaire Funding Creation of Artificial Libertarian Island

 

Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine.

 

Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch--free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be "a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons."

 

"There are quite a lot of people who think it's not possible," Thiel said at a Seasteading Institute Conference in 2009, according to Details. (His first donation was in 2008, for $500,000.) "That's a good thing. We don't need to really worry about those people very much, because since they don't think it's possible they won't take us very seriously. And they will not actually try to stop us until it's too late."

 

The Seasteading Institute's Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later.

 

Can anybody else say "Rapture"?

 

I can just picture this:

 

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well. "

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

 

- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

 

"I have also been slowly coming to the realisation that knowledge and happiness are not necessarily coincident, and quite often mutually exclusive" - meta

Darth InSidious

Darth InSidious

Posted
Posted

The phrase "Republic of Minerva" springs to mind...

This particularly rapid, unintelligible patter isn't generally heard, and if it is, it doesn't matter.

Walsingham

Walsingham

Posted
Posted
Good setting for a zombie flick.

 

I'd go for something more like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with the FEV virus.

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

             -Elwood Blues

 

tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

Enoch

Enoch

Posted
Posted

Old news, really. Odd that it's getting another round of media attention.

 

Anyhow, we all know that nations confined to oil platforms inevitably meet a grisly end when a mysterious wanderer happens by and sets off the A-bomb they keep in the basement.

Gromnir

Gromnir

Posted
Posted (edited)

maybe the tug volunteers

 

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps we would love to see one o' these bubble society projects get off the ground. am doubting things go as bad as the stanford prisoners and guards experiment, but am expecting that there will be some noteworthy havoc at some point.

Edited by Gromnir

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

Rosbjerg

Rosbjerg

Posted
Posted
ps we would love to see one o' these bubble society projects get off the ground. am doubting things go as bad as the stanford prisoners and guards experiment, but am expecting that there will be some noteworthy havoc at some point.

 

If the population is sufficiently low I actually think it would work very well.. A large population however and you've got Rapture.

Fortune favors the bald.

Gromnir

Gromnir

Posted
Posted
ps we would love to see one o' these bubble society projects get off the ground. am doubting things go as bad as the stanford prisoners and guards experiment, but am expecting that there will be some noteworthy havoc at some point.

 

If the population is sufficiently low I actually think it would work very well.. A large population however and you've got Rapture.

 

am gonna disagree. low #s can be even more problematic. scarcity o' necessary skills creates all manner o' potential imbalances. is an exaggeration, but when your desalinization apparatus breakdown, the guy who can wield a wrench sudden becomes irreplaceable... and he/she is gonna know it. is not like some sci-fi mars mission wherein all peoples work together 'cause their lives is dependent on everybody working together. the Real World is gonna be within reach, and we suspect that the potential for opportunistic behavior will result in humans acting very... human.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

Tale

Tale

Posted
Posted

The breakdown I'd expect is the first time someone gets drunk and vandalizes another guy's property. "You can't prove I did it." Then comes the escalation.

"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
Hurlshort

Hurlshort

Posted
Posted

This thing is going to be populated with a bunch of rich people. It's basically a gated community out in the middle of the ocean.

Gromnir

Gromnir

Posted
Posted
This thing is going to be populated with a bunch of rich people. It's basically a gated community out in the middle of the ocean.

 

which is why it is so problematic. what keeps the security patrols, and maintenance crews from going all State of Nature on the rich folks in woodside/menlo if an opportunity presented itself?

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

Malcador

Malcador

Posted
Posted

"That's libertarians for you ? anarchists who want police protection from their slaves." from Green Mars comes to mind

Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

Walsingham

Walsingham

Posted
Posted

I am now officially filingall notions of poolitical affiliation and philosophy under 'pointles'. Libertarian? Right wing? Left wing? None of it makes any sense any more.

 

I'm in favour of beer and pies. Who's with me?

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

             -Elwood Blues

 

tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

213374U

213374U

Posted
Posted (edited)
poolitical affiliation

 

Sigmund_Freud_LIFE.jpg

 

Fascinating. Do you remember your first time fondly?

Edited by 213374U

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

Walsingham

Walsingham

Posted
Posted
poolitical affiliation

 

 

Fascinating. Do you remember your first time fondly?

 

:ermm:;)

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

             -Elwood Blues

 

tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

Raithe

Raithe

Posted
Posted

If you're going to do it.. you might as well do it properly... :ermm:

 

Floating Cities

"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

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