SeaSteading Institute Promises First Floating City in 2020

An organization in which Paypal founder Peter Thiel is an investor is aiming to build a floating city-state by 2020. The Seasteading Institute says semi-independent floating cities would provide an opportunity to try out new modes of government and could also tackle a number of other problems.

The Seasteading Institute says the development of floating cities is the first step in fulfilling what it calls the "8 Great Moral Imperatives," which include feeding the hungry, enriching the poor, curing the sick, cleaning the atmosphere, restoring the oceans, living in balance with nature, powering civilization sustainably and and putting an end to fighting.

The Institute believes that, in order to achieve these ambitions, humanity must harness the oceans. It cites their potential for providing space to accommodate a growing global population, for providing a source of food, and for being used to generate sustainable energy.

Not only would floating cities with some degree of independence lend themselves to these ideals, but the Seasteading Institute argues that they could create more innovative start-up governments unlike what it calls the "monopolies" of today. Now, it argues, individuals are born arbitrarily into states created by past wars and cannot change the government to which they are affiliated without leaving their home. Floating city-states, however, would allow individuals to sail their home to a new colony if they disagreed with the way a government was operating.

The Seasteading Institute argues that this would force governments to compete to attract citizens in a way that they currently do not. The city-states would be like floating jigsaws that could be shifted and reassembled at will, with popular and effective governments attracting more inhabitants. Indeed, governments could only form if people chose to attach to each other.

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This is going to work about as well as life on lots of those atolls all over the world has.  

There are Better Ways to run for Congress Than Landing a Gyrocopter on the Capitol's West Lawn, People!

HA! Ron Paul Doesn't Believe Bitcoin is a Currency

Bitcoin is a very interesting subject because for many years in Congress, I was a champion of legalizing competition in currencies.

We have a terrible monetary system today. We have a government that purposely counterfeits and debases the currencies and I believe that the alternative would be a competition. That means that anything that wants to substitute for the American dollar should be permitted. There should be no prohibitions; there should not be a monopoly and a cartel running our monetary system because it so often benefits the privileged few. We certainly saw this in the bailing out of the financial system where the wealthy bankers got bailed out it in this recent and severe recession. I am a strong believer in competition. Bitcoin is an introduction to that.

Though I don’t personally believe that Bitcoin is true money, it should be perfectly legal and there should be no restrictions on it, there should be no taxes on it. The people who operate Bitcoin would, of course, be prohibited from committing fraud but the people should be able to have competition whether it is a basket of commodities or crypto-currencies – it should be perfectly legal. For this to operate, we need to have freedom from government intervention when it comes to the Internet. I am concerned that the government ultimately wants to curtail the Internet and there have been attempts to do so.

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This Really Ought to be my Theme Song

Allen Marshall: I am going to find you and give you a good kick in your fundament.  Chinese curses at graduation.  Jerk.  (Kidding.  mostly)

Craziness on BART This Morning

BART service was snarled for more than two hours Thursday morning when a man climbed onto the roof of a busy transfer station in Oakland to wave at train operators, then ran around a nearby freeway and finally clambered onto the top of two trains before being detained, authorities said.

The man was taken away for psychiatric evaluation after officers grabbed him. "He kept saying over and over again, 'I need help. Please don't hurt me, I need help,' " said BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost.

The man was first spotted climbing onto the roof of the MacArthur BART Station and waving at operators around 5:30 a.m., Trost said.

As police inched closer to the man, he leaped to the top of a train in the station and ran from one end to the other before jumping onto Highway 24.

For almost the next hour, BART police chased the man as he "hid in the bushes for a bit," ran back across the freeway and scaled a barbed-wire fence, and hoisted himself on top on two other stopped BART trains, Trost said.

I missed this only because Avrora and I were running late.  This is our walk day and we leave early to walk to her school.  Today we were running late and I got to BART a 1/2 hour later than planned.  The train was packed.  I didn't know why, but now I do.