Seasteading

[1] Some proponents say seasteads can "provide the means for rapid innovation in voluntary governance and reverse environmental damage to our oceans ... and foster entrepreneurship.

[citation needed] The Republic of Rose Island, a short-lived micronation on a man-made platform in the Adriatic Sea, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) off the coast of the province of Rimini, Italy.

The Principality of Sealand, a micronation formed on a decommissioned sea fort near Suffolk, England[10] Smaller floating islands in protected waters, such as Richart Sowa's Spiral Island The non-profit Women on Waves, which operates hospital ships that allow access to abortions for women in countries where abortions are subject to strict laws.

Many architects and firms have created designs for floating cities, including Vincent Callebaut,[11][12] Paolo Soleri[13] and companies such as Shimizu, Ocean Builders[14] and E. Kevin Schopfer.

[15] Marshall Savage discussed building tethered artificial islands in his 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, with several color plates illustrating his ideas.

[27] A proposal to build a "floating island" with a luxury hotel in Jounieh north of the Lebanese capital Beirut, was stalled as of 2015 because of concerns from local officials about environmental and regulatory matters.

[51] On a logistical level, without access to culture, travel, restaurants, shopping, and other amenities, seasteads could be too remote and too uncomfortable to be attractive to potential long-term residents.

[50][51] Seastead structures may blight ocean views, their industry or farming may deplete their environments, and their waste may pollute surrounding waters.

[50] Others fear that seasteads will mainly allow wealthy individuals to escape taxes,[3] or to harm mainstream society by ignoring other financial, environmental, and labor regulations.

[3][50] Seasteading has been imagined many times in novels, including: Jules Verne's 1895 science-fiction book Propeller Island (L'Île à hélice) about an artificial island designed to travel the waters of the Pacific Ocean; Freezone, a seventeen square mile platform similar to Las Vegas positioned 100 miles north of Morocco in the Eclipse Trilogy, and the 2003 novel The Scar, which featured a floating city named Armada.

[52] It is a common setting in video games, forming the premise of the Bioshock series, Brink, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II; and in anime, such as Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet which takes place mainly on a traveling city made of an interconnected fleet of ocean ships.

[53] In the Archer episode "Cold Fusion", a villain attempts to melt the polar ice caps to promote his floating city development company.