ZadekpediaThe Seasteading Institute is an organization promoting the construction of dwellings offshore in the ocean, outside the territorial limits of any country, so that people can, in Bob Zadek’s framing, build their own country from scratch. Seasteading (2009) Its co-founder, Patri Friedman, described seasteading as homesteading the high seas: where pioneers once headed west to homestead open land, every bit of land has now been claimed by some government, so the institute wants to open the oceans as the next frontier for human advancement. Seasteading (2009)
Founding and funding
Friedman told Bob Zadek that the institute’s initial funding came from Peter Thiel, who founded PayPal, was the first investor in Facebook, and an early investor in LinkedIn. Seasteading (2009) Friedman characterized Thiel as a free-market supporter who had given up on conventional politics as a way of changing things and who, as a technological entrepreneur, saw the possibility of fixing problems with human society through new technology. Seasteading (2009)
The argument from competition
Friedman’s case for seasteading rests on a claim about incentives: politicians are corrupt because they have no competition, because you cannot start new countries, and because current countries do not compete for citizens. Seasteading (2009) If the technology existed to let people do country startups, he argued, those startups would learn innovative ways of running a country, and existing countries would have to improve in order to compete. Seasteading (2009) He described the current industry of government as having only a few large firms — the roughly 150 existing countries — that are too big to innovate, and said the institute wanted to let people start lots of small countries that would be more experimental. Seasteading (2009) Zadek offered the analogy of a sea-based Silicon Valley incubator for new countries, and Friedman agreed, comparing it to Silicon Valley’s many websites and customers who can easily switch from one to the other. Seasteading (2009)
Exit, patriotism, and the Free State Project
Zadek raised the question of whether seasteading is patriotic, and whether a country that has been, in his words, dismal for a couple of presidencies is a relationship worth abandoning. Seasteading (2009) Friedman answered that it is a personal question depending on what a person wants, and predicted levels of growth and government spending more like Europe’s, noting that Canada’s government spending as a percent of GDP had gone down while the United States’ had gone up. Seasteading (2009) He said that if what a person loves is the principles the country was founded on — small government, non-interference, and federalism where different regions compete to attract people who vote with their feet — then starting something new is an option, and that competition from other countries would force the United States to be a better place to live. Seasteading (2009) Zadek introduced the Free State Project as an intermediate step, describing it as a concept started by a professor in Buffalo named Jason Sorens, who identified New Hampshire as the target state and promoted a commitment by 20,000 libertarians to move there. Seasteading (2009) Friedman corrected one point of Zadek’s framing: when Zadek called the sea the last frontier, Friedman replied that space is the last frontier and the ocean is the penultimate one. Seasteading (2009)
Later development: zones, startup societies, and charter cities
By 2017, Joe Quirk had become president of the Seasteading Institute and co-author, with Friedman, of the book Seasteading. Michael Strong on Creating a World in Which All Humanity Flourishes (2017) Quirk told guest host Charlie Deist that the mechanism driving improved government is the liberty of people to choose among different governance entities, citing ancient Greece, Venice, the Hanseatic League, and the American frontier, and noting that more than 4,000 special economic zones exist worldwide. Michael Strong on Creating a World in Which All Humanity Flourishes (2017) He said he was co-founder of Blue Frontiers, which would start on a small scale in French Polynesia with small floating islands holding significant regulatory and administrative autonomy, and that the technology was becoming more affordable, with the aim of unleashing choice among jurisdictions on the oceans starting in 2020. Michael Strong on Creating a World in Which All Humanity Flourishes (2017)
In 2020, Quirk told Zadek that almost half the world’s surface is unclaimed by any nation-state, that the first seastead had been built off the coast of Thailand, and that more were soon to be for sale in Panama in a community starting there with the company Ocean Builders. Vote to Float (2020) He summarized the institute’s pitch as: we don’t need political voice if we have political choice, and being able to vote with your feet and experiment with new societies will do more to change your government than voting. Vote to Float (2020) Zadek introduced Tom W. Bell, a lawyer with a JD from the University of Chicago and author of Your Next Government? From the Nation State to Stateless Nations, as co-guest on that episode. Vote to Float (2020)
In 2022, Zadek noted that Friedman had recently founded Pronomos Capital, seeking to use lessons learned in Silicon Valley to create a new model for urban development where the city is the product. Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022) Zadek observed that Governors DeSantis and Newsom were trying to induce each other’s citizens to move, as evidence that competing for citizens was a real phenomenon. Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022)
Across episodes
The topic recurs across four episodes spanning 2009 to 2022, and the treatment shifts in emphasis: Friedman in 2009 argued for floating micro-countries outside territorial limits, while Quirk in 2017 and 2020 emphasized special economic zones, Blue Frontiers in French Polynesia, and the first seastead off Thailand, and Friedman by 2022 had moved to land-based charter cities through Pronomos Capital. Seasteading (2009) Michael Strong on Creating a World in Which All Humanity Flourishes (2017) Vote to Float (2020) Patri Friedman’s Plan to Accelerate the Free Cities of the Future (2022)