Silicon Valley billionaire funding creation of artificial libertarian islands

***D7M*** · 08-17-2011, 07:42 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...creation-artif

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.

Thiel made news earlier this year for putting a portion of his $1.5 billion fortune into an initiative to encourage entrepreneurs to skip college.

Another tech titan, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced in June that he would be funding the "Clock of the Long Now." The clock is designed to keep ticking for 10,000 years, and will be built in a mountain in west Texas.

**auslifta** · 08-17-2011, 08:22 AM

It would probably take his total fortune to create something like that. Is this where rich billionaires are planning on going for tax evasion, or where to go if there is a social colapse?
I read somewhere else that there is a whole group of rich people looking at building a massive cruise ship like a floating city and living on that forever. I'll try and dig it up.

**auslifta** · 08-17-2011, 08:23 AM

here it is http://www.freedomship.com/

**SlimmerMe** · 08-17-2011, 11:14 AM

Has anyone ever watched the process of Palm Isle in Dubai being constructed? AMAZING CREATION.....

**auslifta** · 08-17-2011, 11:16 AM

yeah, there are rumours "the world" developement is getting washed away.

**gixxerboy1** · 08-17-2011, 11:17 AM

it will never happen.
I think there are other ways to stop them, like embargo's

**Nooomoto** · 08-17-2011, 03:40 PM

Somehow I don't see that happening.

**oscarjones** · 08-18-2011, 07:10 AM

Sounds awful lonely.

**dec11** · 08-18-2011, 02:33 PM

waterworld

**freakinhuge** · 08-18-2011, 04:51 PM

sounds like a waste of money

**PitMaster** · 08-19-2011, 04:50 AM

They'll be undersiege by pirates

**little devil** · 08-19-2011, 05:07 AM

lol sounds like a scam to cream billionaires

**thegodfather** · 08-19-2011, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by gixxerboy1

it will never happen.
I think there are other ways to stop them, like embargo's

Why would you want to stop them?

What is so wrong with people wanting autonomy and autodetermination in their lives. Libertarians want nothing from anyone, they simply want laissez-faire economics, free trade, civil liberties, sound money, and individualism over collectivism. We don't try to push our political ideologies unto anyone, so why is the status quo so insistent in pushing their political ideologies and ideas of morality unto us?

Why would ANYONE object to Libertarians forming a sovereign state where all of their ideals can be played out for the world to see if they are in fact viable, since the mainstream in America seems unwilling to allow for such insane concepts as free trade, money that is actually backed by a tangible good, individualism, the ability of any person to put any substance they wish into their bodies, and the ability to own any firearm regardless of how scary it looks or how many rounds of ammunition it holds.

It is actually kind of astonishing, that a board full of people who use a substance and live a lifestyle which is socially ostracized in our mainstream society, would not be on board with this. It would seem to me that these ideals would resonate with this community, rather then be objectified here.

**PitMaster** · 08-20-2011, 04:26 AM

Originally Posted by thegodfather

Why would you want to stop them?

What is so wrong with people wanting autonomy and autodetermination in their lives. Libertarians want nothing from anyone, they simply want laissez-faire economics, free trade, civil liberties, sound money, and individualism over collectivism. We don't try to push our political ideologies unto anyone, so why is the status quo so insistent in pushing their political ideologies and ideas of morality unto us?

Why would ANYONE object to Libertarians forming a sovereign state where all of their ideals can be played out for the world to see if they are in fact viable, since the mainstream in America seems unwilling to allow for such insane concepts as free trade, money that is actually backed by a tangible good, individualism, the ability of any person to put any substance they wish into their bodies, and the ability to own any firearm regardless of how scary it looks or how many rounds of ammunition it holds.

It is actually kind of astonishing, that a board full of people who use a substance and live a lifestyle which is socially ostracized in our mainstream society, would not be on board with this. It would seem to me that these ideals would resonate with this community, rather then be objectified here.

I don't think that it is so much that people here are opposed to it. It is more that something like this will not work. Whether it be by our government regulating it or that amongst themselves would have too many different views and opinions on matters and their "free thinking" society would collapse.

**wmaousley** · 08-20-2011, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by SlimmerMe

Has anyone ever watched the process of Palm Isle in Dubai being constructed? AMAZING CREATION.....

Watched both being built and visited both

**Hoggage_54** · 08-20-2011, 09:10 AM

Why don't they just move to Somalia... Virtually no government, taxes, and you can do whatever you want... you can even be a pirate if you want! Every child's dream!

**SlimmerMe** · 08-20-2011, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by thegodfather

Why would you want to stop them?

What is so wrong with people wanting autonomy and autodetermination in their lives. Libertarians want nothing from anyone, they simply want laissez-faire economics, free trade, civil liberties, sound money, and individualism over collectivism. We don't try to push our political ideologies unto anyone, so why is the status quo so insistent in pushing their political ideologies and ideas of morality unto us?

Why would ANYONE object to Libertarians forming a sovereign state where all of their ideals can be played out for the world to see if they are in fact viable, since the mainstream in America seems unwilling to allow for such insane concepts as free trade, money that is actually backed by a tangible good, individualism, the ability of any person to put any substance they wish into their bodies, and the ability to own any firearm regardless of how scary it looks or how many rounds of ammunition it holds.

It is actually kind of astonishing, that a board full of people who use a substance and live a lifestyle which is socially ostracized in our mainstream society, would not be on board with this. It would seem to me that these ideals would resonate with this community, rather then be objectified here.

x 2!

Originally Posted by wmaousley

Watched both being built and visited both

and? how was it? could you tell us please? elaborate....I was fascinated watching the process of all the sand coming in to form the island. Absolutely fascinating. Do people live there now? and how populated? and what is the price of an average home? and is it a regular neighborhood? as in locals or cosmopolitan mix?

**gixxerboy1** · 08-20-2011, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by thegodfather

Why would you want to stop them?

What is so wrong with people wanting autonomy and autodetermination in their lives. Libertarians want nothing from anyone, they simply want laissez-faire economics, free trade, civil liberties, sound money, and individualism over collectivism. We don't try to push our political ideologies unto anyone, so why is the status quo so insistent in pushing their political ideologies and ideas of morality unto us?

Why would ANYONE object to Libertarians forming a sovereign state where all of their ideals can be played out for the world to see if they are in fact viable, since the mainstream in America seems unwilling to allow for such insane concepts as free trade, money that is actually backed by a tangible good, individualism, the ability of any person to put any substance they wish into their bodies, and the ability to own any firearm regardless of how scary it looks or how many rounds of ammunition it holds.

It is actually kind of astonishing, that a board full of people who use a substance and live a lifestyle which is socially ostracized in our mainstream society, would not be on board with this. It would seem to me that these ideals would resonate with this community, rather then be objectified here.

I see nothing wrong with it. I just think the good ole USA government would have a problem with it

**auslifta** · 08-20-2011, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by SlimmerMe

x 2!

and? how was it? could you tell us please? elaborate....I was fascinated watching the process of all the sand coming in to form the island. Absolutely fascinating. Do people live there now? and how populated? and what is the price of an average home? and is it a regular neighborhood? as in locals or cosmopolitan mix?

Its more for resorts than own than occupy. There are a few doco's that discovery did, part one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BwyGWlK85s