Of course aiming for such a large project would result in problems, however technically speaking, starting off with something smaller, say hexagonal platforms of about 1000' feet radius, all made to where they can be joined and added too over time. I actually have been giving come serious consideration to the technical side of such a design. I have been researching options in the form of mariculture, I've aimed for realistic, off the shelf hardware for application, leaving the development and research of future potential technologies to the future.
The hexagon is a stable "plate" to float. Not only that it allows for infinite connections of other hexagons with more stability and strength than squares and rectangles. Further its very design incorporates the equilateral triangle which is strong in itself. The equilateral triangle was hailed by R. Buckminster Fuller as the "only self-stabilizing polygon. 6 equilateral triangles meeting at one point form a hexagon a six sided polygon.
With existing technologies and existing practices in design and engineering there are ways to create a "floating nation". The Dutch are the most innovative presently, but then they are in direct threat of flooding if the seas rise much further. The Dutch should be the ones we turn to in considering "land options" they are keenly aware how limited land is and how land is going to become even more scarce as this century unfolds.
As for time, there is very little of that for us. We must remember that history is moving, there are a lot of forces at work work which are already taking some nasty turns in the societies we live in.
Pick up a newspaper and read it, you will find that politics are causing fundamental changes, ones that will lead to less "rights" even in the "free" nations of the world. Economically the world dances on the edge of a razor blade. We already know that there are groups of individuals who really, really want to make bigger problems by detonating of nuclear type weapons in a big city - that will incite governments to "lock down" their peoples - all for the protection of the people. The USA plans to build a fence at its southern boarder and to protect its boarders from immigrants. Berlin should have taught us that a wall prevents passage both ways.
Peak oil has been reached, from here on out the demand for oil will far outstrip the ability to pump oil. Thus direct and indirect effects will be felt in economies and politics. I do not know how gas prices are in Europe, here in the Americas Gasoline prices are creeping steadily upward, with each passing year new record highs are reached. This year the $4.00 US mark will be reached. 5 years ago we whined and sniveled when $3.00 Us was reached, and to tell the truth many of us lower working class were financially hit hard. Many are already on the verge of bankruptcy and businesses that rely on cheap fuel are in a pinch - especially small businesses.
To top it all off there is Global Warming and Climate change where it is predicted in the next ten years Europe will suffer from more heat waves, Water shortages will crop up around the world, Crop lands are already drying out, soon to become dust bowls. Floods, famine, and pestilences will increase. America herself is not immune, many placed are burning when it used to be the wet season, Storms are worse, more tornadoes and record breaking storm seasons are being reached per year. Arable land is already lost due to water shortages, just a hop and a skip north of me Klamath Calfornia is already dried up and starting to blow away. The farm economy no longer exists and farm families that had been there for generations are now bankrupt and forced to move away.
By 2050 coastal cities will be like Venice, flooding on a regular basis as high tide pulls in higher sea levels onto once dry lands.
Can you imagine the impact that these things will have on the population at large, which presently stands at 6,446,131,400 people today. Will reach 6,605,046,992 by 1 July of this year - By 2050, it is estimated that the global population will reach 9 billion.
We can't even feed and provide minimal health care for about a billion people already. In a world where weather and climate is eating up arable crop land and the population is still growing are we to expect that societies will have the luxury to exercise civil rights and equalities for all? Western nations have yet to be seriously impacted by a shortage of food, but it is right on the horizon.
Western "Free" nations have the luxury of affording us the few rights we have. It is a luxury bought from the abundance of wealth in those societies where food and survival is not a high priority. I assure you that when push comes to shove those luxuries will be the first to be dropped. rights and Freedoms are being taken away for our "protection" - I assure you when things begin to crack martial law will be the law of the Lands - for the protection of the people, of course.
That will bring civilian strife, and no body will care if a few or many gays are strung up along the fences of dying crops. Their attention and resources will be applied 100% at containing the population at large and answering the On-going, constant emergency that will be the normal state of affairs for most of the world.
It is estimated that the movement of people (Global Warming Refugees) will be an exodus of untenable proportions. It has started already, in the arctic as the first refugees are being evacuated from their homes from the raising waters of the sea:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1043362002 Pacific islands are next and within the next decade those low islands will have to be evacuated:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10407508 Some of those inhabited islands are already flooded at high tide and by rights the people should be moved today.
When space agencies launch a craft to say Mars they speak of "windows" - the "launch window" is affected by several factors, where the target is and where that target will be months or years down the time line, where Earth is and can be affected by the orbits of other bodies man made and other wise, affected by earth bound storms and affected by human error.
We enjoy at the present time a seemingly wide open horizon where our "launch window" on first glance appears to be endless. This is not so, profound changes are taking place that will close that window rather soonish. Things are politically "quiet" economically "quiet" today. This will not be the case tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Unfortunately there is no way to predict when the next window will open, if ever. We should assume that once this window closes that is the end of any chance at GLBT nation.
We can either sit here and chat about our prospects for the next few decades, or we can listen to the warnings and use those to our advantage.
We are going to have to be canny and cruel, we are going to have to resort to treachery and deceit. We are going to have to use those forces to our advantage or do nothing at all.
The GLBT Nation will not be accepted before its creation. To think that is folly. Seriously consider a GLBT community in any city. They just "happened" no one said, "Lets take X district and make it gay" To even say something like that would be met with the same intense opposition from both sides (Straight and GLBT) as proposing a GLBT nation is met today.
But once a GLBT community is formed it becomes a Gay Mecca where thousands flock drawn by the promise of "open" living.
The formation of a gay state should take place by "accident" not on purpose. At least that is how it should be engineered to appear to happen. It should appear to be created out of "rational" unrelated pressures and needs. It should appear, on the surface, to be as hetero as any other venture to date.
It will not be accepted as "possible" today, tomorrow or even a generation from now no matter how much we try to teach our GLBT brothers and sisters. They are programed otherwise. However once there is a foothold they will gravitate to it and accept it and defend it with all of their heart and soul.
Sell them on a seemingly unrelated business opportunity and you will have your funds.
--->Exploit the greed to meet the need.