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Land? The earth is covered 75% by water, shouldn't she be called Ocean?

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Mogul:
There are a few interesting articles about Patri Friedman from the Seasteding Institute being funded by the Gay enterpreneur Peter Thiel (Thiel is the guy who gave money to make Facebook grow):

http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201109/peter-thiel-billionaire-paypal-facebook-internet-success
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024761/Atlas-Shrugged-Silicon-Valley-billionaire-reveals-plan-launch-floating-start-country-coast-San-Francisco.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

"It goes like this: Friedman wants to establish new sovereign nations built on oil-rig-type platforms anchored in international waters—free from the regulation, laws, and moral suasion of any landlocked country. They'd be small city-states at first, although the aim is to have tens of millions of seasteading residents by 2050. Architectural plans for a prototype involve a movable, diesel-powered, 12,000-ton structure with room for 270 residents, with the idea that dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of these could be linked together. Friedman hopes to launch a flotilla of offices off the San Francisco coast next year; full-time settlement, he predicts, will follow in about seven years; and full diplomatic recognition by the United Nations, well, that'll take some lawyers and time.

"The ultimate goal," Friedman says, "is to open a frontier for experimenting with new ideas for government." This translates into the founding of ideologically oriented micro-states on the high seas, 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 is a lot interesting stuff on the website of the Seasteding Institute, the guys have also been busy to evaluate the legal aspects of swimming / artificial islands:

http://seasteading.org/research/law-and-politics

It seems that the Pink money has found its way to this kind of projects.

Ulmovarda:
Building a floating island sound great but where would the resourse come from and where would it be build before it can go to its planed location. Who would pay for its expensive construction. And if all this success into the perfect result of a gay floating homeland then it could leave our people at a risk of attack. For im sure some Americans and islamic extremists would be united in using terror attack on us. We would have to need some kind of anti terror defence, what that could be im sure there are mainy ideas, from a missle system to stop planes missles to big brother state.

Mogul:

--- Quote from: Athrael on Wed, May 02, 2007, 03:35 ---Oh BTW in case you are interested, there is already a plan on the board for a floating city which will hold  50,000 people. [..] Surface Area: 22 Square Kilometers (5,335 square acres) [..]
--- End quote ---

Well, that's a plan only. Nothing wrong with it, but plans and designs are known to fail and succeed. The reason why they fail is mostly the tremendous sums which are required for their realization, not the lack of technical feasibility. Methinks than if we were to build floating islands, the concept would be based not on one monstrum construction with decades of building time, but rather a multitude of smaller, easily built floating islets. They could be tied together with time and really form a large "congregation".


--- Quote from: Vizier on Fri, May 11, 2007, 11:01 ---We need to go back to the idea of first a colony (or colonies) in a host country somewhere, then a gradual move toward independence. [..] From there, the path would lead out of necessity to seeking extra-territorial status, in other words trying to get gay people there (or ultimately everywhere) acknowledged as a separate nationality in and of its own.
--- End quote ---

You think lineary. ;D The strategy you have depicted seems the most workable to me, too, and shall be suggested for GHF's new official program. But one must always keep different options as a "plan B" in the drawer. This thread on swimming settlements is part of our "brainstorming" efforts to introduce new, slightly crazy ideas, which might as well turn out to yield viable solutions at last. I can imagine that somewhere, some Gays could decide to do exactly what Athrael is suggesting -- independently from our "official" plans. There are actually entire peoples living on floating islands in lakes -- the Uros. The question is, of course, how such projects can meet our needs to offer place for a substantial number of refugees. A possible solution is a swimming "mother ship" (floating island) which would serve as the basis for a number of houseboats/swimming farms. Such a "mother ship" can be anchored/thethered to the ground so it can't move away with wind or with current.


--- Quote from: Athrael on Fri, May 11, 2007, 13:54 ---All indications suggest that floating platforms would be best situated within 5 degrees of the equator since hurricanes/typhoons do not spawn and cross the equator.  Also considering the applications of the OTEC and the difference in water temperatures at the equator (nearly 85F at surface level, about 40F and lower 1000 meters down) and the amount of water vapor in the air at the equator...
--- End quote ---

Such a platform should be better located not too far from any other point of civilization. Sure, in theory a swimming island can sustain a self-sufficient economy, but in practice this doesn't function this way. Goods and people must be transported from the platform to the rest of the world, and much of the economy is depending on the geographically next neighbours. It would be smart to locate the thing near the coastal line of a friendly nation to develope trade. Of course, the factors you described shall be considered carefully when choosing between locations. Hurricans and typhoons pose more danger than an occasional tsunami.

Athrael:
Definitely The Pacific. From the date I started gathering recently it appears that the pacific, although less salty has higher concentrations of those minerals that are conducted to the metal when a charge is applied.

All indications suggest that floating platforms would be best situated within 5 degrees of the equator since hurricanes/typhoons do not spawn and cross the equator.  Also considering the applications of the OTEC and the difference in water temperatures at the equator (nearly 85F at surface level, about 40F and lower 1000 meters down) and the amount of water vapor in the air at the equator... The idea is there for not only power but also fresh water through condensation on the pipes - more water vapor in warm to hot air, the more water condensates.

Foam is rather cheap and there are landfills full of the stuff. Practical for say your first colony of platforms, but later on as the mariculture takes off (which I have been hunting and gathering info on, seems there is really profitable business in that field) and the use of plant material to make plastics one could somewhat easily sustain the process on "local" materials to build more.

In floating homes that use foam inside of concrete, the concrete is used to hold the foam in place, to provides mass way down low to keep the center of gravity as low as possible to prevent the thing from capsizing. and to provide a foundation to build the house on. Further those houses have a deep draft (sit low in the water) gaining more stability against small relatively speaking, waves.

Foam is used because even when saturated with water it still does not sink. Concrete is cheaper than a steel or fibreglass hull.

Costs? No matter which way you go it will cost you something. Solar cells would be a clean alternative to power even after you got your floating bit grown - so it could be considered and investment. Further they should be reusable if you decide to build, er, I mean grow more platforms.

Vizier:

--- Quote from: Athrael on Wed, May 02, 2007, 03:35 ---Oh BTW in case you are interested, there is already a plan on the board for a floating city which will hold  50,000 people.

http://www.tdrinc.com/nexus.html

If you don't go to the site let me copy and paste something that may be of interest to the topic:

Approximate Dimensions: 4.7 miles long by 2.5 miles wide (7.5 Kilometers long by 4 kilometers wide)
Surface Area: 22 Square Kilometers (5,335 square acres)

This is a floating city designed to accommodate 100,000 persons. 7 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide with the capacity to be mobile, grow its own food, produce its own electricity and, owing to it existing beyond the 12 mile governmental jurisdiction boundaries, create its own government, income system and tax base. In essence, this mobile city becomes its own independent country.


My emphasis.

got your attention now? ;)

--- End quote ---

It won't work. It will probably hit a rock somewhere and sink. We need to go back to the idea of first a colony (or colonies) in a host country somewhere, then a gradual move toward independence. As we have said in our agenda and elsewhere, there is no quick Gay Homeland. The way there will be time-consuming and likely span several generations until a true Gay Republic can be achieved. The only short-circuit to that would be if we, as an entity, can achieve a degree of world support (our aim) and then, based on that support, possibly convince another nation to provide us with a territory to call our own. From there, the path would lead out of necessity to seeking extra-territorial status, in other words trying to get gay people there (or ultimately everywhere) acknowledged as a separate nationality in and of its own.

As you can see, there's plenty of work ahead. Start by trying to win over some friends to the cause, one at a time, carefully and with conviction... from there we will be able to build momentum and make the future better for all of us.

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