Could a future of floating cities be closer than we think?

Floating cities were once the stuff of video games and James Bond films. But yesterday’s science fiction is today’s reality, and China is planning to build the first floating city. To accomplish this incredible feat, Chinese engineering company CCCC and London-based architects AT Design Office are joining forces.

Though it’s promised the project will accommodate some of China’s 1.35 billion people, its primary function will be to act as a tourist attraction to entice holidaymakers who want to experience something revolutionary. Under the current plans, this city of the sea will be a little tacky, with all the standard staples one has come to expect aboard a luxury cruise: restaurants, bars, museums, galleries and even a theme park. The only key difference is that these recreational areas will be accessible both above and below the surface of the water.

We plan to provide a start-up sector for government

But if you prefer your futuristic floating metropolis to have a little more oomph, you might be more interested in the work of the Seasteading Institute. The central vision of the institute – which aims to create ‘seasteading communities’ on the ocean’s surface – is to test different types of political systems, because its founders believe the ones in existence leave a lot to be desired.

“We plan to provide a start-up sector for government”, explains Joe Quirk, Communications Director at the Seasteading Institute and self-proclaimed ‘Seavangelist’. “Seasteading is not an idea for government: it’s a technology for anyone to try their idea for government, and win citizens by providing superior governance.” The timing seems perfect, with many citizens expressing an ever-greater disillusionment with the state of the political landscape. Just look at the congressional approval ratings in the US, which in a recent Gallup poll sat at just 14 percent – one of the lowest in recorded history. “For innovation, we need startups. For freedom, we need choice”, says Quirk. “On a fluid frontier, citizens could sail about and choose the states they want. When you can vote with your house, we’ll see evolution in governments.”

Modern regulation
Offering alternatives to ailing administrations is just one part of the seasteading movement. Another – though still the result of inadequacies in the global political system – is to help business and science reach new heights. Many revolutionary technologies are being stifled by an abundance of regulation and government corruption. Innovations in biotechnology and stem cell therapies have suffered huge setbacks at the hands of overbearing administrations.

The 20th century regulatory regime is “not equipped to handle 21st century medicine”, argues Quirk. “Regulations written in 1970 shouldn’t be preventing medical innovations coming in 2020. We are talking to physicians and bioethicists who are eager to start a modern regulatory paradigm on seasteads. They claim it’s a moral imperative.”

The sheer amount of money in politics has increased incidents of corruption on a biblical scale. In the US, the ‘Citizens United’ ruling by the Supreme Court has allowed members of the oil and gas industry to destroy the democratic process, allowing vested interests to flood congress with cash, eliminating competition and stemming the tide of renewable alternatives that offer much-needed methods of curbing climate change.

The closest real-life comparisons we have of what can be achieved when innovation is given space to flourish are special economic zones (SEZ). Hong Kong helped inspire then-Chinese-leader Deng Xiaoping to announce his country’s new ‘open door’ policy in December 1978, which allowed at least half a billion Chinese to escape extreme poverty. Entrepreneurial types have found refuge there too, with relaxed policies helping their businesses flourish while remaining under the watchful eye of the Communist Party.

But recent protests in the region show, no matter how free Hong Kong appears, it is still constrained by an oppressive, highly controlling central government that fears the SEZ’s successes as much as it admires them. “[It] is a prime example of a novel experiment in governance creating stupendous prosperity for the poor within the space of one generation,” says Quirk. “Unfortunately, new experiments in governance are locked to land. Today’s economic miracles are not true governance start-ups, but offshoots, locked into old paradigms that prevent progress.” That is why, he says, Seasteaders want to create thousands of floating Hong Kongs of the sea, in international waters.

International recognition
Seasteaders, however, do not believe national governments will see their objectives as a threat. In a paper for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Ryan H Fateh attempted to fill the gaps in international sovereignty law and the law of the seas. “Because international law promulgated by the United Nations addresses only state actors and TSI [the Seasteading Institute] is a nonstate actor, this note argues that international law does not prohibit the seastead communities from merely existing in international waters before they pursue their ambitions for international recognition”, wrote Fateh. “Considering historical practice and what guidance international law does provide, this note concludes that the United States will recognise seasteads as envisioned by TSI.”

While this is great news for seavangelists, there will no doubt be resistance to what the institute is attempting. But no matter what commentators say about the possible merits or malfunctions of floating cities, what is clear, is that what we have by way of governance is not fit for purpose. Solutions to the global challenges we face are hindered under political regimes that are out of touch. The lack of political diversity has made governments sluggish and complacent, harming innovation and progress in all areas of society. In free markets consumers are meant to have variety, which in turn drives progress. But in politics, citizens are given minimal choice, forcing them to choose between the lesser of two evils. Seasteads aim to offer a choice. The institute appears to have all the bases covered, in theory at least. But if it manages to succeed in practice, a wave of social, political and economic innovation may yet reach our shores.