Jakeb Rosoman
Sep 9, 2018 · 1 min read

These ideas would be so much more fun to discuss in a world where seasteads exist.

BTW I work in precast concrete and I’ve done some calculations on the economics of manufacturing floating land out of concrete. The cost of production for floating land that will work in sheltered waters (waves no more than 2m) is about 50USD/m². For open ocean the cost would be a lot higher than that. I haven’t come up with a design yet but I would expect at least 200USD/m².

So seasteading is economically viable but in the short term I think there is a better alternative. Certainly and underrated one anyway. And that is terraforming deserts. This can be done for less than 10USD/m² and if the countries these deserts fall within are happy to designate them a special economic zone then they could provide most of the benefits of seasteads. Eventually they would suffer the same inability to change as other land based countries but while the deserts are being colonised there will be room for a lot of experimentation.

Just putting it out there in case you find it interesting.

    Jakeb Rosoman

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