Trump’s Floating Cities: Solving Immigration with the help of Silicon Valley (Part 1)
In recent news, Peter Thiel was named as an official delegate for Donald Trump in California’s Congressional District 12.
While Thiel’s endorsement of Trump is somewhat surprising given his past criticisms of the candidate (back in 2014 he accused Trump of being “sort of symptomatic of everything that is wrong with New York City”) it takes on a new light in the context of one of Thiel’s favorite pet projects:
“Between cyberspace and outer space lies the possibility of settling the oceans…We may have reached the stage at which it is economically feasible, or where it soon will be feasible. It is a realistic risk, and for this reason I eagerly support this initiative.”
In his short 2009 response essay, The Education of a Libertarian, Thiel was of course referring to the practice of “seasteading”, or as Wikipedia puts it:
“…the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territory claimed by any government”.
To be clear, these floating cities would have all the infrastructure of urban America, supporting tens of thousands of neo-citizens each. Lying outside any territories, they would operate under their own form of governance. For Thiel, seasteads are as close to a self-sustaining libertarian utopia as can be achieved on this planet, and he donated $500,000 to support the founding of the Seasteading Insitute back in 2008.
What is the current state of seasteading, you might ask? This Wired headline from last year offers a glimpse — “Silicon Valley Is Letting Go of Its Techie Island Fantasies”. Even Thiel wavered, admitting that costs are prohibitive:
“I’m not exactly sure that I’m going to succeed in building a libertarian utopia any time soon…You need to have a version where you could get started with a budget of less than $50 billion.”
Where does this all fit in with the 2016 election? I’ve narrowed it down to 2 bullet points:
Trump and Thiel share a conservative stance on immigration.
Immigration reform has been perhaps the cornerstone of Trump’s campaign. But perhaps unexpectedly, given Silicon Valley’s reliance upon immigrant talent, Thiel shares quite a similar view. Back in 2008, he donated $1million to NumbersUSA, “an immigration reduction organization that seeks to reduce US immigration levels to pre-1965 levels without country of origin quotas”(Wikipedia). NumbersUSA once marked Trump with an “A-” rating, before downgrading him to a “B+” in March for claiming that America has a tech worker shortage.
Now, if you think Silicon Valley has a tech worker shortage, but don’t want any more immigrants, what can you do? Build a self-governed island 12 miles off the coast of San Francisco in international waters, where skilled techies can commute to U.S.-incorporated startups by ferry? Sure, but wouldn’t this require tons of money along with high-tech and real-estate development expertise?
The Seasteading Institute is waiting on a wealthy real-estate development savior.
You can read about progress on the Floating City Project here. Suffice to say, their primary barrier is the lack of a supporter with formidable political and financial power who can develop unprecedented infrastructure while leveraging corporate and public-private partnerships.
We know that Trump wouldn’t hesitate to put his name on the first floating city (“Trump Islands”, anyone?)
But is it possible that floating tech-cities could address two of the most outlying absurdities of his campaign; namely, that he will deport all illegals while convincing Mexico to pay for an impenetrable border wall?
You have to admit that if anyone could build the first seastead, even as a personal vanity project, it would be Trump. And given how his campaign rhetoric has slowly but surely warmed up to Silicon Valley over the past several months, the prospect of a Trump-Thiel partnership beyond delegate selection is far from absurd.
Now, this is all speculation. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about Trump’s floating cities soon. They’re just viable enough to sway a meaningful constituency and just crazy enough to command media attention until election time.
For now, I’ll leave you with one parting observation: Undocumented workers in this country tend to work very low-wages in service, agriculture, and construction while living in poorer-than-average conditions and receiving limited representation and constitutional rights. Who better to help build and support these floating techie islands? Silicon Valley wins, gaining high-tech workers for its countless firms. The high-tech workers win, no longer constrained by immigration quotas. The illegals win, enjoying “political” representation and living wages. And the average American wins, enjoying the innovations resulting from the work of tens of thousands of talented foreign workers. In fact, it’s hard to find an agenda that wouldn’t support seasteading!
What does this mean for us?
Floating Libertarian Megacities
FLM’s are the cure to many of our modern day political issues
Solves illegal immigration
Undocumented workers will be provided free flights and moving stipends
- Illegal immigrants and their families will happily move to start their careers on the luxury California floating islands. Free ferries to and from Mexico and Central America will operate weekly on demand.
- Illegals will now be legal and enjoy political representation under the new Trumpertarian (Trump+Libertarian) governing body, headed by Thiel
- Wages and benefits will be much higher due to demand and taxation of high-income tech workers who make up the majority of island dwellers.
- Educational opportunities will abound, with the islands popularly known as the “Harvards of the Sea”
Pays for the Mexico Border Wall
And you thought he was bluffing.
- The introduction of hundreds of thousands of well-to-do tech workers only a 2 hr ferry ride from top resorts will rejuvenate the Mexican economy.
- Organized crime syndicates will move off the mainland to refocus their efforts on piracy of the floating megacities, which will be well-defended by semi-autonomous drones. The ensuing decrease in drug violence will further bolster the Mexican economy
- Grateful for ridding their country of drug lords, the Mexican parliament will build the Solar Wall of Peace on the U.S. Border, generating enough power to make Mexico City the first city fully powered by renewable energy.
I am still working on Part 2, where I will address the economic viability of seasteading and whether it could be the answer to Trump’s Mexico problems. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed my first Medium post and welcome your thoughts and comments below and at noncanonic@gmail.com
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— Jack Float
