This is my response to this article at Ars Technica. I tried posting it in the appropriate discussion forum, but I kept receiving a Tomcat error when I tried to post.

The key idea is the concept of seasteading, and how some people are funding development efforts to create their own little countries in international waters. You can also Seasteading Institute website if the Wikipedia entry isn't detailed enough for you.

Since most of my comments are based on the Ars Technica entry, I'd recommend you read that article. The original article is titled "Seasteading: engineering the long tail of nations" and was published by Timothy B. Lee on June 09, 2008 - 11:50PM CT.

My thoughts

I think there might be some markets that the founders haven't considered. It's not just idealists who find this idea interesting. What about these groups?

NASA could use seasteads as platforms for observatories. Wouldn't have to worry about light pollution interfering with the observatory, and the seastead could be re-positioned if required. (Though using a retired aircraft carrier might be a better idea if frequent moves are anticipated. Imagine if NASA was given authority over the U.S.S. Constellation! Strangely appropriate, isn't it?) Another use would be astronaut training. There are similarities between seasteads and space stations, and the seasteads are a lot cheaper to produce. In addition, NASA could use a seastead as a launch tracking facility.

A seastead floats in an ocean of unprocessed rocket fuel. When the seasteads reach a point where they can support industry, NASA could use them to provide the liquid hydrogen and oxygen the Space Shuttle needs to launch itself into orbit. In fact once the seasteads reach the point of industrialization on a larger scale, it may be possible to use a seastead as a launch platform. Boeing has already done something similar to this with the Sea Launch program.

NOAA could use seasteads as remote weather stations, tsunami warning posts, and scientific platforms for collecting wind and water data.

The U.S. Coast Guard could use seasteads as forward bases to:

The U.S. Navy could use seasteads as the cornerstone for their Sea Basing Concept. Similarly the Army's Material Command, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps could use seasteads as forward deployed storage facilities to pre-position the materials they need to fight a war. Or maybe the armed forces would prefer to have a floating repair facility so tanks, jets, etc. don't have to be shipped all the way back to the continental U.S. for repairs.

How about using a seastead as an offshore power plant? Put a bunch of wind turbines on top of the thing and connect it with cables to the mainland to provide power to the mainland.

How about using a seastead as the "control center" for an artificial reef? Put it in the center of a reef building effort, and surround it with the artificial reefing materials. The seabase becomes the monitoring station for the reef effort.

And isn't there a big bunch of floating trash near Hawaii? Put one or two seasteads there to monitor that activity and collect the garbage. In fact, seasteads could be useful for monitoring any wildlife preserve in the ocean. Or monitoring things like the whaling treaties that Japan and Norway protest. Just float a seastead or two into the area and set up the appropriate surveillance gear. Hello Greenpeace! Here's your new precinct house.

But there's more!

What about the island nations of the Carribean? Do you think they could adapt a seastead into a floating farm? How about a floating factory that produces the spare parts for the machines needed for life on an island? A hospital? The power plant I mentioned earlier?

How about using a seastead as an emergency evacuation location in case of a volcanic event, as happens in Hawaii every so often and happened in Montserrat in 1995? Half the island is unusable because of that eruption, and having a stable place to live would be very useful to the inhabitants. I'm sure the Montserrat government would be interested in seeing how a seastead could provide them with some additional land, now that they've lost access to half of their 39 square miles.

Speaking of security, even though I haven't been, seabases would be useful for any country that has a piracy problem for the same reason the U.S. Coast Guard would find seabases useful. Put a series of seabases in areas that are known to be pirate havens and deploy anti-piracy teams from them. These could be as simple as Protector drones and helicopters that swoop in to save the day. Even knowing that a country's navy as a base in the area might be enough to make a pirate re-think his career.

So maybe the founders of this idea should look beyond their own target audience to find funding and development partners. I'm sure they'd appreciate the irony: The U.S. government funding development of a structure designed to escape the "intrusive behaviors" of the U.S. government? I know I'd be laughing my head off.