Ocean anchored floating islands, funded by oligarchs who wish to save their yachts. A safe haven for refugees and a great place to live at.
The houses have LTA porches where you can go up and watch the world till the horizon. There are floating gardens and even a park with trees (and mongroves) all living at the end of the islands.
The material will be waste plastic gathered from the sea and some of the main products will be hydrogen and oxygen or some sort of fuel cells made with "clean" solar electrolysis even if not the most efficient and exporting abroad, as well as a repair station for ships traveling across the ocean. (Especially if the ship pulling tether web idea will ever come about and become baked).
I'll post a second idea explaining how these floating islands can have a new type of governing system. Creating a place for nice people with a smiling, healthy and happy culture.
P.S. The oligarchs get to keep their ships, but cannot use them till the war is over and everybody realizes that they shouldn't be giving Putin a way to take away the Oligarch's money for himself while getting rid of his rivals.-- pashute, Mar 27 2022 Shameless Elf Promotion Oceanic_20Gardens [21 Quest, Mar 27 2022] Garbageland Garbageland [Voice, Mar 28 2022] We could use the Gyres. Gyrebage_20collection [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 28 2022] A delightful write up of what actually happened last time this was tried https://www.theguar...e-ship-seassteading//The high seas, while appearing borderless and free, are, in fact, some of the most tightly regulated places on Earth// [pocmloc, Mar 28 2022] Practical and legal issues [-] (see link)-- pocmloc, Mar 28 2022 On an Ontario Ministry Zoom call as we speak: turns out some bright bulb figured out how to turn shipping containers into floating homes, moor them just off the shoreline in the Great Lakes, rent them as 'camping' short-term rentals (STRs = AirBnB) and make out like bandits-- no taxes, no oversight, no rules appear to apply.
This is basically a real-time 'federal waters small floating island' allowably moored right off the beach of waterfront homes, including Camp Teacup. Luckily, we have a potato gun aimed at international waters, and we're not afraid to use it.-- Sgt Teacup, Mar 28 2022 //what actually happened last time this was tried//
Not really the same thing. You can't bootstrap a new nation by submitting to all the laws and regulations of an old one. If you do that you're just an extension of the old one. A new nation must have a monopoly on violence within its borders, or it's not a new nation. And a nation with a monopoly on violence within its own borders wouldn't have to, for example, register itself as a cruise ship and follow all the regulations thereof.
A real sea based country would need guns and the will to stand up to every country that might impose its will upon it, at least to the extent of regulating itself, issuing currency, and negotiating borders and treaties. I can declare my house to be an independent nation but when the tax collector comes I better have the guns and will to tell him to shove off. Even when he comes back with law enforcement. In practice it takes a lot of guns, a lot of will, and enough resources to be self-sustaining.
So for this to work: In practical terms, then, technology must progress to the point that a ship can be its own drydock and feed and supply all the people needed to support it indefinitely, including power. That means everything from toothpaste* to bilge pumps. We'll get there in time but we're not there yet.
*unless the people are willing to live without toothpaste if need be. A sea-based dictatorship may be needed just to exist as an entity to blame for the poor conditions.
The science needed is extracting minerals from the sea floor or sea water and turning them into finished goods so rapidly and efficiently that a floating island can do it with only the people it carries, and keep doing it in hard times or times of war. This includes guns and ammo.-- Voice, Mar 28 2022 That is an excellent article in many ways, [poc], but am not sure that it makes clear whether the ships near Thailand and Panama were in international waters. For some reason, they needed to be under Panama's hat.
Also, per the idea, an island would be unlikely to be categorized as a ship, with all the shipping rules, nor would it be likely to get ship's insurance, though the proto agonists in the article seem like strange, insurance obsessed libertarians.-- 4and20, Mar 28 2022 I think that the problem really is to do with access to resources and energy. I don't really see the difference between an anchored floating island and an anchored ship. There are basically "issues" to do with maintenance and other things. Anchoring in international waters is difficult, because it is away from land, and land tends to protect anchored vessels. There are also issues of "exclusive economic zones" which tend to extend to the edge of the continental shelf. You may be hard put to find any international water that is genuinely anchorinable.
And yes I see the theoretical possibility of //a ship can be its own drydock and feed and supply all the people needed to support it indefinitely, including power//. But that is also plausible for a space ship, or a house, or a hot air balloon, or a personal armour-plated zorb suit, it is the practicalities that become a problem.
Its also similar to the idea that you can go to Bir Tawil and set up an independent nation state seeing how it is vigourously unclaimed by any nation on earth. Yes in theory you can go there and be free of all national laws, but in practice it is not as simple as that.
Our eccentric friends on the liner didn't pay attention to the practicalities and that is why their story is so entertaining and informative.-- pocmloc, Mar 28 2022 random, halfbakery