World Billionaire Plans Floating Cities To Survive Crisis And Disasters

World Billionaire Plans Floating Cities To Survive Crisis And Disasters

JAKARTA - Several well-known billionaires, including Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel, are known to have planned to launch a 'floating city' in the ocean as a new residence free from state law and possibly safe from disasters that hit mainland residents.

The Seasteading Institute, which was initially backed by investment from Thiel, has spent 15 years researching the idea of a permanent floating community living in international waters, free from regulation.

In 2022, Ocean Builders company - backed by Bitcoin trader Chad Elwartowski - revealed 'Seapod', a floating building with an area of 733 square feet, stands on a seven-foot pole above water. However, the first Seapod collapsed when it was unveiled in September 2022, where the maker blamed the'malfunction' on the bilge pump.

Elwartowski also built a floating Fiberglas house off the coast of Thailand in 2019 for his wife, Nadia Thepdet. However, the couple were forced to flee before a police raid after posting a video of them drinking champagne in Seastead.

The Seasteading Institute hopes the floating city can have a'significant political autonomy'. "Technology for floating startup governments is already there and we really want to make it happen as soon as possible," said Joe Quirk, President of the Seasteading Institute, quoted by VOI from DailyMail.

The Seasteading Institute hopes the floating city can provide revolutionary solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, such as sea level rise, overpopulation, poor governance, and others.

Meanwhile, Thiel is now less ambitious with the Seasteading Institute in recent years, but the non-profit organization is still growing. Several other companies, such as Arktide in Florida and SeaPod, which plan to build in Asia and Europe, also have similar vision.

The UN-backed Oceanix project in Korea has revealed its own vision of floating cities to help coastal communities cope with sea level rise.