[Podcast] A Pragmatic Plan with Atlas Island

[@truth8422]

In my opinion, having to debate with other people over your basic rights is one of the most disturbing things in modern society. That alone makes seasteading an extremely useful tool capable of offering a much needed solution for a huge problem. There is something so liberating about not having to negotiate with anyone.

[@Barskor1]

Basalt rebar and mesh combined with Roman concrete that only gets stronger in seawater. Means nothing rusts out or cracks when you make sealed floating hollow blocks to build on at sea.

[@SuperFinGuy]

How are you going to move small boats and vessels off the coast? Turn them into big boats? Have you forgotten about the Satoshi boat fiasco?

[@antirussia_org]

Small boats can be seaworthy, too. Some people crossed the Atlantic in boats barely bigger than themselves.

[@SuperFinGuy]

@@antirussia_org But those are extraordinary and dangerous endeavors, small boats cannot survive for long in the open ocean due to waves, for example. I like the ballast option much better, but not in an expensive way. I mean how hard it is to make a steal structure and then fill it with concrete? Maybe we need an open source project.

[@samhaun3929]

I don't think they're going to win any seasteaders over by pointing out Chad and Nadia's story, then provide nothing but conjecture on what any other nation will or won't do in response to seasteaders. Do you suppose Chad and Nadia felt at the outset Thailand would send the Navy after them? Nation states are not chess pieces that respond to your moves with a non-move. And even if a nation state *might not* now do anything doesn't mean they wouldn't make an attempt in the future. Even states that participate in the "open market" flag registry can be bent to the will of larger states. Even though the anecdote has nothing to do with their flag registry, the example of Ecuador and Assange is instructive. The president was going to give him asylum, but was threatened with rescinding of international loans. So a right wing faction voted him out of office. Bahama may not have the means to reach you in the South Pacific but that doesn't mean they can't ask another state to intervene, especially if coerced to do so.

[@samhaun3929]

The other mistake is implying the UNCLOS is "international law." It's not. It's just a framework of cooperation between states. What is law is determined by ITLOS, a panel of judges. So if those judges decide seasteading is not allowed on the ocean, there's nothing to stop them from doing it, and enforcing it. I'm no international law expert, but that's my reading.

[@LoanwordEggcorn]

@@samhaun3929 UNCLOS is mostly a collection of pre-existing international law. It's an attempt to formalize some of the existing conventional law of the sea. So it is basically International law, which itself is mostly based on pre-existing conventions.