Does anyone know who uttered these words on May 16, 2013?
There’s many, many exciting and important things you could do that you just can’t do because they’re illegal or they’re not allowed by regulation. And that makes sense, we don’t want our world to change too fast. [But] maybe we should set aside some small part of the world… an environment where people can try out different things and not everybody has to go
I think as technologists we should have some safe places where we can try out some new things and figure out what is the effect on society, what's the effect on people, without having to deploy kind of into the normal world. And people [who] like those kind of things can go there and experience that and we don't have mechanisms for that.
These are the words of a visionary; these are
the words of Google CEO Larry Page.
Perhaps without knowing it, Page described precisely the concept of
seasteading, the movement to colonize the oceans on floating platforms, with quasi-independent jurisdiction, allowing for competition in the area that is in most dire need of it - governance. They will allow the next generation of pioneers to test new ideas for living together. The most successful can then inspire change in governments around the world. I am fortunate to be part of
Blueseed, the first commercial seasteading venture, and I am happy to see other visionaries here.
I don't believe money is the root of all evil; but there is
plenty of
evidence that lack of government accountability is the root of much inefficiency (
regulatory burdens cost each US household $14,768, and the country at large $1.8
trillion) and human suffering. A public ledger will
force the government to become more competitive, as spending becomes far easier to identify and quantify.
Bitcoin is much more than a mechanism to have a fixed supply of money, both directly (watch
Mike Hearn's excellent video on that) and indirectly, through its implications such as the public ledger mentioned above.
Of course, Bitcoin isn't enough. In the US, the Government Accountability Office, and many non-profits, routinely disclose government waste or blatant corruption (such as the revelation in Wired last month that
House representatives who voted for N5A to continue its surveillance had received double the defense industry political contributions). Yet "we" don't do much about it. The problem is this "we", the "voter", who actually has no incentive to care.
Large-scale government is doomed to fail (if you only click one link in this post, click this one).
Even if we can associate in cyberspace and trade using Bitcoin, there's only so much you can do online. What about undergoing experimental therapies, or using new medical devices, on your own risk? Can't do that in the U.S. - the
FDA mandates that you must die. What about more mundane things, like starting a business and announcing that you're raising funds?
Can't do that in the U.S. - not yet; and the law hasn't changed in 80 years. "
Is everything illegal?" You'd be surprised how much is.
As the OP showed with the speed camera lottery video,
random reinforcement and instant feedback loops are fantastically more effective than post-factum punishment. How about we apply those techniques and principles? For that, we need a physical space. Since every piece of land is under the jurisdiction of one government or another, and because trying to work with them can backfire (the Honduras "private city" effort of last year was declared
unconstitutional), there's only one unclaimed place on Earth: the oceans.
Experimentation with governance needs to be done at small scale, with a group of interested people, using the latest advances in technology, and be informed by accurate findings from behavioral economics and social psychology. At the same time, experimentation needs to be realistic, and incremental.
I am of course biased, but I would like to submit that this is exactly the goal of Blueseed.
And with a launch cost of $30M, Blueseed is far less expensive than many avenues proposed so far, let alone
unsuccessful lobbying.
