This series will feature guest blog posts from think tank leaders around the world. This month, we’ll learn about the work and experiences of the Seasteading Institute, written by Patri Friedman. Check out past Think Tank Diary entries here.
The Seasteading Institute‘s mission is to “Further the establishment and growth of permanent, autonomous ocean communities, enabling innovation with new political and social systems.“ Founded last year with a $500,000 grant from libertarian philanthropist Peter Thiel, we believe that this frontier provides a crucial “Exit” option for society. This option increases freedom by allowing for more competition and innovation in systems of government, as our modern lack of a frontier has led to stagnation in the governance industry.
In some ways, our activities are quite similar to other free-market think tanks: we have a concept of a better way of life which we believe is supported by the evidence and will benefit everyone, and we are trying to spread the word and build a community around it to change the world. I’ve written a book (and another is in progress), I give talks, and I blog (with others) about political theory at Let A Thousand Nations Bloom.
Yet, in other ways, we are very different. First, although many of us are libertarians, we don’t specifically promote a libertarian society. Instead, we promote “Second-Level Libertarianism“, the idea that we need a more diverse, innovative, efficient set of available governments competing against each other for customers. Some of these governments will be libertarian, but many will not, and that’s OK. Groups who don’t want to live in a libertarian society shouldn’t have to, and even those who agree on the goals for a society don’t know what laws and institutions which will best achieve those goals. Experimentation is required.
Second, as explained in my Cato Unbound essay “Beyond Folk Activism“, we believe that attempts to promote liberty through politics and academia are ultimately futile. Evangelism is useful to create groups of self-identified libertarians, but their energy must then be channeled through effective means, such as seasteading. Liberty cannot win elections, and capture by special interests is inherent in the nature of democracy. We understand this claim is controversial, but a quick look around the world will clearly show you that laissez-faire and democracy are incompatible. Fortunately, we have a sound theoretical argument about how seasteading will change the incentives that lead to bad government.
This month is a particularly exciting time for our organization, as our Second Annual Conference is coming up Sep 28-30 in San Francisco, with speakers like Peter Thiel, and David Friedman. Just afterwards will be Ephemerisle, our first-ever floating festival of politics, community, and art, which will move closer to international waters each year until it is a temporary independent country.
To learn more about seasteading, visit the Introduction to our website.
Join us next Monday for the next installment of the Seasteading Institute’s Diary. If you are interested in becoming the next Think Tank Diarist please contact Cindy Cerquitella.
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This an interesting project like the land counterpart of Openworld Institute.