He’s been trying to get this off the ground for years now, but last week PayPal founder Peter Thiel took one step closer to his dream of building an aquatic utopia populated solely by rich/smart/weird folks “who wish to demonstrate new ways of living together”. So, yeah, Rapture.
And we all know how well that worked.
Thiel’s Seasteading Institute ran an IndieGogo campaign that closed last Friday, raising funds for a design for their planned floating city, which would be parked somewhere off the coast of San Francisco.
Before you get too concerned, this is a long way from getting done. Like, it’ll never happen. The amount of money they’d need to build something like this is astronomical – it’s why floating cities don’t, you know, already exist somewhere – and crowdsourcing campaigns coupled with diplomacy aren’t going to get anywhere near the needed amount.
Peter Thiel’s Dream of a Lawless Utopia Floats On [Valleywag]
Comments
13 responses to “Rich Maniac Still Wants To Build A Real Rapture”
Not with that attitude!
Billionaires..ASSEMBLE!!
When I read the headline, I immediately assumed Clive Palmer would be behind this.
My thoughts exactly when i read it as well 😛
The man is big enough to give such a city buoyancy so why not?
Do they need someone to clean up the garbage or mix drinks? I’m smart but I’m no Neil Degrasse Tyson. Even knowing how rapture turned out I would give almost anything to be able to live there. As long as they have fiber.
These Libertarian pipedreams are childish and myopic. Going Galt sounds great. No more taxes! Do what you want! Be truly rewarded without societal constraints! But it’s complete bullshit because sooner or later, you’re going to need garbage men, cleaners and kitchen-hands who are fine with zero upward mobility, and living in your weird little commune.
A city that refuses to suck on the state’s welfare teat needs to have some form of wealth-production and all these floating city proposals begin and end with “Fishing???” The closest we’ll ever get is Rapture or one of those survivalist cults.
Just as long as we keep the ADAM out of this one, then we should be sweet.
I’m going to copy that Queenland guy who netted thousands of plastic bottles together into a raft, set it afloat, covered it in sand/dirt until he had a solid enough foundation to build a house.
I’ll retire in a place like that If I have my way.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand… and it was totally bitchin’.
Dubai could build it.
I say, let ’em!
I think you’re thinking of Columbia, not Rapture. Ba-dum-tish!