Seasteading: How Ocean Cities Will Change the World

Quirk (communications director, the Seasteading Inst.; Exult) and Friedman (founder, Seasteading Inst.) introduce a radical new concept in homesteading: seasteading, or making a home on the sea. Written with entrepreneurs, or aquapreneurs, in mind and reading more like a marketing pitch than a scientific inquiry, this book examines the ideas behind this undertaking. Many of the principles of seasteading are still being explored, though the authors claim that living on floating cities will solve an array of societal and environmental issues. However, their descriptions of the seasteading lifestyle seem exploitative of the oceans; for instance, the title discusses harvesting nutrition from the water, focusing on the benefits to humans but failing to address the effects on sea creatures. Proponents of seasteading include Royal Caribbean International as well as the oil and gas companies Chevron and Shell, which has built the world's largest offshore floating platform off the coast of Australia.