Location research criteria - feedback wanted

[Patri Friedman]

Howdy, all!

We have a draft of our specs for the upcoming location research, written by intern Brad Taylor with guidance from myself and our engineers.  Would love your thoughts on whether we are missing or misclassifying anything important, particularly engineering related-considerations.  Please  CC Brad & myself on replies.  Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/a/seasteading.org/Doc?docid=0AbdZHRxBZkLXZGQ4Z3ZoY3BfMTQ3Z2NnbnB2ZDQ&hl=en

Location Research

Summary

Identifying specific locations is critical to the progression of the seasteading movement, because engineering design is highly dependent on the waves, wind, and currents to be found in a specific location.  To a lesser extent, business models, business partners, and resident interest are dependent on location as well.  Only with a specific location can a proposal for a concrete seastead move forward, and creating the conditions so the first seastead to be built is the core of TSI's mission and current focus.

Locations are to some degree dependent on the high-level strategy for a given seastead project (for example, whether it can be inside the 200nm EEZ, or needs to be on the High Seas), so we outline several Scenarios to guide the research. We first briefly point to several key location considerations then describe each scenario along with the most important criteria. Finally, we include a complete list of criteria for reference.

Key Location Considerations

Oceanographic

• Wave conditions - Waves are the most serious physical hazard to the integrity of seasteads, and even non-dangerous waves will be a major factor in determining resident comfort. While the importance differs by scenario, in general we need low maximum and average wave height and, for ship-like concepts, low variability in the direction of waves. 
• Current conditions -Some seastead designs will produce significant drag. With strong currents, this will make location control difficult and expensive.
• Depth - One option for location control is mooring, which is possible in waters up to several kilometres deep, but is more practical in shallower waters of around 150m or less. 

Political/Legal

• Law of the Sea jurisdiction - Since a state has almost total sovereignty over its territorial waters, which normally extend 12nm from shore, we are not interested in such locations. In its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ - which normally extends 200nm from shore), a state has less control but can still regulate certain economic activities. Early seasteads will likely exist within EEZs, while later ones will gain more independence by existing in international waters. 
• Proximity to multiple jurisdictions - Especially if within a country's EEZ, the ability to move away from the influence of a particular government will be important. This will improve its chances of reasonable treatment by offering an escape route and, if a deal with the coastal state is requires, strengthening its bargaining position.  
• Influence of aggressive powers - Countries differ greatly in the extent to which they patrol their EEZs and enforce various maritime claims. In addition to the de jure legal status of a location under the law of the sea, location  research needs to consider how much de facto independence a coastal state will allow a seastead to have. 

Economic

• Economic location - Since self-sufficiency leads to poverty, seasteads will need to maintain contact with the outside world. Since small seasteads will rely on conventional ferries for transport, proximity to a major city with an airport and port will be a major consideration. For many business models, travel time to and from major cities will be crucial. To import labor, proximity to relatively human-capital rich but low-wage countries will also be desirable. Proximity to land is also important in terms of internet connectivity.

Scenarios Outlines and Recommendations 

Scenario 1: Poseidon

Poseidon will be a seastead of modest size, housing around 50 full-time residents, and will likely use a ship-like design concept. Poseidon's main business will likely be a hotel/resort, and may also include facilities for other business in which seasteads have a comparative advantage, such as medical tourism and a visa-free meeting/conference location. Since Poseidon will likely be quite mobile, seasonal migration may be an option. 

An ideal location would be:

• Outside territorial waters but inside EEZ (Critical)
• In an area with low and unidirectional waves (Critical)
• Close to a city with an airport and port: 3 - 30nm would be acceptable. 13 or less would be ideal. (Critical)
• In the EEZ of a friendly country (Very important)
• Outside CZ or in CZ of benign state (Very important)
• Close to rich customers (Very important)
• Close to poor employees (Moderately important)
  
• Close to many jurisdictions (Moderately important, depending on the friendliness of the country in whose EEZ Poseidon will be based)
  
• Pleasant in terms of weather (Optional)

Scenario 2: High Seastead 

The full potential of seasteading will only be realized in international waters. Finding suitable high seas locations are therefore essential to our long-term goals. The specific requirement of an open-ocean seastead will depend on business and design factors. The most relevant distinctions in terms of location are (1) ship/barge versus spar/semi-submersible designs; and (2) dynamically positioned versus moored seasteads. Ship and barge designs use displacement hulls, which provide cheap and mobile marine real estate but are sensitive to waves. Spars and semi-submersibles are are less mobile and more stable - which is ideal for seasteading - but are expensive given current technology. Dynamic positioning involves the use of powered movement to maintain location whereas mooring involves temporary anchoring to the sea floor. 

There are some general criteria important to all high seastead scenarios:

• Outside any country's EEZ (Critical)

• As close as possible to civilization, subject the the criterion above - A short plane flight from first-world major airport (roughly 200-500 miles) would be desirable (Critical)

• Close to rich customers (Important)

• Close to cheap labor (Important)

We separate the High Seastead scenario into three sub-scenarios, each of which has specific requirements:

Scenario 2a: Dynamically Positioned High Seas Ship/Barge

• Low waves (Critical)
• Unidrectional waves (Very Important)

Scenario 2b: Dynamically Positioned High Seas Spar/Semi Submersible

• Low current (Critical)
• Low waves (Very important)

 

Scenario 2c: Moored to Seamount

• A seamount, ideally but not necessarily with a depth of 100-150m or less (Critical)
• No ice (Critical)
• Low waves (Important; critical if design is ship-like)
• Unidirectional waves (Important if design is ship-like)

Scenario Description: Poseidon

The Poseidon Project is TSI's medium-term goal to complete the research required for the establishment of the first politically-autonomous seastead.  While the details of Poseidon will depend on its founders (TSI will not create or operate actual seasteads), our goal is for Poseidon to be operational with 50 full time residents by 2015. Poseidon will likely be centered around a hotel/resort, and related cluster of businesses: medical tourism, adventure tourism, self-development, political tourism (libertarian telecommuters, survivalists, etc.), visa-free meeting/conference location. Poseidon will be the smallest incremental step our movement can take which gives us a reasonable amount of de facto political autonomy.  This being so, we need to identify a location as desirable as possible in terms of oceanic and economic conditions, which will likely mean less de jure political autonomy than would be ideal.

While engineering research is still in progress, Poseidon will most likely be based on a modified ship or barge design, rather than the spar structures or breakwaters which we think will prove most effective in the long term. This means that waves conditions are of the highest importance: A ship's elongated shape and relatively large surface area at wave-level make low and unidirectional waves critical. Current strength is of much less concern. The need to attract recreational tourists makes a pleasant climate desirable. Interesting marine life or underwater scenery for diving would also be an advantage. 

Given that Poseidon will be small, proximity to civilization is important. At a small scale, travel to shore will need to be by boat. Since Poseidon's businesses will be significantly based on short-term visitors, we need to be close to a major city with an airport and port. This makes locations outside exclusive economic zones (EEZs) unfeasible. Even being outside the contiguous zone (CZ) might also prove too costly in terms of travel time.  

Being inside the EEZ, and potentially CZ, of a country makes the choice jursidiction very important. Finding a country unwilling or unable to enforce its EEZ claims would be ideal; paranoid countries which vigorously patrol their CZ should be avoided. The power of coastal governments also makes proximity to multiple jurisdictions desirable.  

The Mediterranean, Baltic, and Caribbean seas are likely to contain locations which meet these criteria. The key questions the location research needs to answer for Poseidon are: 

• What are the best wave conditions in the Mediterranean?
• Are those conditions good enough for a ship/barge design?
  
• Can we find locations with desirable wave conditions which also meet our political and economic criteria?
  

Since Poseidon may well be a ship, seasonal migration may be possible. We may choose separate summer & winter quarters, and/or choose to travel in loops rather than staying in one spot. More than loops is not feasible due to fuel costs and logistical difficulty, but small loops of 4-10 cities may be possible and economically desirable.  As an example, a ship could travel a loop around the western Mediterranean in summer, and a loop in the Caribbean in Dec - May (avoiding hurricane season).

Scenario Description: High Seastead 

Our long term ambitions of political independence require suitable seastead locations in the high seas (outside of EEZs).  Increasing political desirability by moving further from existing states, of course, will have costs in terms of economic and oceanographic conditions. Proximity to civilization remains important, however. Since high seasteads will likely be larger than those within EEZs, the economies of scale required to make plane travel feasible may be present. Being a short plane flight (roughly 200-500 miles) from major international airport will therefore be essential, while similar proximity to both rich customers and cheap labor will also be important.  

Seasteading in international waters could, and likely will, proceed in a number of ways. We therefore separate the High Seastead scenario into three sub-scenarios.

Scenario 2a: Dynamically Positioned High Seas Ship/Barge

Dynamic position looks like our best option for location control. At least in the medium term, some sort of modified displacement hull design, such as a modified ship or barge, will be the most cost-effective way of constructing marine real estate. For these reasons, finding locations suitable for dynamically-positioned ship or barge is our highest priority high seasteading scenario. Since ships and barges present a large surface area at sea level, wave conditions are of paramount importance. A suitable location will have waves which are both low (on average and at maximum) and relatively unidirectional. 

Scenario 2b: Dynamically Positioned High Seas Spar/Semi Submersible

Our research suggests that dynamic positioning will be reasonably economical and would make suitable locations much easier to find, while also increasing mobility. Dynamic positioning could be used for ships/barges, semi-submersibles, and spars. Since these designs have produce a lot of drag, a low current is critical. Wave directionality is not an issue with these designs and while wave height is not quite as critical with a ship/barge design, it remains very important. 

Scenario 2c: Seamount

While we think Dynamic positioning will be a cost-effective means of station-keeping, we also need to consider other options. Finding shallow locations to allow mooring is another solution to the problem of location control. Being anchored to a seamount might also have other benefits such as interesting undersea scenery (useful for tourism), cheap wave protection, and access to marine resources. One major disadvantage will be a reduction in the benefits of dynamic geography, since a structure optimised for mooring in shallow regions will be able to find fewer suitable locations. Since a seastead moored to a seamount could be either a ship/barge or spar/semi submersible, the requirements in terms of wave conditions are unknown. 

relative importance of waves and current is unknown. Mooring will not be possible in areas with ice. The Ampere Seamount seems to be desirable. The question is whether we can find other locations equally or more desirable. 

Other Possible Scenarios

• Open ocean breakwater. There are different priorities with large scale: being on shipping lanes becomes desirable; proximity to civilization less important; extraction of seafloor resources becomes feasible. 
• Equatorial Seastead. While the low waves of doldrums are desirable, all equatorial non-EEZ locations are far from civilization and therefore economically undesirable except with large initial tenants, such as a space launch site. 

Staffing

• Oceanographic: Oceanographer to be hired (likely a low-hourly rate grad student under direction of a high hourly-rate experienced oceanographer)
• Political: Boundaries Researcher (grad student), TSI Law of the Sea team (being formed).
• Economic: Max Marty (TSI staff business researcher)

Detailed List of Criteria

Physical Criteria

Criterion	Notes
Low maximum wave height	Waves are the biggest physical hazard to seasteads. Since tsunamis only become destructive once they reach shore, they pose no threat to seasteads. Rogue waves and severe storms, however, are a dangerous and costly to protect against. Design and seasonal migration will enable seasteads to survive large waves, but both options will be costly. The best option is to exist in waters as calm as possible in order to reduce the cost of protection from worst-case waves. Mediterranean Seas, the equatorial doldrums, and sheltered areas leeward of land would perform well under this criterion. The ClubStead metocean report indicated a 100-year storm Hs=8.3m. Miguel Lamas's research, outlined in the draft of his PhD thesis, suggests that locations in international waters much calmer than this will be rare. The importance of low maximum wave height is high in any seasteading scenario but does depend to some extent on the design concept used. Large waves are particularly hazardous to ship-like concepts. Since Poseidon will likely be shaped like a ship, this criterion is of vital importance in this scenario. The Clubstead metocean and hydroscatic and hydrodynamic analyses include relevant data for a specific location 100 miles off the coast of San Diego and should be used as a reference for investigation in other locations. These reports considered the probable maximum wave height for 1-year, 10-year, and 100-year storms. The performance of a ship-shaped vessel is considered under normal and extreme sea states as a comparison with Clubstead.  Further reading: ClubStead Metocean; ClubStead Hydro; Engineering Report; Lamas PhD; Book Beta: "Waves"
Low average wave height	Even in the absence of dangerously large waves, calm seas are a big advantage in terms of comfort and ease of relative positioning. We can expect a large degree of overlap between areas with low maximum and low average wave height, with the doldrums, mediterranean seas, and sheltered areas leeward of land being more calm.  The fact that Poseidon's business will be based to a large extent on tourism, as well as its ship-like shape, makes this criterion very important.  The Clubstead metocean and hydroscatic and hydrodynamic analyses include relevant data for a specific location 100 miles off the coast of San Diego and should be used as a reference for investigation in other locations. The Clubstead analysis characterized comfort by the standard deviation of the vertical acceleration, according to International Standard ISO 2631. The standard states that, at typical wave peak frequencies, a majority of the passengers is seasick after being exposed to a vertical acceleration RMS of 0.25m/s2 for 8 consecutive hours. The performance of a ship-shaped vessel is considered under normal and extreme sea states as a comparison with Clubstead. As pointed out in the Clubstead report, however, the ship vessel assumed is not optimaized for long-term comfort. Passenger-comfort data from cruise ships in various sea states will likely produce better estimates of acceptable wave height. Further reading: ClubStead Metocean; ClubStead Hydro; Engineering Report; Lamas PhD; Book Beta: "Waves"
Unidirectional waves	Some concepts require unidirectional waves. Some designs depend on their orientation towards the waves for operation. Elongated shapes such as ships and barges are sensitive in their operation to the spread of wave directionality. Cross-seas, with waves generated in two different wind systems, are particularly hazardous to ships. Again, the shape of Poseidon makes wave directionality important. Fortunately, unidirectional waves are more common closer to land, which is where Poseidon will be.   The Clubstead metocean analysis indicates a 100deg angle between predominant swell and wind directions. Information of the magnitude of wave and swell components individually would be useful; perhaps one of the components is significantly smaller. Closer to land, such as in the gulf of Finland, unidirectionality is expected. Perhaps this occurs frequenty in other EEZ locations too. Further reading: ClubStead Metocean; Engineering Report; Lamas PhD; Book Beta: "Waves"
Low current	Some concepts, most notably spars, are very sensitive to current strength. Remaining stationary against a strong current absent mooring will result in significant fuel use. Publically available data does not give a very good indication of what to expect. The data found is either instantaneous or very long-term average, neither of which carry enough information. Having a time-series for a single location would be most informative. Identifying locations with a minimum RMS current and obtaining an impression of what can reasonably be expected would be highly useful. This criterion is of high priority for the High Seastead scenario, the likely structures of which are more prone to producing significant drag. Current strength is of much less concern for Poseidon, which is shaped like a ship.   Further Reading: ClubStead Metocean; Engineering Report; Lamas PhD; Book Beta: "Currents"; Engineering Blog: Estimation of DP Power requirements
Pleasant Climate	Since people will be living on seasteads, air temperature and weather will ideally be pleasant. This becomes critical for tourism-based seasteading businesses, such as Poseidon. While we can heat indoor areas, tourists will want to spend time outdoors. A warm location without strong wind or rain would therefore be ideal.  Further Reading: Commission on Climate, Tourism, and Recreation
No ice	Moving ice makes mooring very difficult and must therefore be avoided in some scenarios. Ice will also likely complicate docking and dynamic positioning.
Low maximum wind	While wind does not present a significant danger to the integrity of seasteads independently of its effect on waves, severe wind will make for a less pleasant environment. It will also reduce mobility and the ability to maintain relative position in the absence of anchors. Another issue is salt spray, which will make outdoor gardening problematic. Particularly strong winds are also likely to damage many types of wind turbine, which would disrupt power generation. Deploying more resilient turbines would increase costs.  Further Reading: ClubStead Metocean; Book Beta: "Wind"
Steady winds	Areas in which trade winds are constantly blowing make for easier power generation. Wind energy rises as the cube of wind velocity, so a steadier wind at the same average velocity provides significantly less energy than a variable wind. However, there are big benefits to consistent winds, such as reduced dependence on costly storage systems. Occasional strong winds are likely to damage standard wind turbines, disrupting power production. Further, variable winds strong enough to provide for a seastead's power needs are also likely to make outdoor areas an unpleasant place to be.  Further Reading: ClubStead Metocean; Book Beta: "Wind", "Power"
Low variability in wind directionality	Areas with a consistent prevailing wind will make cheaper unidirectional wind turbines practical. Further Reading:ClubStead Metocean; Book Beta: "Wind"
Low relative salinity	Water desalination through the reverse osmosis method is more efficient with water of lower salinity. Since this will make only a modest cost difference to a relatively small part of a seastead's operating costs, this criterion is of low priority. Further Reading: Book Beta: "Water"
Access to seafloor resources	While most seafloor resources will be unattainable except at very large scales, there may be some resources of which seasteaders can make use in the long term. This criterion is, however, of very low priority at the moment. In addition to scale, there are a number of reasons to ignore seafloor resources when making location decisions: resource extraction might make an otherwise nice location an unpleasant place to live, there are serious legal limitations to resource extraction up to 350nm from shore, and other location factors are likely to hugely outweigh any small opportunity seafloor resources might provide.  Further Reading: TSI Forum: Materials and Resources; UNCLOS Annex III: Basic Conditions of Prospecting, Exploration and Exploitation
Shallow	The ability to anchor seasteads and/or breakwaters is desirable. 100-150m or less would be ideal, though mooring is possible at reasonable cost in water as deep as 2km. Water shallow enough for cheap mooring is particularly desirable in areas with a strong current and for design concepts with high drag, since these factors make dynamic positioning more costly. Shallow water is more common close to land, but there are several seamounts in seemingly desirable locations further from shore.  Further Reading: Engineering Report; Book Beta: "Transportation"; Main Blog: Fun with Google Earth; Engineering Blog: Ampere Seamount; Lamas PhD
Marine life	Plentiful fish as a food source would be desirable, though fishing is heavily regulated within EEZs and seasteads are not capable of moving fast enough to move to where the fish are at any given time. Small seasteads may find non-commercial fishing an important part of its food supply.  Interesting marine life would also make for a more pleasant environment for residents and visitors. This will be especially beneficial for tourism-based operations.  Natural upwelling zones, which constitute only about 1% of the oceans surface, produce approximately half of the worlds fish. Further Reading: Census of Marine Life

Economic Criteria

             

Criterion	Notes
Close to first world	To be economically feasible, the seastead needs to be close enough to a rich country, and preferably a large city, to allow us to sell goods or services. Ideally, this country would have a high cost of government in specific areas in which seasteads can compete. Highly regulated or poor-quality public healthcare, for example, could make medical tourism viable. Being close to developed countries is also important in attracting residents initially. Moving to Poseidon will be a much more daunting proposition if the cost, in terms of both time and money, of visiting civilization is high. Further Reading: Book Beta: "Business Models"
Close to country with cheap labor	A successful commercial operation at sea will need to hire labour as well as sell services. Proximity to low-income countries with cheap labor is therefore very desirable. An ideal source of labor would be countries with relatively high levels of human capital, but depressed incomes due to labor market regulation or other harmful government policy. Immigration policies in neighboring states are also a relevant consideration, since easy migration to a high-income country decreases the relative attraction of a seastead to low-income workers. Ease of migration will be reflected in labor market conditions, but the difficulty of measurement as well as the possibility of political shocks to ease of migration make this a relevant consideration.  The desirability of being close to both high-income and low-income countries makes places like the Mediterranean (close to both Europe and Africa) and the Baltic (close to both rich Northern European and poor former-Soviet countries), and Caribbean (close to United states and poor Caribbean countries) seas seem very attractive. Being close to the border of rich and poor countries, such as the United States and Mexico, might also be desirable, especially if immigration to the rich country is difficult.  Further Reading: Book Beta: "Business Models"
Close to many countries	The two criteria above are a single example of the more general principle of arbitrage. Given that various government policies distort relative prices, a seastead which can buy goods, whether for consumption by residents or as inputs to the services sold to outsiders, from multiple markets will be at a cost advantage. The greater the differences in prices, the better.  The Mediterranean will allow us to get close to multiple countries. Unfortunately for us, prices will be relatively constant across countries due to the homogenizing effect of the EU.
Access to data connection	Access to the internet is crucial both economically and to reduce the social isolation of residents. While satellite can provide access almost anywhere, these services are currently laggy and expensive. Satellite technology is improving rapidly, however, and could become a much better option by the time seasteads become a reality.  Seasteads which are close to land can use point-to-point links of various kinds, such as microwaves. While there are some minor issues, it will be much cheaper to get significant bandwidth, and have much less lag, than satellites. This is another advantage of being close to civilization.  Laying cable is incredibly expensive and unlikely to be feasible for quite awhile. However, there is already cable laid to connect many island nations. It might be possible for a seastead to anchor over a junction and connect there.   Further Reading: Book Beta: "Business Models"; TSI Forum: Internet.
On major shipping lane	Being on major shipping lanes may be desirable for seasteading communities large enough to justify having ships stop. For smaller seasteads, being on shipping lanes might be harmful, due to the increased danger of collision with ships and higher waves generated by boat wakes.

Political Criteria

Criterion	Notes
Outside territorial waters of any country	A seastead within the territorial waters (normally 12 nautical miles from the coast) of a country will have no political autonomy, since states have almost as much power within territorial waters as they do on land. While seasteads within territorial waters, such as Baystead, may be important first step in developing the technology, physically and economically suitable locations within territorial waters will be easy to find. Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"; TSI Law of the Sea Research
Outside contiguous zone of any country	The power of states extends beyond their territorial waters. Within 24 nautical miles of land, states have special powers to punish or prevent violations of their domestic laws. Harassment by coastguards searching for evidence of drug trafficking or other offences  is possible in this area, even for flagged vessels. Being outside the CZ is politically preferable but also takes us farther from land, thereby increasing distance from population centers and calm seas. The extent to which existence in the CZ will be a problem depends on how active the state in question is in patrolling its CZ. Some countries are likely to ignore us; others may use CZ rights as a pretext to make existence all but impossible.  Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"; TSI Law of the Sea Research
Outside EEZ of any country (High Seas).	Being inside an EEZ means that the coastal state regulates fixed installations and all resource use (fishing, wave energy, solar energy...), which is undesirable for large, long-term seasteading ventures.  Escaping EEZs requires being at least 200nm from land, which is a prohibitive distance for passenger travel by normal ferry, so seasteading outside EEZs will require either a large enough community for a floating runway, an alternate transportation solution (gyrocopters, open ocean seaplanes, something like that - there are several possibilities but most likely none will work). The High Seas are not an option for Poseidon, as it is a small community which needs to be within ferry distance of a port, but finding suitable locations further at sea is important for the longer term. True, sustainable autonomy enabling a full range of economic activities is not possible within another state's EEZ.  Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"; TSI Law of the Sea Research
Far from major military powers	Jurisdictions likely to flex their military muscle, such as the United States and China, should be avoided if possible, particularly if it is the only military power in the area. Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"
Inside EEZ/CZ of country which have shown an unwillingness or inability to enforce its claims	Being within the EEZ or CZ of a country which doesn't enforce its rights could be highly desirable. While seasteads in such a location would lack full de jure autonomy, they would enjoy a high level of de facto autonomy and protection from interference from other states. Being within an EEZ would also mean being closer to customers and/or labor markets. This seems like the ideal situation for Poseidon. Piracy off the coast of Somalia, while obviously a bad thing, is an interesting parallel to the freedom that EEZs/CZs without an active government provides. Piracy is easy within Somali territorial waters, since the area is under an unenforced claim. Under maritime law, states have extremely broad powers to combat piracy, but, by definition, piracy cannot happen in territorial waters. This means that pirates can act wit   h impunity within 12nm of the Somali coast. There is no functional government in Somalia to prevent piracy, and other countries have no legal rights to punish pirates within another's territorial waters. We can benefit from a similar combination of protection and neglect, though with much better outcomes for the world at large.     Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"; GlobalSecurity.org: Pirates.
Close to many jurisdictions	Multiple jurisdictions increase the ease of exit should a nearby state turn nasty. This is especially important if we are inside the EEZ of some country. The worst possible location would be within the EEZ of some country and far from any other country. The other jurisdictions should ideally contain locations meeting the physical, economic, and political criteria described in this document. If a seastead needs to make deals with a country to exist in its EEZ, having multiple options will improve the seastead's bargaining position. Being close to multiple countries with different levels of price distortion will also have economic advantages in terms of arbitrage opportunities.  Further reading: Book Beta: "Political Situation"
Absence of pirates	While there is likely a niche market for floating pirate hangouts, most businesses will want to avoid areas with high levels of piracy. As discussed in the Seasteading FAQ, piracy is unlikely to be a serious threat. Further Reading: Book Beta: "Pirates will get you!"; GlobalSecurity.org: Pirates.

Resources

Book Beta: Patri Friedman. Seasteading: A Practical Guide to Homesteading the High Seas.

ClubStead Hydro: Marine Innovation & Technology. ClubStead Preliminary Analysis: Hydrostatic and Hydrodynamic Analysis.

ClubStead Metocean: Marine Innovation & Technology. ClubStead Preliminary Analysis: Metocean Conditions.  

Engineering Blog: The Seasteading Institute Engineering Blog

Engineering Report: Eelco Hoogendoorn. TSI Engineering Assessment Report. 

Lamas PhD: Miguel Lamas. Establishment of autonomous ocean communities: current options and future evolution. Unpublished draft PhD thesis, available for internal TSI use.  

Main Blog: The Seasteading Institute Main Blog

TSI Forum: The Seasteading Institute Forums