Micronationalism and Seasteading – Tools for a Better Future – Article by Jan-Olav Spiekermann
Jan-Olav “Joe” Spiekermann
The way any kind of government works, no matter if you live in a communist dictatorship, an absolute monarchy, or a so-called Western democracy, is through force.
Governments think that they do have the right to do with people whatever they want. Taking your money, your private property, your freedom, your dignity, or even your life – no problem, the government is allowed to do so.
Private persons are only allowed to violate the physical integrity, the private property, or even the lives of other persons in order to defend themselves against a current assault. And even then you have to pay attention to the proportionality of the defense measures.
If you look around the world like that, it looks like the current forms of political and social coexistence are not working well. Rather, it looks like our current forms of state coexistence are repeatedly leading to outbreaks of violence, crime, misery, and decline.
A key aspect of transhumanism is the wish to improve health and longevity. The goal is, in the end, to defeat death.
But the circumstances we live in are literally so sick and destructive, that they, on the contrary, create and spread suffer and death.
Nearly every second a person gets cancer, for example. So many people are unable to live without pills. Stress, pressure, political conflicts, and pollution definitely contribute to making many people ill and causing their premature deaths.
We have to look for better, more humane, and sustainable political and social forms of coexistence. Within the structures of the existing nations, this is pretty hard, as governments determine too many aspects of private life, and and too many people are trapped in their hamster wheels and neither willing nor able to question fundamental aspects of their lives.
Micronations are a way for pioneers to try out something new. Indeed, micronations connect people from many different cultures from all over the world.
Micronations can really change something in the minds and lives of those, who participate in them. But micronational projects nearly always have one fundamental weakness: Their scope of action is of course severely restricted by the government of the respective macro-nations on whose territory they are located. So little practical knowledge can be gathered about alternative forms of living together.
There are only three land parts of the earth that could be called “terra nullius”: Bir Tawil between Egypt and Sudan, Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica, and some pieces of land between Croatia and Serbia, that are unclaimed due to a border conflict, which is a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia. These few territories are all claimed by micronations.
A solution to this lack of available land is to create micronations on seasteads within international waters.
Our planet Earth is also called the Blue Planet. Why? Because the majority of this planet is not land – it is water. And in international waters, especially outside of the exclusive economic zones, there is no macronational authority. If you create a seastead, e.g., a platform, an artificial island, or a floating house, you may do whatever you want. And if many people come together on seasteads, they can start new nations. These seastead-micronations would be de facto fully sovereign states.
The people of these ocean-based seasteads would be able to try out new concepts of good government. And there would a competition between the new governments as to who can provide the best form of society in order to attract new seasteaders. This competition would be greater than exists on land because, if a seastead-micronation consists of many separate, movable units that are owned by their residents, people could even move from one seastead-micronation to other seastead-micronations, if they do not agree with the way things work.
Another aspect of seasteading within international waters is that people could also find ways of self-governance without any kind of nation or government.
In any case, the practical experiences gained from the creation of seastead-micronations or other self-ruled forms of seasteading would help people all over the world to improve their way of running countries and to create a better, more humane, and sustainable future for all of us.
Opponents of the concept of small political entities often say that city-states simply do not work and are unable to survive. Well, just think about the city-states of ancient Greece. They influenced the world like very few other states did.
The scientific, cultural, political, artistic and philosophical achievements of ancient Greece are immortal. Even the great Roman Republic, which was at first a city-state, was largely influenced by ancient Greek culture. It is certainly possible that future seastead-micronations will have a similar impact.
Jan-Olav “Joe” Spiekermann is the U.S. Transhumanist Party Advisor on Seasteads and Micronations. Find out about Mr. Spiekermann here.