The whole thing is a complete disaster

November 27, 2023 1:22 AM

Among seasteading enthusiasts, the excitement about the crypto ship was intense. A slew of promotional videos and a marketing website promised it would be for “everyone from digital nomads to YouTube influencers, start-up teams and established businesses”. Friedman took to Facebook, boosting Ocean Builders by name and adding: “So glad liberty activism has advanced from Guy Fawkes violence to peaceful exit!” He posted too soon. from The fake hitman, the crypto king and a wild revenge plan gone bad [Financial Times; ungated]

Related:
Exclusive Look Inside the World’s First Self-Sustaining Floating Home
seashell-shaped floating pods offer deluxe residence in nature and on the sea
The Satoshi, previously

posted by chavenet (28 comments total)

There's... There's a lot going on here.
posted by prismatic7 at 3:12 AM on November 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

"everyone from digital nomads to YouTube influencers, start-up teams and established businesses"

They left telephone sanitizers off their Ark.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:30 AM on November 27, 2023 [32 favorites]

Cue Captain Renault: 'I'm shocked, shocked.....!
posted by pthomas745 at 4:41 AM on November 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

I had completely missed the seapod prototype prototype partially sinking last Oct, pretty spectacular.
posted by advil at 4:49 AM on November 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

That is crazy pants.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:40 AM on November 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Couldn't happen to nicer people.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:42 AM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

The crypto ship, is being filled
A thousand girls, a thousand thrills
A million ways to spend your time...
posted by MtDewd at 5:47 AM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

It’s like old-school criminality crashed into crypto delusions and maybe other issues. The “how hard can it be” flaw of wannabe techbros being applied to arson and murder.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:10 AM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Also, those sea pods…. If they are in international waters, getting supplies will be a royal pain in the ass and none of them look storm-worthy. I’d rather not have coast guard personnel have risk their lives to save people deliberately trying not to pay them….
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:14 AM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I love how this only mentions a handful of the libertarian sea-steading disasters, because oh yes, there are more. The Satoshi was maybe the third ship bought for those purposes? And there was a different attempt at floating housing from a group who also, along with the libertarian requirements, decided if a woman joined, they had to agree to share sexual favors equally among all the men (because of course). That group fell apart not only because none of them knew a lick about boats or supply chains, but also because no one could get a woman to join and, bonus, it turned out one of them had a secret girlfriend back in San Francisco that he was "withholding". (She's doing much better now, engaged to a friend of mine, which is how I heard about that one). Plus, let's not forget about Galt's Gulch, Chile!

Really, any time I think I've done something tremendously idiotic, reading about libertarian exit attempts picks me right back up. At least I'm not being chased by bears (like in Grafton).

More here if you want it.
posted by foxtongue at 7:17 AM on November 27, 2023 [26 favorites]

Really, any time I think I've done something tremendously idiotic, reading about libertarian exit attempts picks me right back up. At least I'm not being chased by bears (like in Grafton).

I was going to just put the applause emoji (U+1F44F) here, but it looked so crappy I'm writing this instead.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:45 AM on November 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

But XLII was also a “big [middle] finger . . . to all those out there who want to control other people’s lives through force,” Elwartowski declared in a YouTube video. By early February, the team was cracking the champagne and streaming live to a Seasteading Institute party in San Francisco.

I cannot think of a more damning indictment of the city of San Francisco.
posted by slogger at 7:59 AM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

There is something truly refreshing about watching cryptobros and libertarian jackasses get taken for all their money. So often in today's world we are denied the opportunity to witness and appreciate the downfall of someone truly worthy of that downfall. They always have an obnoxious tendency to be sympathetic.

But not the bitcoiners, sea stedders, shipstedders, Chilean land criminals, and all the other glorious collection of people who so richly deserve to be stripped of all their money that gather under the banner of crypto and libertarianism.

It would doubtless horrify them and violate their libertarian sensibilities to know that their very existence and fleecing has provided a valuable public service.
posted by sotonohito at 8:14 AM on November 27, 2023 [13 favorites]

It's a fascinating article, even for something wrapped up in the general weirdness and flabbergasting incompetence surrounding all things crypto; the mercenary guy seems to have been much more interested in getting into the Thai sex tourism scene via soaking this rich paranoid guy than actually performing any dirty deeds done dirt cheap (or not so cheap). Still, I wonder if there will be any repercussions for this Koch guy for even considering to any degree the assassination of an admiral.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:18 AM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Have we so soon forgotten the Google barges? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_barges
posted by wenestvedt at 8:28 AM on November 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I kind of want the Coen brothers to make this movie.
posted by eirias at 8:28 AM on November 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

I was a little confused as I was googling around these events until I discovered that Supranee Thepdet goes by the alias "Nadia Summergirl" in some news articles (and Ryan North's "How to Take Over the World")

And "Joe Quirk" has to be a pseudonym, c'mon
posted by edward_5000 at 8:32 AM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

If they are in international waters, getting supplies will be a royal pain in the ass

But each pod comes with a "wearable smart ring" that will summon "drones" for automated "food deliveries".

Why do libertarians always assume there's an inexhaustable labor force of robots whenever they embark on one of these fanciful escapes from the rest of the world?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:57 AM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

...well, one reason is that historically (cf. the Phoenix Foundation) they've planned to rely on actual slave labor, which has recently fallen somewhat out of favor, so they need to elide the slaves and replace them with "robots" (but which will actually still be slave labor).

Libertarians are almost universally Neo-Feudalists who just can't admit it.
posted by aramaic at 9:06 AM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

But each pod comes with a "wearable smart ring" that will summon "drones" for automated "food deliveries".

Yeah, but… even if you can get a grocer to load your shopping robot, won’t you run into trouble regularly shipping things into international waters? No one cares that much about food on a short cruise, but if you are living there and passing a national boundary every time you buy groceries, won’t Customs get involved?
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:52 AM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

This article was just stuffed with deliciously awful people. The only thing that protected them from each other is their incompetence and the actual difficulty of arranging murders for hire.

Libertarians are almost universally Neo-Feudalists who just can't admit it.

Right. The rendered views of the sea pods were pretty in a speculative-fiction way. But the thing is, when people live like that in SF/F stories, it's generally a signal that they're on top of a corrupt system powered by some kind of Torment Nexus. In the past, people who tried to achieve this kind of life sometimes didn't understand or believe that, or at least they didn't want to admit it. Now, though, they tend to be more open about it, like those FTX guys who thought they'd just buy Vanuatu and move there.
posted by Countess Elena at 10:20 AM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

... The shade of Tom Sharpe stirs, surveys the story, chuckles approvingly and returns to slumber ...
posted by BCMagee at 10:25 AM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

For anyone else who just can’t get enough of this sort of thing, in 2021 Behind the Bastards did a delightful two-part episode on “The not at all sad history of libertarian sea nations”. iHeart links below:

Part One

Part Two
posted by Suedeltica at 10:33 AM on November 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

"Cue Captain Renault: 'I'm shocked, shocked.....!"

You rang?
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:54 AM on November 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Why do libertarians always assume there's an inexhaustable labor force of robots whenever they embark on one of these fanciful escapes from the rest of the world?

I believe posting this is obligatory?
posted by Clever User Name at 11:18 AM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

You rang?

How shocked, on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being only surprised, and10 being mortally shocked, are you, Capt. Renault?
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:32 AM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Ask Monsieur Rick.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:39 AM on November 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

Also, those sea pods…. If they are in international waters, getting supplies will be a royal pain in the ass and none of them look storm-worthy

When I was googling around to see if they ever released the promised report on the one that sank, I discovered that the designs that actually exist in the world (i.e. the one that sank) aren't designed to work in water deeper than 25m. Probably not a lot of international waters that meet this criteria. Which is probably for the best, as that tripod design apparently relies on an active/powered pumping system that constantly adjusts ballast tanks in each spar; good luck relying on that working indefinitely in international waters...

(I have to admit, if these things actually worked and had less of a libertarian hellscape thing going on, I would be pretty fascinated; probably something to do with being of the generation that watched SeaQuest 2032 at a formative age.)
posted by advil at 2:56 PM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]