A core structural feature of current models of government is centralization. Too much centralized authority leads to inefficient bureaucracies and representatives disconnected from the people they are meant to serve. Given a suitable technological solution, governments are ripe for decentralization. That technological solution is seasteading. Seasteading brings decentralization beyond the digital world of bits and into the world of atoms by providing modular, floating structures – seasteads – on which the evolution of new societies and forms of governance can occur. Promising solutions can branch off at any time by physically separating to create new seasteads – enabling a high level of evolvability and quick rate of adaptation. Mimicking nature’s time-tested method of variation and selection, the process of decentralizing governance through seasteading will spark the creation and evolution of new advancements in civilization. When our homes and businesses can float to locations we choose, we can relatively easily rearrange our cities and sail our residence to other locations. Governments will no longer have a monopoly on the space where citizens live and businesses conduct their commercial activities. Instead governments will need to act like service providers, competing to attract citizens and businesses. Consequently, we will have an ever-evolving marketplace for government in a decentralized world. Since 2008, Blue Frontiers precursor The Seasteading Institute has promoted the development of seasteads, new cities or settlements on the ocean. Supporters of this concept, “seasteaders,” have proposed moving to the sea – outside of territories controlled by existing governments – to establish new societies and to engage in new rules for government.
