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THE COMING OF FLOATING CITIES

This is one of those days, Friday, no less, when a range of issues and events is coming to conclusion:

  • The most immediate is that Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all counts.
  • The FDA is close to approving boosters for all adults.
  • House will vote today on the $1.85 trillion social welfare package.  Next, on to the Senate.
  • Last year hardly anyone caught the seasonal flu.  This year the H3N2 virus has made a strong return. 
    • This was the Hong Kong Flu in 1968/9 and Fujian Flu of 2003/4.
    • 90% of all flu cases so far this year linked to H3N2.
    • College campuses, in particular, have shown outbreaks.
    • While the positivity rate for the flu remains low today at 0.3%, it is 37% at the University of Michigan and 30% at Florida State.  77% of UofM cases were to students who did not get the flu shot this fall.
    • This will only get worse into February.
    • Who knew that the positivity rate for the seasonal flu was 17% for the U.S. in 2019, but only 0.15% last year.
    • Not only that, but the flu hospitalization rate was 66 per 100,000 in 2019 and only 0.8 per 100,000 in 2020.  This COVID-19 pandemic has educated the nation.
    • The annual flu shot I took covers H3/N2, but the problem is that this virus mutates faster than all the other strains.
  • Cooler weather, reduction in mask-wearing and schools are causing yet another wave of COVID-19 cases:
  • For the historical record, COVID-19 patient one was a Wuhan animal market vendor on December 11, 2019.
  • Austria is the first European country to announce a national vaccine mandate.  They are today leading the world in new cases/million population, at 1683 yesterday.  Still by far #1 in new cases, the USA figure yesterday was 298/million.
  • Shohei Ohtani unanimously was selected as the American League Most Valuable Player.  Bryce Harper was the National League selectee.
  • Six days to Thanksgiving.

Wikipedia shows several individuals and organizations capable of designing floating cities:  Vincent Callebaut,[6][7] Paolo Soleri[8] and companies such as Shimizu, Ocean Builders[9] and E. Kevin Schopfer.[10]  Interestingly enough L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, also developed a maritime-based community named the Sea Org in 1967 and visited international ports.  It is now essentially defunct.

The Millennial Project, Marshall Savage's 1992 book, has larger dreams than mine:
  • Aquarius:  build arcologies in the tropical oceans using OTEC to generate income and learn how to build colonies.  My imaginations stops here.
  • Bifrost:  propel objects into orbit using Waverider, a ground-based free-electron laser system.
  • Asgard:  space station in geosynchronous orbit.
  • Avalon:  colonies on the moon to create mini ecologies.

  • Elysium:  transform Mars connected to Earth by a transit system.
  • Solaria:  mine asteroids to create Asgard-like stations throughout the Solar System.
  • Galactica:  colonize the solar system, and expand to level 3 on the Kardashev scale.

The 66-year old Savage has had a colorful life in college and business, and apparently has moved to Idaho, where, best as I can tell, he is now cogitating.  If available, I would include him in any grand thoughts about the Blue Revolution. 

More recently the Seasteading Institute sent me some information about their collaboration with Singaporean Shiwen Yap (left on the left, with Lim Son Heng) and FlexBase of the Netherlands, founded by Jan Willem Roel, on what looks like the first floating city.  Read Yap's thoughts captured in Floating parks can help enhance Singapore's garden city environment and position the country as a leader of the growing blue economy:

  • He cites the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as estimating that the the $1.5 trillion ocean contribution to the world economy should double to $3 trillion.  
  • The World Wildlife Fund estimates our marine assets having a value of $24 trillion.
  • Singapore now has a population of 5.6 million, and is expected to grow to 6.9 million in 2030.
    • Their location over the equator means no typhoons and a higher ocean surface temperature.  If they can find access to deep sea cold water OTEC can provide power.
    • Their most promising future is offshore, and with major maritime capabilities, can build their way to greater prominence.
    • Lim Soon Heng, President of the Society of Floating Solutions in Singapore, estimated that their very large floating structure concept could eventually be built for as low as $221/sq meter with a service life of 50 years.
    • When you add the growing significance of Green Bonds, a debt instrument to finance ecologically sustainable climate and environmental projects, this blue-green pathway looks good.
In Europe, there is FlexBase of the Netherlands, from an article by Joe Quirk of the Seasteading Institute:
  • The jurisdiction of FlexBase, founded in 2013, is marine urbanization.
  • Currently raising capital for their seed round, with a portfolio of projects in Europe, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
  • They built the Floating Pavilion of Rotterdam.
  • A big problem internationally is that there are no regulations for floating structures.
  • Their material of choice is a proprietary expanded polystyrene-concrete hybrid to build the pontoons, which could be as much as 60% cheaper.  A good part of this material is recycled.
  • They also hope to help sites with sea level rise problems.
  • Their mission statement is:  Living with, not fighting, water.
So on the one hand we have the galactic vision of Savage and the coastal concept of Singapore on the other.  The Seasteading Institute wants to minimize the influence of big government by using the open ocean and is pursuing their plan to help coordinate these marine expansions.  Blue Revolution Hawaii is in the mix with our plans for the 2030 Pacific International Ocean Station as phase one, and a floating city in 2050 as our final planning stage.
Introduced in my TEDx talk on December 11 will be the Pacific International Ocean System, a floating platform to be positioned in the Hawaiian EEZ to nurture marine technology development initiatives for the Blue Revolution.  Operation is projected to be in 2030.  Then, plans are for a floating city in 2050 to host the World Expo that year.

From OZY:

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