Paypal co-founder to build a city on the sea

[cali]

Imagine living on a serene, man-made floating city where you can live and work with other like-minded individuals from all over the globe, without direct influence from any government entity. If Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel has his way, that wild idea may be just a few years away. The wealthy venture capitalist is putting his money behind Blueseed, a company that promises to create an offshore luxury barge where young entrepreneurs can work, live, and socialize, all without the constraints of a modern city — or pesky immigration laws.

The Blueseed vessel will be more of a floating city than an actual ship, and will come complete with work and living spaces, outdoor areas, and sports and leisure activities. The idea is that startups and solo entrepreneurs will leave their terrestrial lives almost completely, and call the Blueseed ship their primary home.


Entrepreneurs and startups must apply to be considered for a spot on Blueseed. If they are approved, they will pay roughly $1,600 per month to live and work on the massive barge. This price may be split between a rental payment and equity in fledgling companies with bright futures, depending on the situation.

<snip>

If the project sounds absolutely crazy, well, it kind of is. But it's also unlike anything ever attempted before, and the idea of a floating business hub might just be wild enough for the world to take notice. Blueseed plans to launch its mini-city towards the end of 2013. If all goes according to plan, who knows, Blueseed may spark a whole new category of business real estate among the waves

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/paypal-co-founder-to-build-a-city-on-the-sea.html

http://www.blueseed.co/faq.html

[ananda]

1. Eugenics.

Ick

[onehandle]

2. Sign me up. I'll run the city's shotgun store.

Because after a while, that's what it would come to.

No, I said nothing about zombies.

[cali]

9. .....

[arcane1]

3. If one has to "apply to be considered for a spot on Blueseed"

isn't that basically an immigration law?

[Enrique]

4. will John Galt be there?

[riderinthestorm]

18. That's exactly what I immediately thought too! Sounds way too much like Atlas Shrugged nt

[leveymg]

5. Sounds like the Cayman Islands, but way downscale. Ah, barge living . . . now, that's the life.

[yesphan]

13. Is that a glenn beck book

the guy is reading ?

[Speck Tater]

6. The 1% flees to their refuge from the 99%

The elite will live in their floating cities and the rest of us slaves will be confined to our labor camps.

Sounds vaguely familiar. I'm sure I've seen half a dozen science fiction books on the subject.

In fact, the book/Movie "Things to Come" sure rings a bell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come
OR more recently, Hunger Games.

[katsy]

7. a libertarian dream.

I'll boycott anything they have to sell.

[snooper2]

8. I would be tempted to take a really good size ship to it,

Hook up in the middle of the night and start towing them towards the arctic

[Erose999]

15. If you tow them to the arctic the current will eventually carry them back. Tow them to the middle of

the Pacific where the water is completely still. You want the point farthest from any land.

http://toolserver.org/~geohack/geohack.php?pagename=R%27lyeh&params=47_9_S_126_43_W_type:city_region:XP_scale:30000000&title=R%27lyeh+fictional+location+%28Lovecraft%29

With any luck Cthulu will just gobble them up and add their wealth to his hoarde in the sunken city of R'yleh.

[cali]

10. it sounds like some kind of regulation and tax dodge

What taxes will I have to pay?

While Blueseed doesn't collect taxes, any Blueseed resident will have to ensure they comply with all laws, regulations, and tax liabilities that apply to them or their firms, given their legal residence in the country whose flag Blueseed will fly (Bahamas, Marshall Islands etc.).

If you are a U.S. Citizen, or U.S. resident alien meeting the substantial presence test, your worldwide income is subject to U.S. income tax, regardless of where you reside, unless you show proof that you maintain a tax home in a foreign country. You may also qualify for foreign earned income exclusion of an amount up to $95,100 as of 2012.

For more information, please consult with your tax professional.

[Erose999]

11. Its already been tried...

I've got some dying tomato plants I'll donate to their cause, and I could probably be persuaded to donate a few jugs of fresh piss too.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

22. Is the Exxon Valdez out there running amok with smokers?

"You're like a turd that just won't flush."

Am I the only one who enjoyed that movie?

[hughee99]

12. Gee, a bunch of young, wealthy entrepreneurs in a floating city with no laws?

and a very tight immigration policy (as someone else mentioned, if you have to apply and be accepted to live there, there IS a policy)? Some enterprising young drug dealer is going to make an ASSLOAD of money there.

[MineralMan]

14. Sounds more like BlueSky than BlueSeed.

Someone's always coming up with an idea similar to this. None are ever built. But, hey! Sign up now and get your deposit in before it's too late!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. And where will the 99% live?

Maybe on an archipelago of rusted stinking oil freighters, anchored downwind. The cooks, cleaners, bartenders, barbers, tailors, prostitutes, welders, painters, they will commute to this idyllic little barge.

Like the mainland Cancun City that provides staff for the ritzy Cancun resorts, or the outlying suburbs that supply workers for the rich residents of Venice, some sort of floating neighborhood with fewer amenities will need to form.

Hopefully far enough from Blueseed City so that the swells need not see, hear, or smell the hoi polloi.

Oh, well, Bon Voyage!

[suffragette]

20. Similar to the corporate domes in "He, She, and It"

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-12-01/entertainment/9104180258_1_yod-golem-characters

In ``He, She and It,`` America has been roughly divided into three parts. Corporate dome cultures provide home and workplace for privileged technocrats. Underworld life inhabits the ``Golp,`` a sprawling wreckage of urban megapolis.

[malaise]

17. Can't wait for one of these to settle all scores

The biggest wave ever recorded measures in at 1740ft

[suffragette]

19. Anything to escape responsibility to the society from which they benefit

[Zalatix]

21. How long before the pirates sink that boat?

Better yet, let's get the world's 1% all in that one place and then surround them with warships to block food shipments.

Bye bye John Galt!!!

[Erose999]

24. Depends on how many pirates they can fit on it.

[Retrograde]

23. If press releases were construction equipment

This would already be built by now. Thiel's been re-proclaiming this for a few years now.

About the "just get a tourist or business visa" - I know someone who was deported after playing visa loophole games for several years. Immigration keeps track of and gets rather suspicious of numerous comings and goings.

[rug]

25. These are not my likeminded people.

Another reason not to use Paypal.

[Robb]

26. Survival strategy as old as the crannog.

Notably unsustainable.

See also: Harmesh Pooni.

[thelordofhell]

27. Can they be towed to Somalia?

[hifiguy]

28. May the tsunami quickly find them.

Lotsa luck holding the force of nature back with money. See ya round, chumps.

[JoePhilly]

29. Make them sign something indicating that if they start to sink, no one should come elp them.

[LiberalFighter]

30. Rough seas?

Pirates?
High prices?

[KamaAina]

31. He's going to anchor it twelve miles off Half Moon Bay?

(so as to be outside U.S. territorial waters)

Hope he likes cold and fog. All the time. Even when it clears back to the coast.

Also, he'd better be ready to chopper or ferry people up to SiliValley or The City: bus service to Half Moon Bay is spotty and time-consuming.

[stevenleser]

32. A city doesnt work without the 99% and that is why this cannot succeed.

Who will cook and serve meals, clean living and working spaces, cart away garbage, launder and dry clean clothes, landscape any green areas, staff the leisure centers, install/repair electronics and other items, etc.

And when that is figured out, where will 'those people' live, and who will pay them and what fun is offered to them and their families?

[zipplewrath]

33. They keep inventing this concept

http://oceania.org/

And this guy now is doing "life boat".

http://lifeboat.com/ex/about

[Brother Buzz]

34. I think Forbes Kiddoo's vision and economy of scale was where it was at

Forbes Kiddoo is long gone, but I had fond memories of him and his dream.
Today, the damn thing is a restaurant over at pier 39, San Francisco