Forget Colonizing Space, Oceans Are Our New Frontier

Do you dream of living on Mars? Walking your Labradoodle on the green planet, fraternizing with your Martian neighbors, wearing those big glass helmets and floating in space.

We might have taken this from a page in a sci-fi novel, but the truth bis, people have been imagining about living on another planet for a very long time. Space expeditions are being sent all the time and scientists are looking for other planets like our Earth, that will help us sustain life and live it better. But before we take to the skies, maybe we should think of another surface on this planet that we could house on.

San Francisco's Seasteading Institute is looking to the world's oceans for both inspiration and solutions: could floating cities become areas of potentially self-governed technological and scientific exploration while also acting as a viable solution to the ever-growing problem of over-population?

As it floats now, the first step towards this concept will be a small one; a coastal community built in the waters of French Polynesia with 300 inhabitants, with a tentative move-in date of 2020.

The non-profit institute has spent almost a decade wishing that 1995 Kevin Costner movie had never been released, because it stand in their way of selling the idea of “special economic seazone”. If things go as planned, the Seasteading Institute is foreshadowing a future that will have thousands of these floating ocean communities and cities by 2050.

For all we know, it has already begun, albeit in the form of a liveable yachts” with luxury interiors and stilts that anchor and stabilize the homes during storms. Each floating house’s 4,350 square footage can be customized to its owner’s desires. They also are also pretty environmentally friendly, powered completely by solar panels on their roofs and equipped with systems that collect and purify rainwater.