An emerging area of innovative social, technological and architectural development is seasteading, the research and development of cities, businesses, and other settlements at sea. As the burgeoning population of the world quickly fills the available land mass, our oceans represent the best and most accessible open frontier. The blue frontier is one where forward-thinking individuals and organizations will one day live and work on floating cities, free from spatial, legal, social, economic, political and other land-based constraints.

One of the leading proponents of seasteading is The Seasteading Institute, based in San Francisco. According to their website, the Seasteading Institute’s “role is not to build seasteads ourselves, but to set the stage in order to empower others to do so. Our program therefore focuses on business development, engineering and legal research, political and industry diplomacy and building a community of aspiring seasteaders.”

Currently, The Seasteading Institute is running a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo for their ongoing Floating City Project. Here’s a video for it:

The proceeds of the indiegogo campaign will fund an engineering study from Dutch “water-based urban development” firm, DeltaSync.

Here’s a BBC video in which seasteading and DeltaSync are featured:

The blue frontier is coming, and it may actually be our first step toward space settlement, as many of the challenges and opportunities of space development require similar holistic frameworks of research, development and innovation. Check out The Seasteading Institute’s site for more information.