Insightful Review of Seasteading Book

Blogger Below Potential has posted a good, concise review of Joe and Patri’s new Seasteading book, calling it a “must-read” for conservatives, progressives and libertarians alike. It also mentions the politically confused, which is – if we’re honest – all of us.

 Technology rather than an Ideology

Seasteading is a technology for anybody to try their vision of society. Seasteaders are from all political spectrums – and some simply identify as politically confused. They share the conviction that experiments are the source of all progress and that humanity needs more experiments in governance. They have realised that arguing about politics is a waste of time and that trial and error is the way to go.

My first blog (if you don’t count LiveJournal) was called “Radical Ignorance” – an idea from Austrian economics referring to the impossibility of assigning probabilities to future events where human action is concerned. This outlook makes one more humble about what governments (armed with statisticians and other high priests of statecraft) can accomplish, but there is a risk of taking it too far, and giving up on trying new things collectively that might bring benefits. We might not make a colossal mistake, but we might fall… below potential.

Seasteading is one of the few ways out of this paradox. We can try to make a better future, but only after figuring out who “we” are, and what ideas we imagine have the best chance of working.