Escape the poor people!
If you thought floating utopias were a thing of science-fiction... well, they are, but they might also soon become a reality. Development company The Seasteading Institute is in talks with the government of French Polynesia to go-ahead with Artisanopolis - a city that floats. Behold this artist's impression:
Impressive, eh? However, here is where it gets creepy AF. One of the main backers of the project is billionaire venture capitalist (and member of the Trump transition team) Peter Theil. Also, the American owed Seasteading Institute has admitted that the floating city wouldn't be great for the environment, stating that it wouldn't be "terribly radical at first" and was hoping French Polynesia would grant them "leeway" to not only build it, but also govern the island themselves.
This has led many to believe the floating island would become a tax haven for the mega rich, because come on... we're guessing homes on Artisanopolis won't be cheap. Suddenly the floating paradise starts to look like the mobile base of a James Bond villain. Or Donald Trump as we call them.
Speaking in an interview to the BBC, project leader Randolph Hencken added, “A lot of these things, while they’ve been discussed over camp fires, haven’t yet been selected. Our ultimate goal is to create space for any experiments... not exclusively libertarianism.” Holy shit.
Anyway, the whole thing creeps us out.