Building a new society on a free floating platform in the high seas
seasteading.org
seasteading.org
Patri Friedman, founder of seasteading
Fishing would be mandatory for food and greenhouses would certainly be required, and preferably a well implemented vertical farming operation could do wonders. However, unless the scale is huge it would be difficult to become self-sufficient, especially if providing meat via cattle/pigs. Chickens are relatively easy to keep in higher densities and would likely provide a good supply of protein, providing you have the room to have the graze; incidentally, chickens are only generally destructive of grasses around their nest-site (where the chicken coop is) and are excellent pest controls. Without natural predators and with clipped wings, chickens could be allowed to forage in any open gardens. You'd be required to introduce worms, certain bugs and beetles, and bees anyway, so they'd provide supplementary nutrition to your chickens (free of cost and the chickens are a form of organic pesticide).
The economy would likely have to have a vertically integrated economy. Basically, you either need to seduce a whale (rich person/celebrity/etc) who'll spend money on services you're providing for a few benefits (major privacy), or you'll have to net tourists and take their money, or you'll have to have a huge export industry, likely through fishing. If you're choosing the latter, you might as well buy out or establish a fishing platform and work from there. It's been well established that oceanic platforms can act as their own man-made reef, encouraging fish growth in their area. Essentially, a well designed platform could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
And the design of larger scale spar platforms is under way. The Seasteading Institute did raise a half million dollars from Peter Thiel, so they have some backing.
I share his views insofar as this is internet ideology run amok without much consideration towards social equality and similar aspects.
Consider the idea of 'coaststeads': How is this different from simple tax evasion? The idea does not seem to have the coaststeaders sleep on their ships - they simple commute there in order to evade regulation.
http://seasteading.org/seastead.org/new_pages/dynamic_geogra...
Basically, he postulates that the reason current governments suck is that there is a high barrier of entry into the industry and a high cost for consumers to switch providers. But a ruler of an archipelago of seasteads who passed an unpopular law might wake up to find all the residents have moved their platforms. Seasteading puts competitive pressure on the government industry and provides incentives to govern wisely.
Also see Patri's Econ Talk podcast:
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2008/10/patri_friedman.html
http://seasteading.org/book_beta/Alternative%20Strategies.ht...
Actually their plans are very well thought out. (And apparently you didn't read them before you decided to critique.)
Basing a platform on the principle of a Spar Buoy gives them immunity to just about any rogue wave or tidal wave nature, given enough clearance. Their larger designs could ride those out, while most buildings on an island would be toast.
Also, nature's not making new sovereign islands at a particularly useful rate.
Unfortunately, Tonga claimed the island and kicked them out.
Generally, some nation will come and take it from you. Wolf Hilbertz developed an technique to electrically accrete limestone out of sea water and was using it to build a micronation, but it was almost certain that it would be seized by Mauritius when it broke surface.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saya_de_Malha_Bank#Artificial_i...