We learned to make use of inflatable structures. What began as simple temporary structures on land eventually became very seaworthy dwellings.

Going underwater seems expensive and impractical. Water pressure kills, you need vast amounts of power, sunlight gets cut off quickly, etc. Let’s leave that to another team.

Short of wholesale terraforming, the seasteading possibility space seems to be bracketed by souped-up cruise ships (the troubled Freedomship project), large floating cities (the LilyPad and Ecoboot concepts) and totally DIY projects held together with baling wire and spit (Spiral Island). Web Urbanist has a terrific post summarizing what’s out there.

I’m picturing something more like connected rafts that are allowed to move with the water. Hinges that connect the rafts also collect energy. Underwater pens divided by osmotic membranes slowly filter potable water from the ocean (I know, it’s not that simple; can’t we get one wish granted?).

On top of these rafts, anything is possible.

Want to cancel wave motion? Gimbals/motion sensors/whatever you can invent. Want to raft together many elements to create a city? Go ahead. Prefer to live in small groups? Link small.

The rafts need some sort of power, so they can stay on station or move about. Clearly they’ll need to survive major weather. What else?

The idea is that it’s 2019 and five different crises have struck: a respiratory epidemic, a breakdown in the food supply chain, alternative fuel wars, massive network hacking and waves of climate and economic refugees. You can see videos describing all these on the Superstruct site.

The Raftify project seeks to build stable waterborne settlements: rafts that are more than merely habitable, but are actually fun, safe, inviting places to live. What would that take?

And what businesses might that drive?

We’ll weave into other Superstruct projects as we help them or they help us. For now, let’s get to work!