[endtime]

>I think you'll need several of them linked together before you get any useful testbed for government. Most systems of government can work at small scale. They don't break until you get lots of people. The whole thing should also wind up being more stable socially.

Agreed.

>They really need to be sovereign, or they're just big cruise ships. They need to have complete ownership of the platforms, which almost means they need to be donated.

No it doesn't. They can be sold, either as real estate or to groups of people who want to administrate them.

>Obviously sinking is a big risk. Make sure there are well-drilled emergency procedures, and that the links between platforms are such that one sinking will not bring down any others. And keep lifeboats and dual citizenship, so if it goes south you'll have somewhere to go when they pick you out of the ocean.

Obviously the people moving there should educate themselves on whether the platforms are resilient to turbulent weather. They can bring their own safety equipment (lifeboats, etc.) or perhaps the owner/seller of the platform will include it as part of the rental/sale arrangement. These aren't hard problems to solve without some kind of centralized paternalist entity. Maintaining dual citizenship seems like it could be a good idea - potentially high benefit (if it doesn't work out or you don't like it) for low cost (unless your country requires you to pay income tax on money not earned there).

[andrewflnr]

I guess the new government will need som starting funding anyway, and buying platforms may as well be part of the startup expenses. And yes, citizen self-education will be very important.