Can we get Larry Ellison interested in this idea? He owns 98% of Lanai, the State owns very little and I have 1 lot. Just got to get the Maui cops off the island and we could be fairly self regulating, then just loosen their grip over us a little each year.

Good question. I don't have an answer, but if you could have a floating city, you could have one that seals completely and submerges.

Today there is no place to go to be able to both trade and avoid hostility from statist nations. Especially if the US goes under as a defense of civilization and dictators on the loose, there is no way for such a scheme to survive in a hostile world. It would be hard enough today with scope of US bureaucracy, such as the IRS, reaching everywhere.

The article refers to "floating" several times, but a fixed platform could be tried, too. Some past suggestions have treated the method explicitly as similar to cruise ships, which can move around and otherwise avoid destruction from hurricanes. The technology of estimating storm paths is well developed, cruise ships don't run for a harbor in a friendly nation, let alone submerge, every time there is a hurricane, and as dbhalling points out, tidal waves do not significantly affect the surface of the sea in deep water. The advocates are well aware of ocean conditions and know what is a problem and what is routinely dealt with. A little fishing boat lost and flipped in a fictionalized "perfect storm" isn't their concern. This isn't an obstructing "problem" for them, and is the least of what they would need to work out.

My understanding is they want them to be fixed, similar to oil platforms. The first experiments will be with converted ships, which could be moved.

Tidal waves are no problem. Tidal waves only build to great heights when they come against shallow water.

The way fish, whales, dolphins etc deal with hurricanes is to submerge.

My understanding is they're going to try to make them robust against conditions in the area where they build them, similar to how buildings in flood zone or where they have earthquakes are built to withstand them.

As with everything in engineering, it won't be perfect the first time.

I agree

Probably contacting a friendly Nation to anchor too.

I always hope that a series of Gulches of the future will crop up in the form of seasteads, communities in hospitable climates, under water or in outer space.

For a Gulch to thrive, IMHO, it should remote enough to make it hard for major powers to influence but not so remote as to make trade difficult. I imagine the Gulches feeling like the world gov'ts fail to respect their IP and the gov'ts feeling like the Gulches take their best and brightest without doing anything to deal with the world's criminals, lazy people, disabled people, etc.

I don't know if there is such a sweet spot that allows trade but makes it impractical for powerful institutions/gov'ts to exert influence.

I would definitely go on vacation to a Seasted. I have not contributed to these projects with money or free work, but I think I will contribute in some form at some point.