Ephemerisle is an annual week-long gathering every July on the water in the Sacramento Delta of California, United States.
Several hundred attendees come together to form various "islands" made up of boats, rafts, docks, and barges. [1] [2] The attendees are a mix of burners, sailors, "delta rats", libertarians, and techies. [1] [3] Ephemerisle has no tickets and no central leadership. [1] The one universally agreed upon rule is "no dying". [1]
Ephemerisle has been called Burning Man on the Water, [4] but there is no official connection between the two events.
Ephemerisle was founded in 2009 by the Seasteading Institute to promote their ideas of autonomous communities in international waters. Patri Friedman, co-founder of the Seasteading Institute, was inspired by Burning Man to create Ephemerisle. [5] With its ethos of libertarianism, Ephemerisle has been described as "a celebration of laissez-faire life" which would "give people the direct experience of political autonomy". [6]
Michael "Danger Ranger" Mikel, one of the co-founders of Burning Man, attended the first Ephemerisle. As the creator of Burning Man's internal safety force, he wanted to avoid Ephemerisle becoming "Burning Man with drowning". [7] Chicken John designed the central platform at the first year of Ephemerisle. [2]
After the first year, the Seasteading Institute gave up the event due to prohibitive insurance costs. [8]
In the first year, approximately two-thirds of Ephemerisle's 100-plus attendees were Seasteaders. [9] In 2012, there were approximately 300 attendees, a quarter of which were Seasteaders. [6] In 2015, there were an estimated 500 attendees. [2]
During the event, boats and other watercraft are connected together with planks, barrels, docks, cleats, and ropes, to form artificial islands on the water. Decks are decorated with banners, flags, and inflatable toys. From a distance, it has been described as resembling "a shapeless pile of floating junk". An attendee compared it to The Raft in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash . [6] Different portions of the Ephemerisle structure are designated islands, each with its own rules. [5] A portion of the event involves the initial construction of Ephemerisle as boats join the structure and floating platforms are built. The rest of the week, participants party, meditate, and give or attend lectures. [5]
A micronation is a political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from de facto states and quasi-states; they are also not considered to be autonomous or self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. The activities of micronations are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than disputed by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to in micronationalism as macronations. Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other state-related items, some as a source of revenue. Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity. The study of micronationalism is known as micropatriology or micropatrology.
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a neoclassical liberal political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The party was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.
David Fraser Nolan was an American activist and politician. He was one of the founders of the Libertarian Party of the United States, having hosted the meeting in 1971 at which the Party was founded. Nolan subsequently served the party in a number of roles including National Committee Chair, editor of the party newsletter, Chair of the By-laws Committee, Chair of the Judicial Committee, and Chair of the Platform Committee.
The word dock in American English refers to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships. In British English, the term is not used the same way as in American English, it is used to mean the area of water that is next to or around a wharf or quay. The exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language.
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In the Vietnam War, the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) (after May 1967), initially designated Mekong Delta Mobile Afloat Force, and later the Riverines, were a joint US Army and US Navy force that comprised a substantial part of the brown-water navy. It was modeled after lessons learned by the French experience in the First Indochina War of Dinassaut and had the task of both transport (of soldiers and equipment) and combat. The primary land base was at Đồng Tâm Base Camp, with a floating base which operated in the major rivers of the Mekong Delta. Soldiers and sailors went out in river boats from the floating base to assault the Viet Cong. During part of the 1968-69 period, there were two such mobile bases operating in different parts of the Delta, Mobile Riverine Groups Alpha and Bravo. The MRF played a key role in the Tet Offensive.
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A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily for regular dwelling. Most houseboats are not motorized, as they are usually moored or kept stationary, fixed at a berth, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. However, many are capable of operation under their own power.
Operation Atlantis was a project started by Werner Stiefel in 1968 aiming to establish a new, libertarian nation in international waters. The operation launched a ferro-cement boat on the Hudson River in December 1971 and piloted it to an area near the Bahamas. Upon reaching its destination, it sank in a hurricane. After a number of subsequent failed attempts to construct a habitable sea platform and achieve sovereign status, the project was abandoned.
Franks Tract State Recreation Area (SRA) is a state park unit of California, United States, featuring a flooded area in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. It is accessible only by water. Franks Tract, and a smaller adjoining submerged property called "Little Franks Tract", are situated between the False River and Bethel Island. The recreation area is used primarily for fishing and waterfowl hunting, because of its exposure to frequent strong winds and fluctuating water levels. In times of high water, the entire site can be submerged except for portions of the old levees. The 3,523-acre (1,426 ha) park was established in 1959. It is managed from nearby Brannan Island State Recreation Area, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the northwest.
Very large floating structures (VLFSs) or very large floating platforms (VLFPs) are artificial islands, which may be constructed to create floating airports, bridges, breakwaters, piers and docks, storage facilities, wind and solar power plants, for military purposes, to create industrial space, emergency bases, entertainment facilities, recreation parks, mobile offshore structures and even for habitation. Currently, several different concepts have been proposed for building floating cities or huge living complexes. Some units have been constructed and are presently in operation.
Seasteading is the creation of permanent dwellings in international waters, so-called seasteads, that are independent of established governments. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sovereign state. Proposed structures have included modified cruise ships, refitted oil platforms, and custom-built floating islands.
Patri Friedman is an American libertarian, anarcho-capitalist, and theorist of political economy. He founded The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.
Ocean colonization is the exploitation, settlement or territorial claim of the ocean and the oceanic crust.
Blueseed is a Palo Alto, California-based startup accelerator. It began as a seasteading venture.
Dario Mutabdzija is an American entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, who co-founded the seed accelerator project Blueseed. He was previously Director of Legal Strategy at The Seasteading Institute. He is now head of business development at Israeli startup PayKey.
The Huguenot Yacht Club (HYC) is a private yacht club located on Neptune Island along New Rochelle Harbor in the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County, New York. The club offers a number of boating activities, including yacht racing, frostbiting, one-design sail boat racing, and junior sailing.
Established in 2013, the Dockville Regatta is a sailing regatta held annually on the first Saturday of August in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Referred to by most as simply “Dockville”, the event is widely known for the raucous party that takes place on the pier-head. There has never been an actual race at the Dockville Regatta, making it the longest standing regatta with no participants. This peculiar phenomenon caused the Dockville Regatta to become known as “the race that never left the dock”. Experts attribute the perpetual lack of maritime competition to the fact that patrons are generally more concerned with socializing with their peers and consuming alcoholic beverages.
Ocean development refers to the establishing of human activities at sea and use of the ocean, as well as its governance.
The Seasteading Institute(TSI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed to facilitate the establishment of autonomous, mobile communities on seaborne platforms operating in international waters (a proposed practice called seasteading). It was founded by Wayne Gramlich and Patri Friedman on April 15, 2008.