Wired: “Silicon Valley is Letting Go of its Techie Island Fantasies”

In a 2009 essay, Thiel described these island paradises as a potential escape from politics in all its forms. It wasn’t just desirable, he said. It seemed possible. We may have reached the stage at which it is economically feasible, or where it will soon be feasible, he wrote.

More than a half-decade later, the dream has yet to be realized. And optimism is starting to waver. Earlier this year, during a talk at George Mason University, Thiel said, I’m not exactly sure that I’m going to succeed in building a libertarian utopia any time soon. Part of the problem: A truly self-sufficient society might exceed the range even of Thiel’s fortune. You need to have a version where you could get started with a budget of less than $50 billion, he said.

Kyle Denuccio

If you thought the ‘island’ in the title is some kind of metaphor, think again! As megalomania goes, this is not even a particularly original idea, going back at least a century to Jules Verne’s novel Propeller Island. I guess it at least explains some of the more eccentric scenes in HBO’s show Silicon Valley…

DeltaSync Octopus City. The Seasteading Institute