Aquaculture?
As we discuss sustainability and the landscapes that we live
in and design around, I am brought back to an old Joe Rogan podcast about
seasteading with Joe Quirk (it’s the joe rogan podcast, check it out!). We have
probably heard of this topic before from big names like Bjarke Ingles and his
Oceanix City, but there are organizations who are really looking in depth at
the possibility of living on the sea(Oceanix, Seasteading Institute, etc.).
Oceanix City design, BIG
How is this sustainable? Well, it might
not be, we don’t know yet. But it is an idea that is percolating across the
world as sea levels rise and we prepare for the next step in humanity.
Obviously, sea level rise is inevitable, we can and are trying to kick the rock
down the road with sustainable design and lowering carbon emissions, but it is happening, and cities are seeing the effects. So, these seasteaders have looked at the idea of living on
the water in dense populations in substitution of living on land. Some of their
research and solutions that they have come to for sustainability at sea
include, aquaculture as the new agriculture. They say that we have pushed
agriculture to its limits on land and we have an opportunity to take it to our
oceans through a blue revolution of oceanic farming technology with natural
elements like ocean algae.
Seaweed farming by Aquafarms+ founder, Dr. Ricardo Radulovich in Costa Rica
I won’t go into the specifics of all of this, rather
I will just provide a link to the sustainability of aquaculture and the
Seasteading Institutes research into sustainability and let everyone interest
themselves with the joe rogan podcast episode with Joe Quirk and the research
behind it all. Also, a link to this modular design of land pods and sea pods that the seasteaders have used as a design feat to their idea.
https://ocean.builders/
Obviously, this topic of living on sea is a bit less conventional then designing within the landscape like we traditionally do; I would say its about as radically opposite of designing naturally as we can get. But it is very much responsive to a major challenge we have. As we look at possibilities in the future of design like this and how we address space with light, sound, touch, etc. we need to be attentive of how these elements mold together with technological advancements. How does aquatic design make people feel? Is water still a soothing ambiance when your living on it? I think that water starts to take the place that land does for us today, and land becomes that large body of unknown that we look out and wonder about. This is just one example of sustainable design and the challenges that we may face in the future as we look at how people live. A lot of this idea of living on water seems crazy to me and a distant radical, but I do ponder the thought of it as intriguing and the way that we design atmospheres to be challenged when we get there.
I would like to say the fact you did not bring up Kevin Kostner and the movie Waterworld is sad. I sometimes ponder this question, even since I was young and I watched Waterworld; Why did man not populate the oceans? In my mind, this question becomes this what if game that plays with what we invent. For instance, what if cars initially were invented to be electric? At the time it made sense, considering we were still conquering AC to DC power conversions and it was a large focus at the time of the invention of the car.
ReplyDeleteTo get back on topic, I feel that for humanity to feel inclined to live on the ocean, they would have to get over one of the principal fears we all face. Being unaware. From a physical standpoint the oceans are some of the most unique biomes on our planet, and there are still so many unanswered questions. With that being said, I do agree with you, there is no way to know until we try.
Also we all would have to get our own "Wilson" to take out to sea.