Re: Atlantis Project/Oceania

"I'm not sure their economics can float that well either - if it costs
$500M to build, and holds 1000 people, that means $500K/person....
Maybe they're looking at more people or less money.
Nice T-Shirts and promo material, though."
......................

Does it not seem that they are putting more effort into the publicity, 
marketing, & attraction of money for support of this virtual country, 
than into the establishment of other fundamentals?  Like: setting up an 
alternative currency & banking system, the manner of conducting 
business with the rest of the conventional world, and resolving the 
many little problems that would be of concern when living under such 
conditions?

Blanc

Blanc Weber <blancw@microsoft.com> wrote:

> Does it not seem that they are putting more effort into the publicity,
> marketing, & attraction of money for support of this virtual country,
> than into the establishment of other fundamentals?  Like: setting up
> an alternative currency & banking system...

I thought that's what cypherpunks were supposed to be doing... :-)

> ... the manner of conducting business with the rest of the conventional
> world, and resolving the many little problems that would be of
> concern when living under such conditions?

All they said on the subject was that the government would be on the
gold standard and everyone else could use whatever currency they wanted.

As for the other little problems, I'd guess they haven't got a clue. 
However, they did hire an architect who is experienced in building
floating structures, so I guess he's considered those things, ya know
like fresh water and electricity.  You could drop them an email and
ask...

On Mon, 7 Feb 1994, Blanc Weber wrote:

> 
> Does it not seem that they are putting more effort into the publicity, 
> marketing, & attraction of money for support of this virtual country, 
> than into the establishment of other fundamentals?  Like: setting up an 

They have a rather complete constitution, legal system, etc. Monetary
systems would likely appear as needed. Most businesses would likely
take all major currencies - good market for a bank to get into.

Business relations with the rest of the world? This isn't in general
specified in advance in any country, and why should it be? The only
real rule I've seen is making it illegal (for good reason) to export
drugs (eg. recreational drugs, synthesized for use on the island)
to countries where they are illegal.

Besides, since they moeny is far more important on this project than
vague untested notions of how everything should work (hey isn't
that how communist countries are set up?) in advance, they have
been doing quite well. I wish them all the luck I can spare, and
plan to pick up a t-shirt (if only for being able to tell people
about it in 100 years or so...) or a flag...

> alternative currency & banking system, the manner of conducting 
> business with the rest of the conventional world, and resolving the 
> many little problems that would be of concern when living under such 
> conditions?

How much government intervention do you see in your day to day
affairs? Personally, I see virtually nil... Free-market's tend
to sort themselves out quite nicely...

> Blanc

-Oliver (who's not waiting for somebody else to build him a country, and
is instead doing whatever it takes to get the same effect now)

| Oliver Seiler          + Erisian Development Group +  Amiga Developer  +
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