American libertarian activist and theorist of political economy
Patri Friedman (born July 29, 1976) is an American
libertarian ,
anarcho-capitalist ,
[1] and theorist of
political economy .
[2] He founded
The Seasteading Institute , a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Early life and education
Named after family friend
Patri Pugliese ,
[6] Friedman grew up in
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania , and is a graduate of
Upper Merion Area High School , class of 1994, where he went by the name Patri Forwalter-Friedman. He graduated from
Harvey Mudd College in 1998, and went on to
Stanford University to obtain his master's degree in computer science. He also holds an MBA from
New York Institute of Technology .
[7] He worked as a software engineer at Google.
[8]
[9] As a poker player, he cashed in the
World Series of Poker four times.
[10]
The Seasteading Institute
Friedman was executive director of
The Seasteading Institute , founded in 2008, with a half-million-dollar donation from venture capitalist
Peter Thiel .
[11] The institute's mission is "to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems".
[12]
[13] This was initially a part-time project – one day a week while working as a
Google engineer the rest of the time
[8] – but Friedman left Google on July 29, 2008, to spend more time on
seasteading .
[14] He and partner Wayne C. Gramlich hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the
San Francisco Bay by 2010.
[15]
[16] At the October 2010 Seasteading social, it was announced that current plans were to launch a seastead by 2014.
[17]
Since attending the
Burning Man festival in 2000, Friedman imagined creating a water festival called
Ephemerisle as a
Seasteading experiment and
Temporary Autonomous Zone . Through
The Seasteading Institute , Friedman was able to start the Ephemerisle festival in 2009, aided by TSI's James Hogan as event organizer and
Chicken John Rinaldi as chief builder. The first Ephemerisle is chronicled in a documentary by Jason Sussberg.
[18] Since 2010, the event has been annual and community-run.
[19]
Future Cities Development
On July 31, 2011, Friedman stepped down from the position as executive director of The Seasteading Institute, but remained
chairman of the board.
[20] Later, he co-founded the Future Cities Development Corporation, a project to establish a self-governing
charter city within the borders of
Honduras .
[21]
[22] In 2012, the Future Cities Development Corporation ceased operations.
[23]
Pronomos Capital
In 2019, Friedman founded Pronomos Capital, a venture capital firm whose purpose is to bankroll the construction of experimental cities on vacant tracts of land in developing countries. Like The Seasteading Institute, Pronomos Capital is backed by
Peter Thiel . Most of the cities will be aimed at foreign businesses seeking friendlier tax treatment.
[24]
Poker career
In 2000, Card Player Magazine suggested Patri Friedman might become a world champion.
[25] His winnings were as follows:
[26]
Year
World Series of Poker Tournament
Place
Prize
2002
$2,000 No Limit Hold'em
11th
$9,280
2004
$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship
165th
$15,000
2008
$2,500 No Limit Hold'em
24th
$17,351
2008
$10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship
640th
$21,230
Personal life
Patri is the grandson of Nobel Prize-winning economist
Milton Friedman
[27] and economist
Rose Friedman and son of economist and physicist
David D. Friedman .
[27]
[28] He has two children by his first wife. As of February 10, 2018, he is married to Brit Benjamin with whom he has one child.
[29] Patri and Brit are self-described
transhumanists and
rationalists , and they have arranged to be
cryonically preserved after their legal death.
[29]
[30]
References
^
"Seasteading Craziness in Thailand with Patri Friedman" . YouTube . May 31, 2019.
Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
^ McCullagh, David (February 2, 2009).
"The next frontier: 'Seasteading' the oceans" . CNET.
Archived from the original on March 24, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^ Bruder, Jessica (December 15, 2011).
"YOU'RE THE BOSS; Floating Incubator For Start-Ups" . New York Times .
Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^ Flock, Elizabeth (August 17, 2011).
"Peter Thiel, founder of Paypal, invests $1.24 million to create floating micro-countries" . Washington Post .
Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^ Miles, Jonathan (September 1, 2011).
"The Billionaire King of Techtopia" . Details.
Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^
"My namesake has a Wikipedia page" . Patri's Peripatetic Peregrinations.
Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013 .
^
"Building a commune in the middle of the ocean?Why" . Medium . April 15, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2023 .
^
a
b Bowles, Nellie (June 1, 2011).
"Patri Friedman makes waves with 'seasteading' plan" .
SFGate .
Archived from the original on November 4, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^ O'Connor, Clare (November 10, 2010).
"Names You Need To Know In 2011: Patri Friedman" . Forbes .
Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^
"Patri Forwalter-Friedman" . The Mob Poker Database. 2002–2008.
Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (April 28, 2008).
"Homesteading on the High Seas" .
Reason .
Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^ Madrigal, Alexis.
"Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies" . WIRED .
Archived from the original on March 21, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2017 .
^ Cooper, Charles (June 3, 2011).
"Ocean cities? So says Milton Friedman's grandson" . CBS News.
Archived from the original on December 15, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^
"More time for Seasteading – The Seasteading Institute" . The Seasteading Institute .
Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008 .
^ Frucci, Adam.
"Silicon Valley Nerds Plan Sea-Based Utopian Country to Call Their Own" . Gizmodo . Gawker Media. Archived from
the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved September 10, 2017 .
^
"Libertarian Island: No Rules, Just Rich Dudes" . NPR.org .
Archived from the original on March 17, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018 .
^
"Meetup.com – October 2010 Seasteading Social at the Hyatt Regency SF" .
Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2010 .
^
"Ephemerisle Documentary 2009b by Jason Sussberg" . Vimeo .
Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2013 .
^ Thomas, Gregory (August 14, 2019).
"Burning Man on boats?" . San Francisco Chronicle . San Francisco, CA. Retrieved June 11, 2021 .
^ Friedman, Patri (July 31, 2011).
"The Seasteading Institute – July 2011 Newsletter" . The Seasteading Institute. Archived from
the original on April 4, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^
"Free cities: Honduras shrugged" . The Economist. December 10, 2011.
Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^ Doherty, Brian (December 6, 2011).
"Seasteaders Take to the Land in Honduras" .
Reason .
Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012 .
^ Friedman, Patri (October 31, 2012).
"Future Cities Development ceasing operations" .
Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2015 .
^ Chapman, Lizette (January 6, 2010)
"The Hottest New Thing in Seasteading Is Land."
Archived March 19, 2020, at the
Wayback Machine Bloomberg News. (Retrieved March 19, 2020).
^ Matros, Matt (2005).
The Making Of A Poker Player: How An Ivy League Math Geek Learned To Play .
ISBN
9780818406423 .
Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved October 18, 2020 .
^
"Patri Forwalter-Friedman's profile on The Hendon Mob" . The Hendon Mob Poker Database . Retrieved April 13, 2024 .
^
a
b
"Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap" . Wired . January 19, 2009.
Archived from the original on January 31, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2017 .
^ Moser, Whet (August 18, 2011).
"Milton Friedman's Grandson to Build Floating Libertarian Nation" . Chicago Magazine.
Archived from the original on October 1, 2018. Retrieved December 1, 2014 .
^
a
b Radomsky, Rosalie R. (February 10, 2018).
"A Commitment for More Than One Lifetime" .
The New York Times .
ISSN
0362-4331 .
Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved February 12, 2018 .
^
"ApoE4 – The Ancestral Allele" . Biostasis . August 5, 2011.
Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020 .
External links
Let A Thousand Nations Bloom , blog about competitive government by Friedman, Jonathan Wilde, Mike Gibson, Will Chamberlain, and Michael Strong
Roberts, Russ (October 13, 2008).
"Patri Friedman on Seasteading" .
EconTalk .
Library of Economics and Liberty .
Podcast interview: "WS Radio: Patri Friedman Audio" ,
Western Standard , June 19, 2008
Lee, Timothy B. "Seasteading: Engineering the Long Tail of Nations ",
ArsTechnica , September 6, 2008
Reason.com "20,000 Nations Above the Sea" , June 8, 2009
NBC LA "Direct Impact: NBC Interview with Patri Friedman"
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