The poet John Donne wrote that no man is an island. He meant that human beings do not do well when isolated, but rather get the best out of life by being part of co-operative societies.

Seasteaders, a fringe section of the anarcho-libertarian movement, disagree. They say today’s co-operative societies have transmuted into monopolistic and coercive political systems, which stifle creative freedoms and innovation with excessive regulation, taxation and threats of violence. That is why they aim to create their own start-up equivalents where all tax is voluntary.

Their biggest challenge is that all existing landmass is already claimed by established states. So they have turned to the sea. By engineering tiny floating countries, they seek to recreate the pioneering spirit of the original homesteading movements that they say defend individual sovereignty.