From: Matthew J Ghio <mg5n+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 94 17:50:40 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Atlantis Project/Oceania
In-Reply-To: <9402080036.AA00215@anchor.ho.att.com>
Message-ID: <ohJiwNG00VB7QvUUVJ@andrew.cmu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com
+1-510-484-6204) wrote:

> > Of course, the U.S. will immediately declare they a national threat
> > and bomb them back to the stone age.  :-)
> 
> Which is kind of a problem for a floating city, since stones don't
> float very well, concrete canoes excepted :-)

Actually, they plan to build it on 3-acre concrete hexagonal platforms
with hollow centers so that they float.

> 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.

I think their projections were a billion dollars to build it and a
population of 20,000 - 30,000...

I was just wondering what sort of business one might engage in in
Oceania?  Cryptographic software is a possibility, but I wonder how much
revenue that might bring in.  A electronic bank would probably be a more
profitable venture, but getting a high bandwidth net connection in the
middle of the ocean would increase startup costs.  Telecom, electricity,
and water supply would probably be good businesses...but they require a
local market that would be fairly small in the startup country.  There
is also international shipping and trade, but there you have large
startup costs and would need to do extensive work to get clients.  And
there is tourism...gambling, recreational drugs, etc....