Floating Festival Jul 22-25

post by Eliezer Yudkowsky (Eliezer_Yudkowsky) · 2010-07-21T06:36:02.408Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 9 comments

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9 comments

The Seasteading Institute had to cancel their annual on-water get-together, Ephemerisle, after being quoted ridiculous insurance costs, and it came back as the unofficial Floating Festival - no tickets, no organizers, you just show up with a boat.  (Or find someone else who already has or is renting a boat and still has a spare spot, etc.)  Jul 22-25 with an unconference (i.e., show up and give a talk) on Saturday the 24th.  Posting here because of the large de facto overlap in the communities.  The location is about a two-hour drive from the Bay Area.

Main info page.

9 comments

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comment by Roko · 2010-07-21T12:09:19.058Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

What made the insurance cost so high? Did they have to insure against future damages caused by an army of libertarian pirates raiding the California coast?

Replies from: Kevin
comment by Kevin · 2010-07-21T21:07:58.855Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It doesn't seem unreasonable that this is something that would be extraordinarily expensive to insure -- and the insurance cost balloon wasn't 10x, but 2.5x. I mean, there are going to be drunk/high people jumping from boat to boat and doing various motorized water sports.

Replies from: Roko, kodos96
comment by Roko · 2010-07-21T22:15:39.002Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

High on revolutionary fervor, is that?

Replies from: Kevin, Kevin
comment by Kevin · 2010-07-21T22:29:29.725Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It never looks like a revolution until the government sends in the military to stop it.

comment by Kevin · 2010-07-21T22:54:43.958Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

It certainly sounds like fun.

"I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it."

-Emma Goldman

comment by kodos96 · 2010-07-21T22:31:09.510Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

I'm not entirely clear on what exactly they're insuring against.... someone getting injured and suing the Seasteading Institute? I wonder if the insurer factored in the fact that everyone involved in the event believes in a political ideology of extreme personal responsibility, and are therefore much less likely than the average american to sue some random third party when they slip and fall.

Replies from: Kevin
comment by Kevin · 2010-07-21T22:52:28.889Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

what exactly they're insuring against.... someone getting injured and suing the Seasteading Institute?

I think so. I doubt the underwriters took the ideology into much account, they probably just went with the standard factor for P(lawsuit | serious injury) which I would guess is over 50%.

comment by knb · 2010-07-22T04:17:58.408Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Damn it, I can't make it this year.

Just once, cant they hold a festival like this on the Cuyahoga River?