Randa Abdel-Fattah

The seasteading pitch was pointing out some real problems with existing governments.

Things like corruption, increasing federal power, and slow-moving bureaucracy that were making it harder to respond to real social problems like rising health care costs and economic inequality.

And a lot of people responded positively.

It was time to give it a go.

They debated that question at the offices of one of Thiel's biggest companies, where they had a small space, a data analytics firm called Palantir.

Palantir might sound familiar for two reasons.

The company has recently attracted a lot of controversy for its close, secretive work with government intelligence, defense, and immigration agencies.

And it's the name of the seeing stones in Lord of the Rings.

Anyway, back in the mid-2000s, when Wayne was working on seasteading in a nook of their offices, Palantir wasn't on most people's radars yet.

Wayne remembers one crucial meeting where he and Patry met with Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir and Peter Thiel's business partner, to decide how ambitious their first seasteading attempt should be.

And I voted small and Joe and Patry voted large.

And that's the way we went.

But just as they started to put the wheels in motion to actually try to build something.

You know, life intervened.

Let's talk about the speed with which we are watching this market deteriorate.

The stock market is now down 21 percent.

Wayne had been living off of some internet stocks that were doing great up until the 2008 recession hit.

Which meant less time for seasteading.

I asked him if the co-opting of seasteading by libertarians played any role in his decision to step away.

You're pulling me into the politics.