Patri Friedman
Friedman in 2011
Born (1976-07-29) July 29, 1976 (age 47)
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationHarvey Mudd College (BA)
Stanford University (MS)
New York Institute of Technology (MBA)
Occupation(s)Activist and political theorist
SpouseBrit Benjamin
Children3
RelativesMilton Friedman (grandfather)
Rose Friedman (grandmother)
David D. Friedman (father)
Websitepatrifriedman.com

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

Main article: 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:

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[26] and economist Rose Friedman and son of economist and physicist David D. Friedman.[26][27] 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.[28] Patri and Brit are self-described transhumanists and rationalists, and they have arranged to be cryonically preserved after their legal death.[28][29]

References

  1. ^ "Seasteading Craziness in Thailand with Patri Friedman". YouTube. May 31, 2019. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  2. ^ McCullagh, David (February 2, 2009). "The next frontier: 'Seasteading' the oceans". CNET. Archived from the original on March 24, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Miles, Jonathan (September 1, 2011). "The Billionaire King of Techtopia". Details. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  6. ^ "My namesake has a Wikipedia page". Patri's Peripatetic Peregrinations. Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  7. ^ "Building a commune in the middle of the ocean?Why". Medium. April 15, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Patri Forwalter-Friedman". The Mob Poker Database. 2002–2008. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  11. ^ Mangu-Ward, Katherine (April 28, 2008). "Homesteading on the High Seas". Reason. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  12. ^ Madrigal, Alexis. "Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies". WIRED. Archived from the original on March 21, 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ "More time for Seasteading – The Seasteading Institute". The Seasteading Institute. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  15. ^ Adam Frucci. "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.
  16. ^ "Libertarian Island: No Rules, Just Rich Dudes". NPR.org. Archived from the original on March 17, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  17. ^ "Meetup.com – October 2010 Seasteading Social at the Hyatt Regency SF". Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
  18. ^ "Ephemerisle Documentary 2009b by Jason Sussberg". Vimeo. Archived from the original on January 23, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  19. ^ Thomas, Gregory (August 14, 2019). "Burning Man on boats?". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, CA. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ "Free cities: Honduras shrugged". The Economist. December 10, 2011. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  22. ^ 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.
  23. ^ Friedman, Patri (October 31, 2012). "Future Cities Development ceasing operations". Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  24. ^ 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).
  25. ^ 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.
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ 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.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ "ApoE4 – The Ancestral Allele". Biostasis. August 5, 2011. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved May 11, 2020.

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