Don’t worry, the artificial libertarian islands will have better names than that. Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor, has given $1,25 million to an initiative to build libertarian island states in international waters. Because that’s what you do when you’re a 43-year-old gay libertarian with money to kill, I guess.

Working with former Google engineer Patri Friedman, Thiel has started putting together architectural plans for a prototype diesel-powered, 12,000-ton island structure with room for 270 residents, which could be linked with more structures as the initiative expands.

From an interview with Details:

Friedman hopes to launch a flotilla of offices off the San Francisco coast next year; full-time settlement, he predicts, will follow in about seven years; and full diplomatic recognition by the United Nations, well, that’ll take some lawyers and time.

“The ultimate goal,” Friedman says, “is to open a frontier for experimenting with new ideas for government.”

So, you know. If the early Facebook investors didn’t seem like Bond villains to you before.

[Source: Details]