Patri Friedman (born July 29, 1976) is an American

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

, neoreactionary,

anarcho-capitalist Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforce ...

, and theorist of

political economy Political economy is the study of how Macroeconomics, economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and Economy, national economies) and Politics, political systems (e.g. law, Institution, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied ph ...

. He founded The Seasteading Institute, a non-profit that explores the creation of sovereign ocean colonies.

Early life

Named after family friend Patri Pugliese, Friedman grew up in

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania King of Prussia (also referred to as KOP) is a census-designated place in Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 22,028. The community took its unusual name in the 18th ...

, 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 Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolls 902 undergraduate students ...

in 1998, and went on to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

to obtain his master's degree in computer science. He also holds an MBA from

New York Institute of Technology The New York Institute of Technology (NYIT or New York Tech) is a private research university founded in 1955. It has two main campuses in New York—one in Old Westbury, on Long Island, and one in Manhattan. Additionally, it has a cybersecu ...

– Ellis College. He worked as a software engineer at Google. As a poker player, he cashed in the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...

four times.

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 Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Fac ...

. The Institute's mission is "to establish permanent, autonomous ocean communities to enable experimentation and innovation with diverse social, political, and legal systems". This was initially a part-time project – one day a week while working as a

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

engineer the rest of the time – but Friedman left Google on July 29, 2008 to spend more time on

seasteading Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, in international waters outside the territory claimed by any government. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sov ...

. He and partner Wayne C. Gramlich hoped to float the first prototype seastead in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

by 2010. At the October 2010 Seasteading social, it was announced that current plans were to launch a seastead by 2014. Since attending the

Burning Man Burning Man is an event focused on community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance held annually in the western United States. The name of the event comes from its culminating ceremony: the symbolic burning of a large wooden effigy, referred ...

festival in 2000, Friedman imagined creating a water festival called

Ephemerisle Ephemerisle is an annual week-long gathering that happens every July on the water in the Sacramento Delta. Several hundred attendees come together to form various "islands" made up of boats, rafts, docks, and barges. The attendees are a mix of ...

as a

Seasteading Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, in international waters outside the territory claimed by any government. No one has yet created a structure on the high seas that has been recognized as a sov ...

experiment and

Temporary Autonomous Zone ''T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone'' is a book by the anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson) published in 1991 by Autonomedia and in 2011 by Pacific Publishing Studio (). It is composed of three sections, "Chaos: The Bro ...

. 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. Since 2010, the event has been annual and community-run.

Future Cities Development

On July 31, 2011, Friedman stepped down from the position as executive director of The Seasteading Institute, but remained

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

of the board. Later, he co-founded the Future Cities Development Corporation, a project to establish a self-governing

charter city In the United States, a charter city is a city in which the governing system is defined by the city's own charter document rather than solely by general law. In states where city charters are allowed by law, a city can adopt or modify its organ ...

within the borders of

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. In 2012, the Future Cities Development Corporation ceased operations.

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

. Most of the cities will be aimed at foreign businesses seeking friendlier tax treatment.

Poker career

During his poker career, Patri Freidman was predicted to become a world champion by ''Card Player Magazine''. However, he has not won a poker Championship as of 2019.

Family

Patri is the grandson of Nobel Prize-winning economist

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

and economist

Rose Friedman Rose Director Friedman (; born Rose Director (December 1910 – 18 August 2009), was a free-market economist and co-founder of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. Biography Rose Friedman attended Reed College and then transferred to the ...

and son of economist and physicist

David D. Friedman David Director Friedman (born February 12, 1945) is an American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and anarcho-capitalist theorist. Although he studied chemistry and physics and not law or economics, he is known for his textbook writings on m ...

. 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. Patri and Brit are self described

transhumanists Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

and

rationalists In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy ...

, they have arranged to be cryonically preserved after their legal death.

References

External links

Let A Thousand Nations Bloom
blog about competitive government by Friedman, Jonathan Wilde, Mike Gibson, Will Chamberlain, and Michael Strong *

''

Western Standard The ''Western Standard'' is a Canadian political and social commentary media website operated by Western Standard New Media Corp. and its president Derek Fildebrandt. The Standard is based in Calgary, Alberta, where its main offices are located. ...

'', 6-19-08
Lee, Timothy B. "Seasteading: Engineering the Long Tail of Nations
,

ArsTechnica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

, September 6, 2008
Reason.com "20,000 Nations Above the Sea"
5-08-09
NBC LA "Direct Impact: NBC Interview with Patri Friedman"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Patri 1976 births Living people 21st-century American engineers American anarcho-capitalists American libertarians American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of Hungarian-Jewish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American poker players American political philosophers American software engineers American transhumanists Friedman family Harvey Mudd College alumni Jewish activists Jewish American social scientists Jewish engineers Libertarian theorists New York Institute of Technology alumni People from Blacksburg, Virginia Stanford University alumni