A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE BLUE REVOLUTION

I've been thinking about how to gain funding for the Blue Revolution since around 1990.  Blue Revolution Hawaii was organized around a dozen years ago.  My TEDx talk of December 2021 introduces the concept.  If asked, here is a letter of introduction:

Dear 

A pioneering group in Hawaii called Blue Revolution Hawaii has spent the past decade developing the foundation for a new concept to save Planet Earth and Humanity, while providing free enterprise profit and enhancement of the marine environment.  The monumental accomplishments of society have been for war (Manhattan Project) and world dominance (Apollo Project).  In the meantime, global warming has become a serious threat. 

In the ocean around us is the solution to remediating the Greenhouse Effect and preventing the formation of hurricanes. All geoengineering concepts currently seem focused on goading Mother Nature at astronomical cost. 

Around the world, at a depth of 1000 meters, the deep water temperature is around 4 C.  If brought to the surface, combined with the warmer temperature, electricity can be generated.  Further, this fluid is pathogen-free and rich in nutrients in the exact ratio needed to regenerate growth at the surface. 

Next generation fisheries and marine biomass plantations can be supported with this "free" fertilizer.  The macro/micro algae growth  can be converted into biofuels and other bio-products.  The total system for clean energy production provides baseload electricity and a sel-sustainable opportunity for a cornucopia of commodities, including freshwater.

This is the BLUE REVOLUTION awaiting imaginative leadership for someone seeking a legacy.  There are three phases:

1. A grant of $75,000 to the University of Hawaii to host a summit for interested billionaires and their staff in Hawaii to produce a strategic plan for the Blue Revolution.
2. $150 million to build  the Pacific International Ocean Station--a floating experimental facility--by 2030 in the Hawaiian EEZ, where the deep ocean and surface waters will be used to generate electricity and produce freshwater through ocean thermal energy development (OTEC).  

1. This effluent will then be maintained in the photic zone where the marine growth cycle can be initiated to start next generation fisheries and marine biomass plantations.  
2. On the platform, technology transfer activities will develop novel ways to produce hydrogen, biofuels, biopharmaceuticals and a range of potential products.  
3. Techniques will be tested to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  
4. At this early stage, hurricanes actually pose a problem, but if enough of these ultimate plant ships are placed in sites where they form, ocean storms can be ameliorated.

3. $150 billion to establish the first floating city and industrial park complement to host a million people.

1. Port headquarters in Honolulu Harbor at the Aloha Tower.  
2. The 2050 World Expo will be hosted on this marine city, 200 hundred years after the first held in London.  
3. The floating structure will be towed near the equator, where early future metropolises will be located.  Hurricanes do not get close to the equator.  
4. With control of hurricanes, many of these ocean cities can be located at more desirable sites.
5. In time, there could well be a 1000 floating countries, each with its own governance and lifestyle.  Hope the United Nations can mature to handle this crowd.

The following references provide details:

• A powerpoint presentation by Patrick Takahashi, who wrote the original OTEC bill when he worked for Senator Spark Matsunaga.
• Chapter 4 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth.
• From the Huffington Post:

• Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch

About a decade ago I endowed my penthouse to the University of Hawaii to start the Blue Revolution program on the Manoa Campus.  It has been awaiting cost-matching so we can begin to operate.

The key to the Blue Revolution is this imaginative billionaire, or, hopefully an armada of them.  Here is a blog site on this subject. 

• The number of billionaires in the world varies according to what is considered in their worth.  Here is a realistic list which shows:
• 2863 billionaires
• Top ten countries
• USA  724
• China  698
• India  140
• Germany 136
• Russia 117
• 
  Hong Kong has the most billionaires/million people, with almost 9.  The U.S., for example only as 2/million.  The world average is 0.35.
• CEOWorld Magazine updated the above and listed Elon Musk at $220 billion as the richest person, with Jeff Bezos #2 with $177 billion.  #100 is Donald Bren of the U.S. has a worth of $19 billion.

Many of the adventurous rich dream of conquering outer space.  I've had this dilemma because I think, at this stage of development for society, we need to focus on what we need on this globe first.  So why can't we do both, for there remains some concern that we might be the only intelligent life in the Universe, and we need to assure for our continued existence by expanding our presence

There is that global warming inconvenience, of course.  But what if there is a higher order opportunity that incorporates reducing the Greenhouse Effect?

The ocean is that vast unknown and potential site for the cornucopia of benefits:  sustainable products and energy, next generation fisheries, reversing global warming, preventing hurricanes, establishing marine cities and the like.  The would be the Blue Revolution.

So at this initiation stage, Blue Revolution Hawaii seeks $75,000 to host that first billionaire's summit to justify $500,000 to begin serious planning for the Pacific International Ocean Station (PIOS), which is currently estimated to cost $150 million when commissioned in 2030.  For additional information:

• Contact Patrick Takahashi at PatKenTak@hotmail.com.
• Details can be found at 2020 Blue Revolution Hawaii

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JEFF BEZOS

One of the difficulties of securing mega-sums for the Blue Revolution is that billionaires seem enamored of outer space...like many of us were.  You've heard about their dreams:

• South-African-Canadian-American billionaire Elon Musk,^[3] behind SpaceX and a project to colonize Mars.^[4][1]
• American billionaire Jeff Bezos, behind Blue Origin and establishing a true industrial base in space.^[4][2][1]

• British billionaire Richard Branson,^[3] behind Virgin Galactic/Virgin Orbit and space tourism, low-cost small orbital launchers, and intercontinental suborbital transit.^[4][2][1]

• Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, backing the Breakthrough Starshot project for an interstellar probe.^[5]

But there are 2816 billionaires out there, with a wealth of $11.2 trillion.  Some of them surely must have the imagination to accomplish something especially magnificent for Humanity on Planet Earth.

A few years ago one of us compared himself with Elon Musk, perhaps with a tinge of sarcasm.  How stupid.  If he had any possible interest in the Blue Revolution, that went with that posting, for there was deprecation of space as a viable field of current investment.  The wonder of space is the vastness and uncertainty.  There is something about childhood romance and imagination that deserves pursuit.

One of us worked for NASA on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but subsequently felt that space exploration involving real people and billions of bucks was both dangerous and not a smart way to spend your money.  There are too many other more important priorities.  The Apollo Project was an almost necessary policy decision that helped end the Cold War.

We avoided nuclear holocaust through  this space adventure, but there was a compelling political reason.  Here we went again, but some of us don't see space being profitable for at least a century, and perhaps millennium.  Fine if you are rich and seek this seeming ultimate adventure, but not ideal for saving Planet Earth and Humanity.  Yes, someday possibly necessary, but not today, nor for the next century.  Well, perhaps we haven't yet learned our lesson.

Of course, many billionaires will live out their dreams, for they deserve and can afford it.  We, too, are captivated by their imagination and efforts.  Perhaps, though, one or more might want to also look into the Blue Revolution, for the potential benefits are more immediate and, maybe even necessary, for the survival of Planet Earth and Humanity now.  Here is where they can truly mold their legacy:  floating cities, remediation of global warming, sustainable products, hydrogen, prevention of hurricanes...all while actually making a financial profit!

The Atlantic had an article on Jeff Bezos  About the magazine, did you know:

• It was founded in 1857?
• Has around half a million subscribers.
• Almost expired, but recovered, in 2101 posting its first profit in a decade, and in 2016 being named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Today, Jeff Bezos runs nearly 40% of all e-commerce in the U.S.  Amazon controls half of the cloud-computing industry.  They sell 42% of all books and a third of the market for streaming video.  Add selling food and getting into real estate.  Then there is The Washington Post, with The New York Times, the conscience and nemeses of Donald Trump.

But you know all that.  From that article written by Franklin Foer:

• Bezos is relentless, but thinks there is a virtue to wandering.
• Was made by his mother, in almost all ways.
• Flirted with becoming a theoretical physicist at Princeton.
• Is elitist, and fosters a meritocracy of hard-working intelligence.  A lot of PhD economists.  Few women at the top.  Top six are white men.  In history, one black female on the board.  But not much different from Google and Facebook.
• If you're going in for a Bezos meeting, you're like preparing as if the world is going to end.
• Hire smart people who are tasked to find smarter people.
• Invent and Simplify...Bias for Action...Have Backbone...Disagree and Commit.  Some of 14 principles.
• Fanatic about Star Trek and wants to get into outer space.
• Has a profit-making company called Blue Origin, dealing with space.  At least that's blue.

• Admires Gerard O'Neill and his Space Cylinder, which somewhat looks like a first image of the Blue Revolution platform. 

O'Neill imagined colonies housed in miles-long cylindrical tubes floating between Earth and the moon. The tubes would sustain a simulacrum of life back on the mother planet, with soil, oxygenated air, free-flying birds, and “beaches lapped by waves.” When Bezos describes these colonies—and presents artists’ renderings of them—he sounds almost rapturous.

• Entrepreneurs will decide how space will be governed.  Looks like an opportunity for The Seasteading Institute.

• From the author:  In contrast to the dysfunction and cynicism that define the times, Amazon is the embodiment of competence, the rare institution that routinely works.  600 million items for sale from 3 million vendors. Has set aside $700 to retrain a third of its 600,000 employees.  No unions.  The company is deeply trusted by the public...unlike politicians and just about everyone else, these days.
• Whoops, Forbes indicated that Bezos is no longer the richest person in the world.  He only has $115.6 billion.  Bernard Arnault of LVMH is worth 117 billion.  Bill Gates is #3, but would have been #1 had he not donated $35.8 billion to charity.

Bezos worries that in the coming generations the planet’s growing energy demands will outstrip its limited supply. “We have to go to space to save Earth,” he says.

Makes sense.  But what about timing and global warming and the rest of this century?  

While Bezos is developing the technology for space, perhaps he might also want to consider in parallel the NEXT GREATEST CHALLENGE FOR PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY, which, of course, is the Blue Revolution.  This posting is way too long already, so I leave with a few references for your perusal:

• From The Huffington Post:  Blue Revolution
• Blue Revolution Hawaii 2020
• Progress on the Blue Revolution

Someone out there, please send this posting to Jeff Bezos, or one of his associates, or a friend of them, or...  Here is a central e-mail site:

PatKenTak@hotmail.com

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THE LATEST PROGRESS ON THE BLUE REVOLUTION

Half of you reading this blog could well be first-time viewers, so let me begin with a short tutorial on what exactly is the Blue Revolution.  I can send you to SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth, which has a full chapter on this subject, but let me begin with several articles published in The Huffington Post:

• The Dawn of the Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch
• Blue Revolution
• The Blue Revolution is the Optimal Solution for Japan

Here is a 20-minute clip from a gathering hosted by the Seasteading Institute (SI) in San Francisco, providing further details on the Blue Revolution, and, in particular, the Pacific International Ocean Station, proposed by Blue Revolution Hawaii.  SI recently hosted a conference in Tahiti and has found another partner in this French colony.

Joe Quirk moderates an excellent summary of what is becoming the Blue Revolution.  You spend hours/day watching television.  In a fraction of that time, by clicking on what he has titled, The Eight Great Moral Imperatives, you, too, can become a Blue Revolution Pioneer.  Joe also recently published a book:

SEASTEADING:  How Floating Nations Will Restore the Environment, Enrich the Poor, Cure the  Sick, and Liberate Humanity from Politicians

The Seasteading Institute, founded by Patri Friedman and Wayne Gramlich, with funding by Peter Thiel, is leading the way towards a future of seaborne platforms in international waters.  They believe this future is now, and the effort should be entrepreneurial.

Blue Revolution Hawaii, working with SI, is using a more traditional strategy, with plans to design, build and operate a developmental floating city to best determine future marine economies and technologies.  We have already secured an endowment for the University of Hawaii to initiate the program.  While we, too, seek governmental and industrial funding to carry out this mission, we most seek an imaginative and dedicated billionaire to gain a legacy as the founder of the Blue Revolution, for the initial project, the Pacific International Ocean Station (PIOS), is anticipated to cost $1.5 billion
.  

While significant, it should be noted that the International Space Station (ISS) has already cost more than $150 billion, and is expected to crash back into Planet Earth within a decade without the formation of even one company.  Thus, for one percent of the ISS, PIOS will develop a range of sustainable ocean resources in harmony with the marine environment.  In fact, two  natural benefits could well be remediation of global warming and prevention of hurricane/typhoon formation.  

The next Economic Frontier will certainly not be Mars, but the Blue Revolution, with prospects for enhancing the environment.  The ISS is one of half a million pieces of observable space junk up there, and each one cost a lot of money.

So what am I doing to stimulate progress for the Blue Revolution?  Well, for one, I am responsible for that endowment to the University of Hawaii, and a post-doc from Nihon University is soon to arrive to help initiate some research.  I recently gave several speeches touching on this topic:

• My talks to MENSA (at their Pacific Regional Conference in Honolulu)
• A testimonial I provided in Tokyo (right) on the retirement of Tadashi Matsunaga as President of Nokodai, also known as Tokyo University of A&T.  Interestingly enough, a quarter century or so ago, Professor Matsunaga served as the first International Professor for the Blue Revolution at the University of Hawaii.  I suggested, as he now has nothing to do (which actually is not so, for he is even more involved now with too many things--former president of Japanese universities become especially important citizens) he might want to return to Hawaii to help lead this effort.

For the future, I was asked to present a talk in Las Vegas to the February World Aquaculture Society gathering, co-authored by Leighton Chong and Tetsuzan Benny Ron:

Blue Revolution Hawaii:  Proposal for a Pacific International Ocean Station.

Click on these two blog sites for more information:

• Blue Revolution Hawaii
• iBlue Revolution

While not yet organized as a real Blue Revolution activity, you can nevertheless from January of 2020 join me for a World Cruise.  Hopefully, Tadashi and Mayumi Matsunaga will be on board, for he was the one who stimulated this fantasy.  You can even help us select the cruise line:

Crystal for $30,955 could well be the Blue Revolution ship of choice.  Four months to cruise the world:

That itinerary is for 2018, so by 2020 maybe Crystal will truly go around the world...and probably cost more.  That is currently my problem, as these global journeys only feature cabins for two people.  I can barely afford myself, so a companion needs to be able to absorb her own cost.  Better yet, perhaps I'll find someone who could help subsidize my fare.  Amazingly enough, there are a few potential candidates who have progressed through either step two (join me for lunch or dinner so we can talk about it) or step three (a short cruise to determine if we are compatible).  Step one is just contact me.  Still searching for the perfect prospect, and some decision needs to be made by next year.

The key requirement for the Blue Revolution is to find that second billionaire (SI has Peter Thiel), or team of them, visionaries emboldened to develop the pathway for Humanity to ensure for a sustainable Planet Earth.  The sea around us is the most sensible and affordable setting to advance this cause, and the endeavor will only be attained with the right leadership and inspiration.

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IS THERE A BILLIONAIRE IN YOUR FUTURE?

I long ago came to a conclusion that the government and corporate sectors of our community just do not have the imagination and resources to fund visionary pathways for Humanity.  Something like the Blue Revolution, for example, needs enlightened billionaires searching for their legacy.  Surely, out there is one with a blue dream.  How do you interest one in supporting your cause?  Read on.

The latest Forbes billionaires list shows eight from the U.S. in the top ten, with Bill Gates #1 at $75 billion, and brothers Charles (on the right) and David Koch at #9 and #10 with a total of $79.2 billion.  The brothers, incidentally, financed the Tea Party takeover of the GOP and are considered to be the most important Republicans in the country.  However, because of their disdain for Donald Trump, the Kochs decided to delete their nearly billion dollar campaign funds from national politics.  Charles, gasp, actually intimated that he could well support Hillary Clinton.

The number of billionaires dropped from 1,826 last year to 1810 in 2016.  They have a total net worth of $6.5 trillion.  Wealth-X earlier this year named the 50 wealthiest people:

• 9 from the USA
• only 4 from China
• 4 females
• youngest is Mark Zuckerberg at 31 with $43 billion
• #1 is Bill Gates with $87 billion
• #5 is David Koch with $47.4 billion

The details differ among the six organizations doing these billionaire surveys,  as one might report a list of 1,810, and another 2,400 (Wealth-X).  Wealth-X alone has a staff of 250 in 10 global centers mostly focusing on wealth intelligence.  In any case, according to Caroline Feund of the Peterson Institute for International Economics: A best estimate is better than no estimate with wealth.

Billionaires are now mostly self-made:

If you have a campaign to tap one of them, start with some universal information:

• average age of 63
• 90% married
• 6% divorced
• most born in the year of the Snake
• Harvard is most common university

On the other hand, Forbes has this comparative bar graph:

Elon Musk and Donald Trump went to Penn.  

In any case, you don't just go up to a billionaire and ask for money.  You need that key connection, compelling vision and fundamental link to a special passion.  Most desire to help the downtrodden, prevent diseases and reverse poverty.  Surely, among the 2000 psyches there just has to be a particular enlightened individual dedicated to Planet Earth, wishing for something extraordinary to provide some key commodities in harmony with the natural environment.  For only $1.5 billion--one percent the cost of the International Space Station, a $150 billion space adventure that meant well, but will crash into oblivion in the Year 2020--the Blue Revolution represents the next economic frontier for Humanity to generate a cornucopia of sustainable products while enhancing our environment.

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THE BEGINNING OF THE BLUE REVOLUTION

iBlue Revolution, is an internet support group to promote the development of multi-purpose marine industrial platforms to initiate the Blue Revolution (Shimuzu's concept to the right).  The "i" is symbolic of the virtual reality characterizing this organization.  We will not:

• be incorporated,
• handle any finances and
• have any legal status.

iBlue Revolution has one purpose:  spur the creation of a billion dollar fund to design, construct and operate the first pre-commercial open ocean complex.  We will steer potential sponsors to key organizations capable of meeting this mission.  Global information exchange is sought to help form world-wide partnerships.

For the present, I, Patrick Takahashi, will serve as the coordinator, and have formed an informal discussion group of advisors.  Let me know if you wish to be added to this list by commenting below.  As some of you know, I have had a daily blog for the past five years now:

     SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR PLANET EARTH AND HUMANITY

I will continue this service, and in addition, sporadically insert articles at this site focused on the Blue Revolution.

The International Space Station is a $150 billion attempt to create industries in space.  The Blue Revolution can be initiated with less than one percent of that amount for our next economic prospect, the ocean.  At one time the Cold War made necessary ventures like Project Apollo.  It is now no longer necessary for a Mission to Mars, or even again to the Moon.  Efforts like the B612 Foundation, led by former astronaut Ed Lu, to track and neutralize potentially deadly asteroids, make sense, but the real business opportunity for the next century remains on Planet Earth, and the final frontier is the ocean.

The seas around us are ideally conformed to provide next generation fisheries, marine biomass plantations, green chemicals, sustainable energy resources, exciting habitats for floating cities and industrial parks, while providing options for remediating global warming and preventing the formation of deadly hurricanes.  A series of articles I published in the Huffington Post provides background information:

• The Coming of OTEC
• The Dawn of the Blue Revolution
• The Ultimate Ocean Ranch
• Blue Revolution

There is a non-profit organization called Blue Revolution Hawaii, which has proposed the Pacific International Ocean Station for this purpose.  Their Board (which I am on, but I would resign if my dual role becomes a conflict of interest) has blessed my effort to independently and in parallel carry out this informational attempt to spur major funding for the actual station itself.  A second organization, the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, has been contacted to  gain their possible involvement in this adventure.

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