There's been a spate of underwater-living articles lately, and there's no doubt the ocean is an area ripe for research.
But to be clear, these facilities require surface support - they are not self-sustaining. Which is perfectly fine (the ISS is not self sustainable either.)
So this isn't "humanity moving into the sea", it's "humanity learning more about the sea". Which is certainly a worthwhile goal.
>anonymous private investor, has begun work to create a ‘permanent human settlement’ under the sea
This sound so preposterous as work to create ‘permanent human settlement’ in Mars.
But if given a choice which one to support with my money with zero probability of any returns, I will much rather supporting sea settlement than Mars.
If these are going to be separate jurisdictions it's probably not as naive as it sounds.
Makes me think about all these underwater horror games: Soma, bioshock, subnautica...
So does this mean we get Sealab 2021 in real life soon?
Maybe it’s James Cameron?
Already done in France in 1962 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9continent_III
Bioshock: Reality confirmed!
My money is on Gabe Newall
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Somebody watched Octonauts as a kid...
More seriously, this seems like an elaborate troll of space settlement enthusiasts. It's far simpler and less demanding than long-term settlement in space...and you still look at it and go "WTF would anyone want to do that? Wouldn't it just be easier to send robots down"?