These are ideas that sound like they were snipped from the scenario of one of the new breed of high-tech science-fiction films: A quiet residential neighborhood of homes, shops, and tree-lined open spaces is towed into place and linked up to a town floating off the coast. A community college is lowered onto caissons in the harbor. An entire petrochemical production complex, including apartments and recreational facilities for its workers, an airstrip, and a small shopping area, is erected on a platform floating in the middle of the sea. The structural and engineering technique for such grandiose ventures is already a reality. So are the economic, social, and regulatory pressures which may soon make the use of floating platforms and artificial islands a necessity for urban and industrial expansion. The oceans hold out an exciting challenge, for we are beginning our exploitation of the ocean's fabulous riches with a consciousness of the need for conservation and environmental protection. As pragmatic as such a program may appear, its most important and long-reaching benefits will surely be socio-psychological rather than simply economic. When in history has a people who have staked out a claim or wrested a living from the virgin wilderness feared the future or become an indolent or dependent people? The answer is never: It is only when there are no frontiers to cross that initiative and the courage to face real choices vanishes. Adam Starchild is the author of numerous business books, editor of an anthology of Russian science fiction, a member of the Extropy Institute, and a life member of the Lighter-Than-Air Society, the World Future Society and the Libertarian Futurist Society. His personal website is at http://www.adamstarchild.com.