Libertarian thinker Patri Friedman wants to build floating mini-nations out at sea. They would be independent states, experimenting with every kind of government under the sun. Citizens would be able to choose a system like it was a flavour of ice cream.
The grandson of seminal free-market economist Milton Friedman wants to see, in his own words, a thousand Hong Kongs bloom.
'I liked Hong Kong so much, I spent the last 10 years trying to figure out how we can have more places like it,' he told a fascinated TEDx Hong Kong crowd on Friday.
'Hong Kong happened by historical accident, but basically the British administrators got a huge degree of freedom to set up the rules and the institutions in any way they wanted, and they chose rules and institutions that worked really, really well,' he said after the talk.
Like the libertarian utopia he would like to live in, the city developed a strong rule of law, low corruption, minimal government intervention and unprecedented economic growth.
But he wants to see more experiments - intentional ones, not historical accidents. He has an audacious plan for a 'start-up sector' of governments, and he's not alone.