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"It's also important to vary your stimuli. I always look for new things to shock the system. Just as you make muscles grow by shocking them, you make the mind grow by shocking it."
- Bart Kosko

Floating Island  
  Large artificial islands floating on Earth's seas.  

Putting aside questions about maintenance and seasickness, a floating island makes good sense. If you don't like the weather, just tow it to a new location.

Xanadu was the second of the Floating Island chain of independent international corporate entities. Ultimately they would be strung along the world's equator; new islands bringing life to a watery desert. Six of the islands were in place, two as mere skeletons. From the air they looked a little like lily pads, a little like snowflakes five kilometers in diameter. Counting ponds and water recreation areas, the farms and breakwaters, each enclosed an area closer to forty square kilometers.
Technovelgy from Saturn's Race, by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes).
Published by Tor in 2000
Additional resources -

This is island-building on a grand scale. For something a little smaller (and more intimate), try the float-home, from Frank Herbert's Whipping Star.

If a more permanent sort of island is desired, try Rumoko, from My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Saturn's Race
  More Ideas and Technology by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)
  Tech news articles related to Saturn's Race
  Tech news articles related to works by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes)

Floating Island-related news articles:
  - Maya Hotel Floating Pyramid Island In Caribbean Sea
  - Lilypad City Floating Island Concept
  - Blueseed Offshore Floating Corporation Ready By 2014

Articles related to Living Space
LiquidView Ersatz Windows, ala Philip K. Dick
Solar House Concept Unfolds Solar Panels Like A Flower
San Fran's Tiny Homeless
Rotating House in Bosnia

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