I'd love to name it "Seastar" island.

it would make a great tourist attraction, no doubt. though, to be left at the mercy of an ocean current, isn't there a danger with being swept too far out to see to get aid from land, and collision with objects and land?

Maybe that's the plan - a bit of population thinning; another version of carousel.

People get selected to "live" on these floating platforms that are set off to sea and never heard of again...

The "island" floating back after two hundred years would make the start of some excellent science fiction.

That would.

I was thinking Logan's Run when I said Carousel, but yeah, two populations separated and put under different stresses and stimuli for 10 generations. Not long enough for an Eloi/Morlock dichotomy to have come about, but enough for significantly different moralities, myths and technologies to have developed.

And then: War

The inevitable and most entertaining conclusion.

From a Utopianist point of view the ideal scenario would be for all sides to sit down, have a beer and say "we do it like this instead - how weird is that?", but that would make for an especially dull book and/or movie.

Well there would probably be a woman on one side and a man on the other who start out with "we do it like this instead" before falling in love, of course. By the end their love will probably unite the nations, or maybe the one from the mainland will choose to live with the people on the floating island and leave his/her land forever.

The latter could lead to a whole series of books revolving around the travels of the floating island.

Ah, the old Kirk Technique - "On Earth we call this felching." and "Tell me more of this Earth practice you call the 'Cleveland Steamer'".

The coupling leading to a new population who spend time on land and at sea, which at first seems like an end to all war between the two tribes, but ultimately just introduces a third side to the conflict.

Sounds like it has legs.

Now before anyone gets any bright ideas, I declare this to be copyrighted by Pock-Poop Productions.

If any of you think that's a bad name, it could be worse.

Sucket & Poop for example.

I prefer Donteat Sucket, personally.

That has a ring to it. A definite ring.

These ideas don't allow for population growth. You would have to have the governing entity on the island regulate reproduction. Its like 1984 meets AI meets water world. Never going to happen.

Reminds me of the self-contained Arcologies from Sim City 2000.

So if this becomes a reality does that make Will Wright... God?

It's not like they wouldn't be able to communicate with the rest of the world. I assume they would have some kind of internet connection.

This is why you're not on the writing team. Something happened to their internetz and electronic equipment.

They floated into another Perfect Storm.

It got wet.

Big risk if you're out at sea on a giant lily pad and salt water is a bugger if you get it on your technologies.

Game on.

Its Waterworld!

At first glance this looks like Paul Bunyan's lounge chair, but it grows on you. I want a timeshare on Waterworld when it becomes a reality. Every other year, I'll stay in an underwater room. Concerns include coping with too much rain (lower levels might flood), clogging harbors, colliding with marine craft, and waste water worries, among those already mentioned.