Ever paused to reflect on the odd nature of jurisdiction? The rules that govern your behavior change as you move to different sections of the earth’s crust. Don’t like the rules here? Go stand on another rock.

Land-centric provincialism seems increasingly archaic in the age of the internet, a truly global village where the rock you’re standing on is neither obvious nor relevant to your participation. But I’d wager it’s not going away on anything less than a truly tectonic timescale, however.

Turns out, as discussed in this discovery.com article, if you actually lose your hunk of rock (say, beneath the waves of an ever-encroaching sea of glacial melt water), then you risk losing your right to be a country. No land, no sovereignty. When your territorial waters overtake your territory, you go from being a king to a serf.

Or, um, a surf.

My advice to the soon-to-be modern-day Atlantisians? Get yourself a Noah. Or perhaps a NOAA.

Or, build yourself a tall platform and move up in the world.