What Is Future Frontier?

On July 15, 1960, JFK raised the concept of “New Frontier”:

For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of the 1960s—a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils—a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.…Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.…

The world today has become nothing but extraordinarily strange. It is known by humans with an amount of information and knowledge unprecedented to any other period in human history. Yet it remains strange, perhaps even stranger than ever before. For worse and for better, our rapid advancements in technologies today have pushed humanity to a wonderland of strangeness.

Societies and societies across continents can govern or be governed by the people with efficiency unparalleled in history.

Communities and communities across human societies can thrive or die on mind-boggling scales unbeknownst to humankind's history.

Groups and groups of human bodies and minds can now be supplanted by machines and calculations run by mechanical minds named algorithms and AI.

Parts and parts of our umwelts and realities can now be substituted, from implants to sensory vests, from flashy screens to augmented reality.

The races between diseases and medicines, between climate and energy, and between technology and humanity can sustain or shatter the world that has granted us a place to be conscious and alive together.

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Future Frontier is a media and consulting start-up that specializes in probing, communicating, and guiding the frontier works that impact our shared future. Founded in 2022, we seek to engage in difficult discussions at an extraordinarily difficult time. We are funded by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) FastForward U and are currently based at JHU School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington D.C.

We see a future that needs to be examined and addressed. Amidst rapid technological advancement, complex international politics, deteriorating climates, and prominent public health concerns, people have limited access and energy to navigate these entangled elements that are vital to the making of our shared future. It is a new frontier of humankinds, and without close analysis of this future, we have little clues or chances to build a people-oriented future.

We want to build a people-oriented future. But what is a people-oriented future? It is a time and space that the power of the people is not eroded but engaged with. It is a civilization that sustainably preserve people's control and influence over its trajectory. It is a frontier lead by the people, care by the people, and change by the people. In pursuit of that ideal, we seek to inform people about the complex developments that weave our future and their potentials and risks, to understand people’s preferences for the future, and to guide future developments through cutting-edge insights from research and real-world practices.

Future Frontier aims to bring the audience our confined and synthesized content, a significant part of which is contributed by a diverse network of experts and pioneers we have access. We seek to introduce their works as well as our analyses to help people engage with the complex topics at hand and in the future.