Frontier Cities
By Nick Allen · 19 July 2024
Note from the Editors: This essay is contained in our fifth print edition, Futurism Reloaded.
For a new era of American expansion
April 2009. Peter Thiel publishes his essay “The Education of a Libertarian” in the Cato Institute’s journal Cato Unbound. Arguing that “we are in a deadly race between politics and technology” his text describes his disillusionment with American democracy. “The critical question,” writes Thiel, “then becomes one of means, of how to escape not via politics but beyond it. Because no truly free places are left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undiscovered country.” He proposes three possible vectors: “Cyberspace, outer space, and seasteading”.
June 2016. Elon Musk, advocating for the colonization of Mars, gives an interview in which he frames the undertaking as a project to both ensure the survival of humanity and expand the realm of human freedom. A colony on Mars, he argues, could experiment with alternative forms of governance to contemporary American democracy. “Most likely the form of government on Mars would be a direct democracy, not representative,” said Musk. “So it would be people voting directly on issues. And I think that’s probably better, because the potential for corruption is substantially diminished in a direct versus a representative democracy.”
A surprising line of thought? Given that colonization of Mars would be the most ambitious feat in human history, it seems that deciding on what kind of governance should exist there should be an afterthought. Spaceships have to be constructed and launched and carry colonists to Mars over a period of over nine months in space. On arrival the colonists would find high levels of cosmic radiation, temperatures of minus 125 degrees Fahrenheit, minimal atmospheric pressure and a lack of organic resources. Everything will at least initially be dependent upon a long and expensive supply chain from Earth. Freedom is hardly the term one would use to describe living under those brutal conditions.
But perhaps it is because of, not despite, the current condition of U.S. democracy that Musk believes that colonizing Mars to configure a better democracy is a more plausible task than trying to fix the existing one.
Still, this is the task that counter-elites with somewhat less epic ambitions of political exit, and without technological skill or cosmic desire are apparently working on. Take Global Liberty Institute (GLI) for example. “The Global Liberty Institute” explains the founder Scott Atlas, “is a counter to powerful international organizations that have been influencing world governments and an entire generation while undermining freedom.” Then we have Jordan B. Peterson’s ARC, with the stated mission, “The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) is an international community with a vision for a better world where every citizen can prosper, contribute and flourish.”
Because tending towards the same style, different club, amorphous, policy adjacent, power networks similar to the World Economic Forum, Club for Growth or the Aspen Institute, which they wish to counter, it is legitimate to wonder whether these efforts are being motivated merely by ideological differences or by the resentment of those who weren’t invited to join the leadership of their more established rivals. Even if their motivations are sincere, there is still risk of them ultimately being vanity projects.
Is the Mars colonization endevour unserious and unrealistic because it risks exiting too hard without increasing human freedom? Are these nascent, moral campaigning, power networks unserious in that they risk not exiting at all? Bringing democracy to Mars and assembling advisory boards for international culture war think tanks will not seriously reign in a new era of human freedom in the U.S. But what will?
Increasing human freedom in America has historically occurred through the acquisition of land, the conquest of the frontier, the development of technology, and the creation of new industries. Between the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the Census Bureau declared the frontier closed in 1890, and multiple major land acquisitions grew the country geographically, economically, and politically. Under Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase of approximately 800,000 square miles from France at a cost of $15 million doubled the size of the United States. With the Oregon treaty, the U.S. acquired the territory now comprising the states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Much of this land is still in possession of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages approximately 500 million acres, one-fifth of the acreage within the entire United States.
Frontiersmen played an important role in developing this new territory. Men such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Lewis and Clark drove westward migration by taming the wilderness. Early legislation like the Land Ordinance of 1785 laid the groundwork for future towns and cities. Later, the Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged westward expansion by offering 160-acre parcels of land to each settler for farming. From these small parcels cities eventually grew. Cities that formed in this period include Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Omaha.
At the same moment that the frontier started closing, America began to heavily industrialize. The decades between the late 19th and the early 20th century were marked by huge economic and social transformations due to advances in manufacturing, transportation, and technology which fundamentally reshaped the American landscape. New industries — steel, manufacturing, railroads, oil, electricity, and cars — emerged, and urban areas rapidly grew. Midwestern cities began to rapidly expand around particular industries: Pittsburgh for steel, Detroit for auto-making, Toledo for glass, and Chicago for commodities. The demand for labor led to an influx of rural Americans into these cities and created a large working class. During their historical population heights reached approximately 20 million residents, by the 1970’s.
The US government played a highly supportive role in this period of American expansion. Different administrations over several decades used a combination of infrastructure funding, support for education and research, industry regulation, and social welfare programs to facilitate rapid industrialization and urbanization.
The federal government issued land grants for states to build canals, railroads, and other internal improvements. Congress passed a federal Aid Road Act which provided funding for highway construction, requiring states to form highway systems and create state highway departments. The government provided grants for vocational education in schools, and antitrust laws were strengthened to stymie monopolies.
This period of expansion lasted over a century but eventually ran out of steam. America retreated from urban to suburban, from vocational schools to college education, and from manufacturing to a service-based economy. Analyzing the period of the retreat that marked the end of the era, Thiel suggests that the rise of the counterculture played a significant role: “I think one of the… you know, the counter-cultural in the ’60s was the hippies. You know, we landed on the moon in July of 1969. Woodstock started three weeks later, and with the benefit of hindsight, that’s when progress ended, and the hippies took over the country.”
NASA’s Mission Control celebrates after conclusion of Apollo 11 (1969)
The rapid reversal from the Apollo Program to the hippie counterculture is indicative of a larger shift in societal values. The focus moved away from ambitious, collective goals in science and technology towards lifestyle liberation and individualistic pursuits. Still, while most of the country spent the next decades enjoying the spoils of the Industrial Revolution, a new frontier emerged. From the 1990s until the present day, America has experienced the rise of the digital era. A robust venture capital industry coupled with co-location of founders and development talent online has brought about restructuring of many industries as well as society at large.
Increasing internet accessibility and the commercialization of the web has rapidly replaced the social and commercial coordination layer of society in almost every sector, from dating and food service to entertainment and banking. Yet more consequential advances have been limited. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” Thiel famously declared at Yale in 2013. He went on to expound, “I think we’ve had a lot of innovation in computers, but I think in the world of atoms, not bits, we’ve had a lot of stagnation.”
Technology relating to ‘the world of atoms’ includes Advanced Manufacturing, Robotics, Synthetic Biology, Semiconductors, and New Energy Systems, or the so-called Frontier Technologies. Perhaps the leading venture fund that invests in new companies building these technologies is America’s Frontier Fund. According to Gilman Louie, the CEO of AFF and founder of In-Q-Tel, “in just a few years, advances in these areas will transform the global economy, establishing entirely new industries, and creating the next generation of technology platforms that will generate trillions of dollars in new market value.”
Once seen as emerging, Frontier Technology is today moving into maturity and becoming critical for the United States to maintain its global leadership, economic competitiveness, and national security in the 21st century. According to a recent announcement from the White House: “Investing in America agenda has already catalyzed more than $860 billion in business investments through smart, public incentives in industries of the future like electric vehicles (EVs), clean energy, and semiconductors. With support from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act, these investments are creating new American jobs in manufacturing.”
Unlike the digital era, where co-location, coordination, and competition happened mostly online, Frontier Technologies will demand a considerable amount of physical infrastructure, security measures, resource sharing and testing facilities. New patterns of urbanization are also likely to emerge. But so far the only efforts that currently resemble historical patterns of land acquisition and city building are privately financed projects which in no way are approaching in scale the great industrial urban development projects championed by private industry and the U.S. Government during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Take California Forever just outside of San Francisco, which for instance aims to create “712-acre Rio Vista Parkland with sports fields, open space, and trails.” California Forever is currently seeking to incorporate a new city in Solano County, California, which aims to build a new walkable city that will accommodate new residents on several thousand acres. The plan involves leveraging new technologies and sustainable practices to offer a high-quality of life with vibrant neighborhoods, substantial down payment assistance for housing, educational grants, and enhanced public spaces. After already attaining nearly 15,000 signatures, the ballot measure titled the ‘East Solano Homes, Jobs, and Clean Energy Initiative’ will be voted on in November 2024. Backers of this initiative include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and Patrick and John Collison, who founded Stripe.
Another example is Serenbe, just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, a biophilic agricultural-focused development that seeks to intentionally preserve nature and limit urban sprawl. In the early 2000s, residents began the groundwork to incorporate a new city, Chattahoochee Hills. This effort was primarily driven by the desire to implement zoning laws that would protect large areas of undeveloped land from high-density new developments that litter towns outside of large metropolitan cities, preserve the rural character of the region, and manage growth of the city more thoughtfully. Serenbe is an intentional community developing within Chattahoochee Hills that has leveraged these zoning laws with plans to achieve significant development growth. A $298 million expansion initiative has already begun, injecting economic, social, and educational benefits into Chattahoochee Hills. Development started in the first quarter of 2024 and reflects Serenbe’s ongoing evolution as a “pioneering wellness community that integrates nature deeply into its urban planning and living spaces, aiming to revolutionize the landscape of the area with its unique approach to community living and sustainability”.
While directionally correct, these attempts at new privately funded cities appear to be the pursuit of novelty communities consisting of a limited number of families and retirees, rather than ambitions of previous generations that built up dozens of America’s great cities and industrial strength as well as gave rise, room, purpose, and employment to a thriving middle class.
In contrast, imagine a federal Frontier Cities Initiative where working groups within certain industries including defense tech, advanced manufacturing, and renewable energy are formed with appropriate leadership tasked with the procurement of 10,000 to 100,000 acres of land to develop and administer. These districts would receive infrastructure funding, special tax incentives for developers, and regulatory privileges unique to each industry. Similar to the Homestead Act of 1862 which offered 160 acre parcels of land to each settler, a grant process for both relevant companies and individuals would allow selected participants the ability to plan, develop, and settle their Frontier City.
The U.S. Department of the Interior currently manages approximately 500 million acres of land, which constitutes one-fifth of the acreage within the United States. Within DOI sits multiple Bureaus, with various responsibilities for managing natural resources and scientific research. One is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) which manages public lands, including use for energy development, livestock grazing, recreation, conservation and other interests. BLM can sell public lands to private parties and transfer land to the private sector through authority granted by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, or through legislative acts passed by Congress or by executive order. These are usually specific transfers and can be part of larger legislative packages that address regional development, conservation, and other public policy objectives.
With hundreds of millions of acres of U.S. land being federally owned and managed, several locations each spanning an average of 50,000 acres could be feasibly selected and developed in proximity to airports, existing major highways, railways, and supportive local governments. Strategic land locations for future Frontier Cities could be established just outside metropolitan areas including Carson City, Nevada; Boise, Idaho; Grand Junction, Colorado; Redmond, Oregon; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In addition to land transfer, in order to build new state-of-the-art cities from scratch, considerable federal funding is also needed. Advantageously, the federal government already allocates substantial funding to cities across the U.S. for building and maintaining infrastructure. In July 2021, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed, allocating $550 billion over 10 years in new federal investment to support various infrastructure projects. Key investments include $110 billion in new funds to repair and modernize roads, bridges, and major infrastructure, $39 billion in new funding to modernize public transit infrastructure, $66 billion to modernize commuter rail, and $73 billion allocated toward power infrastructure and clean energy transmission.
Like many other moments in American history, we find ourselves at the advent of a technological innovation era that has the potential to significantly increase human freedom. We must grasp it. America must, as it has for centuries, set out toward that goal. We don’t need to colonize Mars, we don’t need new think tanks, and we don’t need to retreat into siloed wellness communities. We can only achieve a new era of American expansion through acquisition of land, city building, and frontier technologies. Significant support from government leadership will be necessary for this to succeed.
