Centuries ago, navigators sailed Earth's oceans looking for new lands. At that time, there were still areas of Earth's surface that were not ruled by governments—areas beyond laws, regulations, taxes, kings, and politicians. Those frontiers provided an opportunity to set up new societies based on radical ideas, free from the trappings of the old world. The United States of America is the shining example of what people were able to do in such a place. When the country was founded, the ideas it represented were largely untested, and many expected it to fail. Now many of its principles are taken for granted across the world.

But today we are faced with a world that no longer has new lands. Virtually every inch of the globe is under the control of a state (except Antarctica, which is barred from human development by a treaty among states). All of these states interfere with their economies to varying degrees, restricting innovation and entrepreneurship, and they seek to influence people through government-run or -regulated education and media. There are no new frontiers left in which to establish a freer kind of society—except the "final frontier."