01 | Beyond the Unknown

During this five part series I’ll be exploring the how our cultural behaviours, attitudes, needs, and desires as human beings is continually shaped by curiosity, discovery, and exploration. I’ll be reviewing (at a very high level) how science, technology, and culture need to align for absolute progression to exist.

Why Understanding People Matters More

A New Era of Curiosity

We are standing on the edge of a potentially profound new chapter for humanity.

Across science, space exploration, and technology, discoveries are unfolding that would have once belonged to science fiction.

Just in the last few years, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope detected carbon bearing molecules on K2-18b, an exoplanet in a habitable zone, sparking headlines about the potential signs of life beyond Earth [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/james-webb-space-telescope/].

Albeit, the path to space is not currently a sustainable route for humans. And while private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are accelerating plans for human space travel, there many technologies helping advance humanities knowledge of the worlds away from earth.

Closer to home, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing are transforming how we live, learn, and govern. But amid this rapid change, an essential truth remains. Discovery, without understanding humanity, risks creating futures we cannot navigate or sustain.

As a Designer, Researcher, and Strategist, my work has always centred on human behaviours, mindsets, needs, and desires. Today, that focus feels more urgent and in need than ever.

The Risk of Innovation Without Humanity

If we look back across history, the pattern of innovation without a human centred understanding becomes slightly more clear.

• Technology adoption fails when it misunderstands real-world human rituals. Google Glass was a prime example where technology and human behaviours and mindsets did not align. Today Meta, Snapchat, and Apple are all playing in the world of mix realities.

• Space missions falter when public engagement is forgotten. After the Apollo 11 mission to land humans on the moon, interest in lunar missions fell off the radar.

Human history is filled with examples where scientific breakthroughs were ethically, politically, or socially controversial, from Galileo’s heliocentric views to Darwin’s theory of evolution, and where authorities tried to suppress or control the information to avoid disrupting the status quo [https://www.history.co.uk/].

Today, we potentially risk repeating these mistakes on an even bigger stage. As discoveries grow within our cosmic landscape, the gap between what we know and what we are prepared to accept must be bridged thoughtfully. And the only bridge that will hold is one built on human centred understanding.

How Human Centred Design Powers Meaningful Discovery

Human centred design, research, and strategy offer the methods we need;

• To understand emotional and cultural responses to new knowledge. Much like finding any form of life off Earth.

• To co-create inclusive systems and ethical frameworks before technologies harden into inequitable norms.

• To translate complex discoveries into experiences, communications, and futures that people can see themselves within.

• To anticipate unintended consequences before they destabilise trust and progress.

I help organisations prepare for these very shifts. Drawing on a wide range of people who think differently, early adopters, industry experts, and marginalised voices to understand signals and identify emerging behaviours and attitudes, enabling the design of future systems, frameworks, and experiences that work for people and planet.

The Compass for a New Kind of Exploration

I specialise in uncovering deep human insights and emerging behaviours to help organisations make bold, meaningful moves. While partnering with some of the world’s most innovative businesses to co-create futures rooted in the messy, emotional, beautiful reality of human life.

As humanity steps into the unknown from the discovery of potential life on exoplanets like K2-18b, to the rise of private space travel and speculative urban ecosystems on Mars, the use of cultural intelligence, global research methodologies, and strategic foresight tools are becoming even more vital.

Because the bigger the unknown, the more important it is to understand the humans facing it.

Every major innovation ultimately collides with human behaviour.

• AI stumbles without ethical guidelines and emotional understanding.

• Space travel risks becoming elitist or irrelevant if it doesn’t connect to collective aspirations.

• Technological adoption fails when products ignore real-world needs, anxieties, and rituals.

When organisations, governing bodies, and brands race ahead of human insight, they create futures nobody asked for, or futures people resist.

And when they root discovery in deep, empathetic understanding, they unlock futures that people can embrace, shape, and believe in.

Human centred work is not just nice to have at the frontier. It’s critical infrastructure.

Emerging Frontiers Rooted in Humanity

Moore’s Law suggests that technological capability doubles roughly every two years, however human adaptability doesn’t follow the same curve. As our tools evolve exponentially, our psychological readiness, social structures, and ethical frameworks can, in many cases, struggle to keep pace. This growing gap challenges us to rethink not just innovation itself, but what it means to be responsible earthly beings and inter-planetary citizens in a world reshaped by accelerating change.

• Extraterrestrial Discovery

  New studies suggest we may soon confirm microbial life beyond Earth [https://www.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/webb-discovers-methane-carbon-dioxide-in-atmosphere-of-k2-18-b/?utm_source=chatgpt.com].

  Religious groups, ethicists, and global organisations are already beginning to discuss how to prepare society for such a revelation [https://www.ctns.org/].

How will culture, governance, and even our sense of self shift?

• Space Colonisation and Private Travel

  Companies like SpaceX and Axiom Space envision Mars settlements and commercial space stations.

  But if these new worlds are designed without ethical, accessible frameworks, they risk repeating Earth’s mistakes on inequality, exploitation, environmental degradation [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0265964600000242].

• AI, Biotechnology, and Future Governance

  As Artificial Intelligence reshapes industries and biotech alters life itself, designing new protocols that prioritise people’s rights, fears, and aspirations will be critical.

Human centred design, research, and strategy must start focusing on today to prepare for tomorrow.

• Societal Shifts
  How will different cultures react to discoveries like extraterrestrial microbial life? How will belief systems evolve?

• Psychological Readiness
  How do we help individuals and communities emotionally process existential discoveries that reframe humanity’s place in the universe?

• Ethical Protocols
  What frameworks will we need to ensure that space, and the life it may harbour, are explored with responsibility and empathy?

• Planetary Citizenship
  How do we reimagine belonging and stewardship when humanity’s horizons expand beyond Earth?

Without thoughtful answers to these questions, innovation will falter under the weight of fear, misunderstanding, and missed opportunities.

In all of these areas, the future isn’t just something to be built. It’s something to be lived, felt, and stewarded by humans.

• If extraterrestrial life is confirmed, how might your personal sense of meaning or purpose change?

• How should governments, businesses, and communities prepare for psychological and societal shifts that are cosmic in scale?

• How do we design systems that are resilient to not just technological challenges, but human vulnerabilities like fear, denial, and exclusion?

• How can human centred research help us move from a world of reaction to one of anticipation?

Beyond the Unknown and Toward a Human Future

Discovery alone does not guarantee progress. Technology alone does not guarantee equity. Knowledge alone does not guarantee wisdom.

It is only by deeply understanding humanities cultural hopes, fears, rituals, and contradictions, that we can power new frontiers responsibly.

As we venture beyond the known, human centred design, research, and strategy will be the compass that keeps us true. We must use human centred methods to guide discovery, build trust, and design futures where people feel seen, heard, and empowered.

Because the most important discovery we will ever make… might still be ourselves.

Next in the series;

02 | A Universe Within Reach: What Happens to Society When Space Stops Being ‘Out There’?