humans without frontiers

Without a frontier to push into or against, self-discovery is not an exploration of the new but a redefining (retromodification) of the preceding.
In mining the past (nostalgia) the unreality of exhumation offers only abstract context, leading to affectation.
Is regenerating affect non-effectual work? If so, without new frontiers, we risk assuming the labor of dilatante style is indeed substance.