About
Sentient Boundary Press publishes books at the intersection of human judgment, technological autonomy, and systems risk, for people who make decisions where the cost of being wrong is real.
The press
The name marks the line we care about: the boundary between what a machine should decide and what a person must. The press grew out of high-consequence work in aviation safety, organizational resilience, and AI governance, and everything it publishes is meant to be used, not admired. Frameworks with worksheets. Standards with templates. Arguments you can defend in front of a board, a regulator, or a jury.
Two books so far: The SCAR Framework, on deciding where AI belongs in critical systems, and No Lies, No Surprises, on the operating standard that makes a team trustworthy.
The author
I'm Dr. Philip D. Mann. I have had a colorful life, and most of it has been spent in and around aircraft.
I started as a Navy aviation electronics technician on carrier deployments, then served as an Army infantryman in the 101st Airborne, then as an aircrew technician in the Army National Guard. That was about a decade in uniform. The FAA came next: 17 years and nine separate jobs, from field maintenance technician at Denver International Airport to Academy instructor to national training program manager. Along the way I taught project management at the graduate level and directed a university center for project management innovation.
Today I run Vector Strategic Consulting, where I advise leadership teams on strategy, risk, and AI governance in regulated industries. I also write and speak on aviation safety, with more than 60 media appearances reaching over 35 million people. I focus on context as much as expertise: knowing what a fact means in the room where the decision gets made.