Life in 2073 with Futurist Glen Hiemstra

For the Summer of 2023, a dozen futurists talk about what life will be like for humans in 30 to 50 years. Each guest is asked to paint a picture of the changes that we will experience between now and 2053 or 2073. Then they are asked what mistakes we are making today that the people of 2073 will look back at in disbelief. The goal of these episodes is to spark the imagination of listeners about the future we have the ability to create.

In this episode, futurist Glen Hiemstra paints a picture of life in 2073 with an emphasis on the continued growth of cities around the world, the near-complete electrification of transportation, the augmentation of labor through intelligent machines, and the growth of the global middle class. Glen also shares three potential scenarios for the evolution of global governance and how the space exploration happening today will it will set the stage for a space economy in the decades to come.

Glen Hiemstra started his career as a college professor at Whitworth University, the University of Washington, and Antioch University, Seattle. For the last 40 years he has been working as a professional futurist. He is also an author, keynote speaker, and consultant to business, professional and government organizations. The founder of Futurist.com, he serves as Futurist Emeritus on the Futurist.com Think Tank. The site is regularly visited by people from over 120 nations. Glen has also served as a Technical Advisor to future-oriented television programs and he still advises and appears in documentaries. He is the author of Turning the Future into Revenue and co-author of Strategic Leadership, and of Millennial City.

“Space is full of resources - from water to minerals of all kinds to hydrogen…we just haven’t ever thought of that being accessible to us. Imagine a future 50 years from now where that is pretty easily accessible to us…it is quite feasible to think of a future in which tens of thousands of people by 2073 will be living and working in low-Earth orbit, between here and the moon, on the moon, on Mars, on certain moons of other planets, and so on.” Futurist Glen Hiemstra talking about the potential of space exploration over the next 50 years.