Glen Hiemstra, Founder of Futurist.com, presents a program on Futuring in the year 2100. The presentation was a part of a series taking an early look at the 22nd Century, as a feature of the annual meeting of the World Future Society, Chicago, July 2013. As part of the program Glen solicited input from other professional futurists, a sample of which are presented in the slide deck. [note: slide 34 was a video of Elon Musk receiving the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award]

2. what is your image of
the future...of futuring?

3. To help prepare this program I polled members of the Association of
Professional Futurists as to their views of futuring in 2100. What
follows in several slides is a sample of responses.
Futuring in 2100 will be more experiential and participatory than it is
today. We will try out possible futures in simulations on Holodecks.
We, as futurists, will be the facilitators of those experiences.
Joyce
Gioia

4. Futuring
will
be
baked
into
human
educa7on
and
2st
century
ci7zens
will
think
in
vastly
more
sophis7cated
ways
about
long
term
implica7ons...Watsonian
power
computers
will
help
explore
complex
physical
issues...crea7ng
new
visions
of
humanity
is
not
something
we’d
willingly
hand
over
to
our
computa7onal
friends...have
learned
how
resistant
people
are
to
giving
up
power.
21st
Century
humans
will
fully
understand
the
power
of
the
future.
Joel
Barker

5. Our
view
of
human
nature
is
central
to
our
sense
of
what
futures
will
be
in
2100.
I
think
history
shows
that
people
are
quite
willing
to
give
up
their
power...if
in
exchange
for
greater
comfort,
leisure
and
pleasure...I
suspect
most
of
us
would
gladly
turn
over
our
liber7es
in
exchange
for
Wall-­‐E
style
pampering.
Noah
Radford

6. Futuring
in
2100
will
be
ex7nct
as
it
now
exists
-­‐
crude,
prima7ve,
ineffec7ve.
We’ll
have
very
sophis7cated
soOware
doing
predic7ve
analy7cs
and
nuanced
scenarios
using
big
data
in
real
7me...Humans
may
act
as
occasional
prophet
in
the
wilderness
calling
out
Black
Swans...
Lee
Shupp

7. In
addi7on
to
Watson-­‐type
computa7on
of
what
21st
Century
people
quaintly
called
“big
data”
the
instant
scenario-­‐izing
of
informa7on
will
be
baked
into
all
our
ac7vi7es,
in
ever
more
immersive
environments.
As
computa7on,
virtual
modeling,
visualiza7on,
gamifica7on
advance
we
are
likely
to
see
“futuring”
across
all
domains
-­‐
retail,
policy,
finance,
healthcare,
educa7on,
management,
personal
development,
child-­‐rearing,
etc.
Cecily
Sommers

8. What
remains
of
the
human
race
will
be
s7rring
the
embers
of
the
fire
to
see
what’s
wriWen
in
the
charred
bones
of
dinner.
OR,
we’ll
be
so
deep
into
the
post-­‐silicon
bio-­‐age
that
alternate
outcomes
will
be
ar7ficially
evolved
in
sequestered
eco-­‐arenas...
OR
it
will
be
a
meme
marketplace
to
see
whose
design
fic7ons
aWract
the
most
viewer-­‐aWen7on
seconds...
OR
futuring
will
be
simply
another
elementary
skill...but
this
assumes
we
rescue
our
educa7onal
systems
...which
seems
more
unlikely
than
that
we’ll
rescue
the
environment.
2100
will
be
different...very
different.
(And
no
I
don’t
call
what
I
do
futuring,
or
futurology.)
Wendy
Shultz

9. In
2100
traveling
in
space
via
light-­‐speed
vessels
is
very
commonly
affordable
to
middle-­‐class
people...Non-­‐human
occupied
vehicles
can
travel
100
LY
away.
Standard
measures
of
7me,
space,
distance
[have
evolved].
In
2100
the
words
‘past’,
‘present’,
future’
will
be
found
in
history
books
explaining
how
previous
people
marked
their
loca7on
in
the
Universe’s
grid
system...languages
will
no
longer
have
past
tense,
present
tense
and
future
tense...instead
space
travelers
communicate
with
each
other
by
expressing
their
‘space
grid
loca7on’
on
universe
naviga7on
maps.
June
Lo

10. All great paths lead us to [the] threshold, but
none can guide us across the great divide--
from the creature human to the co-creative
human. None can guide us as to how to use
the vast new powers given us by science
and technology. None of us have been there
yet.
Barbara Marx Hubbard
7/13/13

11. “If you don’t go far enough back in
memory or far enough ahead in hope,
your present will be impoverished.”
Edward Lindaman

12. “Any
student
of
the
rise
and
fall
of
cultures
cannot
fail
to
be
impressed
by
the
role
played
in
this
historical
succession
by
the
image
of
the
future.
The
rise
and
fall
of
images
precedes
or
accompanies
the
rise
and
fall
of
cultures.
As
long
as
a
society’s
image
is
posi7ve
and
flourishing,
the
flower
of
culture
is
in
full
bloom.
Once
the
image
begins
to
decay
and
lose
its
vitality,
however,
the
culture
does
not
long
survive.”
The
Image
of
the
Future,
Fred
Polak,
1961

13. heilbroner, visions of the future...
 distant past
 150,000 to 300 years ago
 people did not imagine material conditions of future would be different
 yesterday
 300 years ago to 1970’s
 future seen as full of unimaginable possibilities for improving human
condition at all levels
 today
 1970’s to now
 future seen as dominated by large impersonal forces - science,
economics, politics, religion tied to state
 humans still believe future will be different, but most likely worse

14. everything possible today was at
one time impossible.
everything impossible today may at
some time in the future be possible.
Edward Lindaman
Director Program Planning, Apollo

15. heilbroner, visions of the future...
 distant past
 150,000 to 300 years ago
 people did not imagine material conditions of future would be different
 yesterday
 300 years ago to 1970’s
 future seen as full of unimaginable possibilities for improving human
condition at all levels
 today
 1970’s to now
 future seen as dominated by large impersonal forces - science,
economics, politics, religion tied to state
 humans still believe future will be different, but most likely worse

16. • will there be a 2100 for futuring?
• who will do the futuring?
• what might futuring look like?

17. survival first

18. Consciousness precedes reality,
and not the other way around.”
President Vaclav Havel
Czech Republic

19. effective choice making…

20. technology
acceleration

21. connectivity | convergence | 3D
nano | bio | info | cogno | robo

22. who will future?

23. Marc Prensky originated
“digital native” term
FuTURIST•com
generations of digital natives
digital
immigrants gone

25. ...test
is
“168
7mes
faster,
26,000
7mes
less
expensive,
and
over
400
7mes
more
sensi7ve
than
the
current
standard.”
It
costs
$0.03
per
test
and
takes
five
minutes.
The
test
could
also
poten7ally
be
used
to
diagnose
ovarian
and
lung
cancer,
both
of
which
also
produce
abnormal
levels
of
mesothelin.
hWp://singularityhub.com/2013/02/25/16-­‐year-­‐old-­‐jack-­‐andraka-­‐invents-­‐innova7ve-­‐cancer-­‐test-­‐using-­‐google-­‐search/

27. what might futuring look like?

28. people of the screen do not accept
old limitations...
Based
on:
Gerd
Leonhard

29. transhuman intelligence
will assist or do forecasting

31. futuring 2100 will involve...
 unlocking the power of human intelligence and
human imagination
 getting bandwidth to the brains of more people
 linking minds
 getting bandwidth between more brains
 living in correct uncertainty
 rather than incorrect certainty
 connecting the future to the now
 applying futuring intelligence to real world needs
 leveraging amazement
 as in The Toynbee Convector (Bradbury, 1984) people
will be thrilled to have made it and ready to go beyond

33. “the future enters into us
in order to transform itself in us,
long before it happens.”
Rainier Maria Rilke

34. thank you for your time
for more information
www.futurist.com
glen@futurist.com
twitter.com/glenhiemstra
facebook.com/glenhiemstra