Jeff Bezos said that his Blue Origin space flight endeavor signaled the first step toward a future where humans will inhabit space colonies while speaking to an audience at the 2021 Ignatius Forum at Washington National Cathedral Wednesday.
“Over centuries, most or many of the people will be born in space. It will be their first home. They will be born on these colonies, they will live on these colonies. They may visit Earth the way you would visit Yellowstone National Park,” Bezos said.
“This Earth can support, let’s say, 10 billion people to a certain degree. We’d have to work really hard to figure out how to do that without degrading the planet,” Bezos argued. He then noted that “the solar system can support a trillion people.”
“Millions of people will move from Earth to space over time. And that’s the vision of Blue Origin – millions of people working in space,” said Bezos. (RELATED: HART: William Shatner And Jeff Bezos’ Flights Of Fancy)
The Amazon founder described floating habitats in space that mimic the weather and gravitational pull of Earth.
Bezos acknowledged that his vision would require “generations” to realize. As his host Adi Ignatius began to ask who would get to stay on Earth, Bezos interrupted to describe the many features that such space colonies would have, including “rivers and forests and wildlife.”
“This place is special, we can’t ruin it,” Bezos said, referring to Earth.
Bezos just purchased a 14-acre estate on the island of Maui, and will soon receive the largest yacht on the planet.