The 'Promethean' power we inherited from our ancestors
Insights from The Long View Part II: why 'mental time travel' matters
Hi there, Xander Balwit here – I’m working with Richard on publicity for The Long View book. Last week, Richard was hospitalised in a mountain biking accident so is currently recovering. This post was partly written beforehand, so he asked me to send it on his behalf…
Following last week’s preview of Part I of The Long View, today’s update is about the psychology of “mental time travel”... as well as a new review from economist Tyler Cowen, Zoroastrianism’s everlasting fires, and an unanticipated tweet from Nicola Sturgeon.
Imagine two individuals, back in the Pleistocene, about to enter a bear’s cave. One hesitates outside after imagining being eaten. His friend, however, is oblivious and strides blindly in.
It’s not hard to guess which of these individuals would have lived a longer life. Only one had foresight, capable of picturing possible futures in his mind’s eye.
This prehistoric scenario comes from the book The Invention of Tomorrow, by the psychologists Thomas Suddendorf, Adam Bulley, and Jonathan Redshaw, who argue that “mental time travel” made us who we are. For our pre-human ancestors edging out onto the dangerous savanna, foresight would have offered a distinct and powerful advantage. The individual who presciently envisioned his fate in the maw of a hungry bear was set up for greater evolutionary success.
After communication became possible, these early hominins would have realised they could share memories of food sources or pass on warnings of predators or risky locations to be avoided in the future. Transmitting and assimilating knowledge about danger and locating sustenance would have allowed our ancestors to live with a greater sense of security, laying the ground for humanity’s later flourishing.
Understanding mental time travel is crucial if we want to take a longer perspective. That’s why in The Long View, Part II begins by exploring the insights of Suddendorf and colleagues, as well as other psychologists who have sought to understand how the mind processes time. As the reader discovers, mental time travel is a remarkable ability, but it’s also an imperfect talent in many ways, subject to biases and habits that shorten or lengthen our view
Through stories about a mischievous projectile-hurling chimp called Santino, a man who couldn’t imagine tomorrow, and the moment the Apollo 11 astronauts nearly ended humanity, The Long View offers a tour through the mind’s perception of time, with all its benefits and flaws.
Suddendorf and his co-authors themselves acknowledge that foresight is “Promethean” – it gave us the power to become the most dominant species, but also came with many drawbacks too, not least the awareness to contemplate our own mortality and relative insignificance within the long arc of time.
They write:
Unfortunately, because we are aware of tomorrow but limited in our capacity to predict what it will bring, there are endless possibilities to get worked up about –Will lightning strike, the boat sink, or a shark attack? The price of foresight includes worry – How am I going to pay for it? Will he cheat on me? Is this rash just a rash? – and even worries about worrying – What if I can’t stop and my worrying drives me mad? Dwelling on possible future scenarios can make us anxious and leave us feeling hopeless. Plus, wish as we might that it were otherwise, some negative future events are pretty much certain. Foresight confronts us with dreadful insights, including perhaps the most unwelcome of all: that we are going to die.
The message in The Long View is primarily one of hope – long-mindedness can provide guidance when we are swept from one salient event to the next – but a long perspective can indeed be anxiety-inducing sometimes. After all, the deep future exists without us, and, by contemplating it we are led to remember our mortality and that of those we love.
Fortunately, as Suddendorf et al suggest, our time-travelling minds can also voyage beyond our own deaths.
Will we be greeted by Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates or by Lucifer in Hell? Reincarnated as a tick or a tiger? Or will our consciousness be forever obliterated as our brain cells die? Whatever your beliefs, you are likely also to be concerned about the world you will leave behind. What will your legacy be?
The way we answer these questions can help us to live well. Considering our life and legacy in the space that lies beyond our death may lead us to work harder, or perhaps be more gentle, generous, or creative. Confronting the question of how we want to be remembered by our ancestors can promote beneficial behaviours.
The Long View delves into studies that exemplify this phenomenon:
This study, and others like it, suggest that when people are asked to mentally time-travel to reflect on the traits of their ancestors or the attributes of their descendants, it can create a social nudge that encourages a longer view.
Ultimately, we must weigh our awareness of our eventual deaths and the discomfort that accompanies future uncertainty against the innumerable benefits of foresight.
We may have more responsibility to act well than any other species on Earth, but we are indomitable world builders and problem solvers, capable of transmitting knowledge across time and building civilisations over thousands of years.
Foresight may be fraught, but it is truly foundational for how we have come to comprehend time.
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That’s not all that’s in Part II of The Long View. Readers can also discover:
What’s your “time perspective”? Are you past-, present- or future-oriented?
What cognitive biases and habits shorten or lengthen our views?
How does the language you speak affect your time perception?
And along the way, the book profiles people who have a completely different mental view of time, such as the Yupno indigenous people of New Guinea, who envision time as flowing uphill.
“For the Yupno, time is understood topographically.”
This voyage into our mental architecture and through our temporal habits will leave you with a greater appreciation for what a monumental task it is to change our thinking about time.
Even so, as we will discover in part III – it is possible to do so.
Richard in conversation with Xavier Bonilla of the podcast Converging Dialogues
Economist Tyler Cowen writes about The Long View in the TLS
“The Long View is sprawling in its coverage, but clear throughout, and offers a compelling vision of how so many strands of human thought have come together to support long-term perspectives.”
Cowen’s piece is the TLS cover feature, illustrated with a Gerard O’Neill-style space settlement:
The Long View becomes Nicola Sturgeon’s “last tweet”
A news story about The Long View appeared in The Times this week that, well, we could never have anticipated. It’s about the Twitter account of Nicola Sturgeon, the former First Minister of Scotland, whose husband is currently being investigated by police.
While the situation for Sturgeon and her husband is suboptimal, The Times reports that Sturgeon’s now silent Twitter account is frozen in place at her praise of The Long View.
After lauding the book for warning against the dangers of short-termist thinking in news and political cycles, Sturgeon called the book “very timely.”
‘The fire that never goes out’ – Long Now Ideas
What can we learn about long-term thinking from millennia-old Zoroastrian fire rituals? Richard adapted an essay from The Long View for the Long Now Foundation about Zoroastrianism’s ‘everlasting fires’.
Like so many faiths and cultures, Zoroastrianism emphasizes that there is a bond between generations. Through a shared act, by focusing attention on a fire that must be tended, the Zoroastrians pass a sacred responsibility forward. What makes this so powerful is that along the way, individuals personally benefit with status and other rewards.
In the book, he calls this approach: the ‘continuity timeview’.
Deep time on YouTube
ICYMI - two of Richard’s BBC deep time series are now on the BBC News YouTube channel. The first film – ‘The man who discovered the abyss of time’ – has now been watched more than 600,000 times!
The Long View in the wild
The Long View is finally available for purchase! You can look for a copy at your local book shop or you can get it here from other retailers, as well as the e-book and Audible version (read by Richard!) If you’d like 25% off the cover price and live in the UK, visit the Headline shop, and use this code at checkout: LONGVIEW25
best wishes,
Richard & Xander - The Long View team
Previous editions of The Long View: A Field Guide
Imagining the Future is a MOST IMPORTANT aspect of Human Survival and thriving despite dire trends. Humanity & Civilization can co-exist as we build a more open minded society. Start with Education so young leaders can see a workable path forward.