Imagining our future... and changing it

摘要

The terms 'prediction' and 'mental projection' might conjure up images of an elderly bejewelled fortune teller, able to foretell upcoming disasters and deep desires. I study future thinking of a different kind - things we imagine and that circle unremittingly around our minds. Typically, we direct our future thoughts toward the full spectrum of life's concerns - work, leisure, relationships - and they can range from the mundane ('I imagine going for a medical check-up') to the life-changing ('I imagine asking my girlfriend to marry me'). The act of mentally envisioning oneself in a hypothetical future scenario, or of episodic future thinking (envisioning a single event set in a specific time and place in the future), has become a hive of psychological activity and I would like to tell the story of how it has emerged as a central topic of interest.