On Time…
The future is now but what does that mean to me..?
The other day I was out for a casual jog when all of a sudden, I was swarmed by a gang of electric unicycle riders from the future, who happen to be crossing paths with me on the trail I was on. I found myself smack dab in the middle of a proverbial technological stampede.
They were a uniform and methodical bunch with equal spacing between each rider and what I perceived as a hierarchical structure, with the leader in the front, in what looked like the most elegantly crafted unicycle. With the deep blue light radiating from their wheels, reflecting off the dull concrete, I began to feel as though I had stumbled into some uncanny, shamanistic gathering of the technological elite and ‘transportationaly woke’ — was this just a strange encounter or a sign that the Future was ~here~?
This encounter evoked a visceral reaction. The juxtaposing images of myself, running, a traditional form of exercise, tried and true, in contrast with a group of individuals gliding, hovering even, on their electronic vehicles, composed of intricate electrical wiring, LED lights & cutting edge design, was too poignant to ignore. The experience, while somewhat traumatic, made me reflect on this idea of Past and Future and subsequently, what had caused this feeling of bewilderment?
Has the pace of innovation exceeded my ability to comprehend it? Could this somehow be related to how I perceived ‘Futureness’? How I perceive ‘Pastness’?
And so I embarked on a philosophical inquiry into how notions of Past and Future are constructed, perceived, and accepted as truth in hopes of understanding if my ideas of such had been somehow misconstrued along the way.
As you’ll see, I use ‘Past’ and ‘History’, interchangeably for the sake of my argument.
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Formation of Future & Past in Institutions.
I started by reflecting on my relationship with the academic institutions that have played a pivotal role in building the foundation for my knowledge of History and Future.
As children and adults, we are mesmerized by the imagery of flying cars, space, robots ect. Most of our experience with futuristic ideas is presented to us in the form of the movies and the TV shows we watch. We don’t study or are ‘taught’ the ‘Future’, academically speaking. The Future is elusive, unpredictable, and chaotic. It’s not rooted in fact so it’s hard to study.
We learn about the Past differently. We read about History in school, we study wars, laws, and elections. We watch black and white movies, we look at old pictures & we listen to our grandparents tell us stories of what the world used to be like.
History is easier for us to grasp due to its factual nature, it permits us the ability to construct a narrative of what the world used to be like. We impose a certain ‘mental layering’ over the past that assists us in interpreting & discerning the importance of these events in relation to our lives & belief systems, we remember what is important to us and forget much else. We can’t form a succinct narrative around the Future because it hasn’t happened yet… so we are taught.
I began to think that just the nature of ways History and Future are ‘taught’ in school, contributed to a sort of categorical distinction between Past and Future — the past was studied and the future was constructed. I placed myself in the middle of two distinct time periods. I organized Past and Future in two separate boxes and filed them under ‘Time Periods I Am Not Part Of’.
Pedagogy is one way of knowledge creation but what about the Mediums by which this knowledge is presented to us? How does that affect our perception? Let’s move on to understanding how the Mediums by which we engage with these ideas may or may not influence our definitions.
Past & Future in Medium
Much of how we learn about Past is through old and antiquated Mediums; think textbooks, photos, memoirs, letters etc. If 15th-century Colonization was studied through say, an E-Book on my iPad, how would that shape my perception of the Past versus the clunky & antiquated textbooks we used to read in school? I can say for myself, that studying the Past in this way further contributes to my idea of Past as some period way before me.
On the contrary, the television show, ‘The Jetsons’, was a formative elementary lesson in Futurism. Every Sunday I could be found curled up in the crevasse of my couch with a bowl of cereal, bewildered by the novel imagery and chaotic scenery of what was being presented on the television.
This was my first experience with Future. It was a passive engagement displayed on what was at the time, considered novel technology (TV’s).
The chasm of Past and Future widened for me. The Past was somehow affiliated with just plain ‘old’, the mediums I learned the Past through helped construct this idea for me. The Future, however, was imaginative & stimulating. I could be a passive recipient during my interactions with Futurism, largely because they were presented to me in this passive way through television. I let my mind roam free in this obscure realm I knew nothing about.
The mediums we use to engage with these ideas further perpetuate their supposed difference and as such, impact the way we come to define and relate to notions of Past and Future.
I was beginning to see how my ideas of Past and Future could easily be deconstructed and how my perceptions of these ideas weren’t necessarily reflective of what Past and Future actually were but rather, reflections of the way I had been taught to learn and engage with them.
Language & its Limitations
My mind drifted towards language and the way we often speak and the Past and Future in this innocuous sort of way.
Our minds interpret Past as something that occurred ‘before now’ but how is that reflected in language? I could talk about the meal I just ate for breakfast as taking part of the ‘Past’, I could even go as far as to say ‘it was part of history’, subjectively, this is true. Alternatively, I could also refer to the battle of Vimy Ridge as history, a more significant event, objectively, and equally as true.
Each proposition could be considered correct as they both reflect a portion of reality. If in an academic setting, your teacher asked you to name a historic event, you probably wouldn’t bring up breakfast but you’d instead bring up the battle of Vimy Ridge. However, in interactions with friends, we often say ‘x happen and the rest was history’, contributing to the subjective and less serious, definition of history.
Context is central to how we use our language to describe our world.
Context shapes meaning, without context meaning is subjective and wholly up for interpretation. The context in which you are asked to name a historic event influences which ‘historic’ event you recall and speak of. The language I use to articulate these events is actually quite confusing. I use language to emphasize the closeness of history but also use it to emphasize the distance of it as well.
Language can only go as far as the reality it refers to or creates. If I’m not careful with emphasizing the context to which I describe certain events then I confuse these temporal notions with each other.
The language we use to define History and the Future isn’t as rigid as we often perceive. In fact, we go about our lives constantly using different definitions of these terms, in different contexts, with different people. This muddles with this temporal notion we think we see Past and Future as being a part of.
We speak of Past and Future in one way but think of it in another.
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The idea that Past and Future were two very distinct time periods became less true for me as I continued to reflect on them. If my ideas about Past and Future were just constructs influenced by the institutions I grew up in then certainly they could change if I grew up elsewhere. If the mediums by which we study past and future influence our perception, then certainly the removal of such mediums would change my perception. If I’m limited in my ability to accurately use language as a tool to articulate ideas about Past and Future, and my language represents my world, how am I then to interpret reality?
In the depths of uncertainty, I began to think about why I had been easily convinced of my ideas? What was so alluring about my past modes of thinking? What did they do for me?
Displacement with Past & Future
If we understand how our perceptions of Past and Future are constructed and then cemented in our belief system, what sort of disposition do we take towards these ideas? I began to realize that our antiquated ideas of Past & Future leave us feeling completely disassociated, irresponsible, and acutely apathetic.
It has been solidified that I view History as a time ‘far back’ and Future as a time ‘far away’. The way we learn about History/Future in school, the way we interact with the mediums that teach us about History/Future, and our laziness with language, all contribute to my disassociation with these time periods.
What I feel is totally disconnected from the Past and Future without even really being conscious of it. I have constructed this narrative of Past and Future that exists well before me and well beyond me. As such, I am left out of the picture and I avoid any personal responsibility that may come from me feeling a part of these ideas.
I believe the crux of the matter is this evasion of personal responsibility that is fostered by my dissociation. These notions of Past and Future as distinct, clear-cut periods of time, make us feel as though we exist completely outside of them and in turn, completely absolve us of any burden we should carry to change them.
I believe this sort of not feeling like a part of Past of Future explains why some feel a certain apathy towards the current monumental movements going on in our world. These events are certainly historic and will be talked about for years to come (the crumbling of America), do we not fully realize this? It’s odd that these events do not galvanize us beyond the performative social media posts.
In a similar vein, because of this apathetic disposition, we take to the events of our time, we are quick to hand over the burden of responsibility to change them, to someone else. I perceive this as a sort of ‘idol worshipping’ that is again, fostered by our inability to perceive our place in Past and Future correctly.
However, the blame cannot solely be placed on the individual for not understanding their place in the world. There are external factors that contribute to this folly that are worth mentioning.
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Externalities Affecting Perception of Past & Future: Entertainment
Our habits and routines are so ingrained in the very fiber of our being that it’s often difficult to ‘see the water we’re swimming in’. Entertainments want to keep us ‘swimming’ and make the water seem as pleasant as possible. For if we ever got out of the water, we’d see its chlorine levels and refuse to dive back in. It’s the job of media to dissuade you of dissent and perpetuate this idea of dissociation from Past and Future. Their job is to make the water seem comforting and warm — why would you ever want to jump out of the water?!
What Entertainment is dissuading you of is your personal responsibility as a human to shape your life and subsequently, the world. The myriad of distractions you engage in on a daily basis slowly erodes your agency till you eventually deem any personal action as useless.
I arrive at the understanding of how my apathetic disposition is formed and further amplified by Entertainments in order to suppress and limit my engagement with the world around me.
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I conclude that well, Past and Future are happening all the time, every second of your life you are engaging in the Past and Future. Defining Past and Future in strictly temporal terms is erroneous and limiting. This is perhaps a platitude and a conclusion that others probably have reached, if that’s the case then I’m sorry.
However, our response to the Past and History should not be taken as lightly.
This served as a wake-up call for me and had shaken me from a previous state of passivity. The Past is here and so is the Future. What that means is my ability to impact my life and place in the world has never been more timely. I am not waiting for the Past to finish or the Future to arrive, they’ve in fact, always been here.
My encounter with the high-flying unicycle gang was moving because it exposed the way I thought about the Past and Future as entirely incorrect. The visual of this unicycle crew represented a mesmerizingly violent clashing of Past and Future right before my eyes. In that split second, these two time periods met each other, intermingled, and then departed.
I realize that I am engaging in ideas of the Past and Future, every second. As such, I realize that I carry a certain responsibility as a human being on this earth to make a positive impact on the past and future, as best I can. I refuse to be subdued into a comatose state that makes any sort of idea of positive impact and responsibility superfluous.
The future is now so what does that mean to you?
