Ari Wallach: Create Your Ideal Future Using Science-Based Protocols

Ari Wallach and Marty Seligman introduce the concept that the ability of humans to mentally time-travel and envision future scenarios is a distinguishing feature of our species. This skill plays a critical role in our evolutionary history and continues to inform how we consider our impact on future generations.

Homo sapiens possess a unique ability to mentally time-travel and envision future scenarios

This mental time travel skill emerged as an evolutionary adaptation to enable more strategic hunting, gathering, and survival planning

The ability to think ahead emerged approximately 150,000 years ago as Homo sapiens began to hunt larger game. This required them to mentally time travel to consider various future outcomes and strategies. Wallach discusses these complex hunting scenarios, which required strategic thinking and planning, as essential to providing more protein for their increasingly energy-intensive brains.

The human hippocampus plays a key role in this future-oriented cognition by assembling and recombining past memories into imagined future scenarios

The hippocampus lacks a timestamp, allowing it to flexibly construct mental models of potential future events

Wallach explains how the hippocampus, a brain region without a specific timestamp for memories, can take snapshots of episodic memories and reconstruct them to enable projections into the future. This reconstructiv ...

Andrew Huberman and Ari Wallach explore how the modern technological and cultural climate fosters a state of short-term thinking and reactivity, while the decline of traditional structures further compounds the issue.

Modern technological and cultural environments have conditioned humans to exist in a perpetual state of stimulus-response reactivity

Huberman voices concern over society's conditioning towards quick gratifications, where rewards are expected on short timetables. He traces the evolution from game shows to social media, where dramatic content gains attention. The hosts contemplate the idea of a "time capsule" social media platform that emphasizes lasting content over short-term virality.

The proliferation of instant notifications, social media, and short-term reward schedules have narrowed our temporal horizons

Huberman expresses concern over the "shorter timescale reward thing" tied to social media and instant purchases. He describes how modern-day notifications condition humans to focus on immediate gratification, engaging in constant stimulus-response interactions, shifting cognitive focus from future-oriented thinking to being locked in the present.

This technology is said to hack the older parts of our brain, narrowing our temporal horizons and making it hard to consider long-term planning. Huberman likens social media rewards to Las Vegas casinos which maximize short-term thinking. Social media operates on similar random intermittent schedules, reinforcing short-term engagement with content that has a short half-life.

Algorithms on social platforms are designed to feed individual content preferences, maintaining a stimulus-response state. Smartphones are compared to slot machines, consistently engaging users with preferred content.

The erosion of traditional institutions and belief systems that previously provided overarching meaning and purpose has contributed to a crisis of long-term thinking

Wallach observes how religious institutions historically provided a purpose to human existence, but the rise of rationality and the Enlightenment has shifted perspectives, creating challenges in understanding our purpose without these structures.

Without a clear guiding telos or ultimate aim for humanity, individuals struggle to situate their lives within a broader generational legacy

The growth of ration ...

Ari Wallach, supported by the commentary of Andrew Huberman, describes strategies for cultivating empathy and compassion across generations, thereby fostering long-term, "transgenerational" thinking.

Developing empathy and compassion for one's past, present, and future selves is a foundation for long-term thinking

Wallach introduces the concept of "transgenerational empathy," starting with compassion for oneself as integral to long-term thinking. He critiques the cultural imagery and narratives promoting idealized success, which can lead to feelings of inadequacy. Wallach shares a personal story about showing self-compassion for his younger self's inability to be fully present during his father's cancer experience, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging one's continuous evolution over time. He argues that one must cultivate empathy with oneself first, as it is difficult to have empathy for the past or future without first developing it for oneself.

Worth emphasizing is Wallach's rejection of legacy as ego-driven recognition, stating his impact on future generations will manifest through the behaviors he models for his children and those around him. These behaviors become memes, according to Susan Blackmore's theory, and are cultural units that pass laterally and to future generations.

Wallach explains that he may not meet his great-grandchildren biologically, but his model of being in the world will reach them. His children learn from observing his interactions, suggesting his behaviors and values will impact how they and their descendants treat others.

Wallach's "long path" thinking promotes everyday behaviors and decisions as contributing to a large-scale vision of the future society. Andrew Huberman contributes by outlining that being present and attentive is crucial for developing empathy, and Martha Beck's practice involves reflecting on past empowering states to anchor oneself to those emotions.

Multiple exercises were discussed that can foster this empathy, such as Wallach visualizing his own aging to influence daily decisions, and Huberman's use of a life-weeks chart to gain perspective on life's timeline. Functional MRI studies reveal people consider their future selves like strangers, but visualization can improve one's connection to their future self, as shown when individuals who met their aged selves in virtual reality engaged in increased savings behavior.

Practices like visualizing one's aged future self and writing letters to one's future self can foster this transgenerational empathy

Practices to build transgenerational empathy and compassion mentioned include having photos of ancestors, oneself, and blank frames for future generations, and using mantras such as "long path" to remind oneself of their role in a continuum beyond their lifetime.

Wallach suggests engaging with biographies and autobiographies to understand past struggles and imperfections, and he critiques the current nuclear family practice, contrasting it with indigenous practices. Huberman speaks about Dr. Wendy Suzuki’s work teaching NYU students emotional development and self-regulation, fostering a forward-thinking attitude.

Wallach talks about writing letters to one's future self and visualizing a better future not only as self-sacrifice but as pro-self and others initiatives. These acts can enable stronger emotional connections with future generations. Huberman mentions creating time capsules and record keeping as fostering a sense of legacy and interconne ...

Storytelling, institutions, and cultural narratives play pivotal roles in how we perceive and prepare for the future. Their influence on our cultural mindsets and transmission of long-term values and purposes has significant implications for the collective orientation towards the generations to come.

Prevalent dystopian narratives in popular fiction and media cultivate a negative, pessimistic view of the future

Ari Wallach remarks on the prevalence of dystopian narratives in young adult literature like "The Hunger Games," "The Hundred," and "The Maze Runner," portraying a future gone wrong. These stories serve as early warnings, but also shape a negative view of the future. Wallach contends that we must shift from dystopia to "protopia," a term coined by Kevin Kelly for a future that is better, though not perfect. Creating stories with "better tomorrows" can inspire a more constructive vision of the future.

Counterbalancing this with "protopian" stories of gradual human progress and flourishing could shift cultural mindsets

Andrew Huberman and Wallach agree on the importance of proliferating "protopian" stories in media and literature to counterbalance the negative, pessimistic view cultivated by dystopian narratives. These optimistic tales could encourage a cultural mindset supportive of human flourishing and progress over time.

The erosion of traditional institutions like religion, academia, and family structures has disrupted the transmission of long-term values and purpose

Wallach discusses the disconnection from self, others, and nature—a significant error in modern civilization—suggested by the erosion of institutions such as religion, and how past traditions engendered a sense of connectedness. The essence of religion about love and connection to something larger is emphasized, despite its practice sometimes being tangled in power and control.

Reexamining and selectively preserving beneficial aspects of these institutions while innovating new mechanisms for intergenerational knowledge transfer is crucial

A significant shift in society's trust and reliance on institutions like academia and religion, which historically helped transmit long-term values, has been noted. Wallach and Huberman discuss the need for new guiding narratives or stories, as traditional institutions no longer articulate a desired direction for the future. People are less influenced by religion and traditional family structures, whi ...