Future
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The future is commonly understood to contain all events that have yet to occur. It is the opposite of the past, and is the time subsequent to the present.
In a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected time line that is anticipated to occur. In the conception of space-time, the future is anticipated four dimensional co-ordinates where events occur.
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[edit] Forecasting
Organized efforts to predict or forecast the future may have derived from observations by early man of heavenly objects, which changed position in predictable patterns. The practice of astrology, today considered pseudoscience, evolved from the human desire to forecast the future.
Much of physical science can be read as an attempt to make quantitative and objective predictions about events. Statistical forecasting is the process of estimation in unknown situations. It can refer to estimation of time series, cross-sectional or longitudinal data.
Despite cognitive instruments for the comprehension of future, the stochastic nature of many natural and social processes has made precise forecasting the future elusive. Modern efforts such as future studies attempt to predict social trends, while more ancient practices, such as weather forecasting, have benefited from scientific and causal modelling.
[edit] Physics
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
In classical physics the future is just a half of the timeline. In special relativity the future is considered as absolute future or the future light cone.
[edit] Philosophy
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
In the philosophical concept of presentism the future is only made of probabilities that have yet to actualize and this is opposed to the past, the set of moments and events that have already actualized and have been experienced or recorded, and the present, the set of events that are occurring now.
[edit] Psychology
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
While ethologists consider animal behavior to be largely based on fixed action patterns or other learned traits in an animal's past, human behavior is known to encompass an anticipation of the future. Anticipatory behavior can be the result of a psychological outlook toward the future, for examples optimism, pessimism, and hope.
[edit] Religion
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Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008) |
Religions consider the future when they address issues such as karma, life after death, and eschatologies that study what the end of time and the end of the world will be. Religious figures have claimed to see into the future, such as prophets and diviners.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Future Wikia, a wiki engaged in fact-based speculations about the future
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