# You Don't Actually Know What Your Future Self Wants | Shankar Vedantam  ## About - Author: TED Talks Daily - Title: You Don't Actually Know What Your Future Self Wants | Shankar Vedantam - Tags: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/e2aff080-e752-43ed-8b9f-b65930823782 ## Highlights > The Illusion of Continuity Transcript: Speaker 1 We can see how anxiety and isolation and upheavals in our lives and livelihoods, how this has changed us, changed our outlook, changed our perspective. But there is a paradox here, and the paradox is when we look backwards, we can see enormous changes in who we have become. But when we look forwards, we tend to imagine that we are going to be the same people in the future. Now sure, we imagine the world is going to be different. We know that AI and climate change is going to mean for a very different world. But we don't imagine that we ourselves will have different perspectives, different views, different preferences in the future. I call this the illusion of continuity. And I think one reason this happens is that when we look backwards, the contrast with our prior selves to who we are today is so clear. We can see it so clearly that we have become different people. When we look forward, we can imagine ourselves being a little older, a little grayer. But we don't imagine fundamentally that we're going to have a different outlook or a different perspective that we're going to be different people. And so those changes seem more amorphous. ([Time 0:03:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/15a8ea47-f88e-4e1c-be1b-78e6da85778c)) --- > The Challenge of Making Decisions for the Future Transcript: Speaker 1 And a nurse at the hospital asks Stephanie, Mrs. Rinker, would you like us to put you on a ventilator? And Stephanie says yes. John is flabbergasted. They've been having this conversation for 30 years, surely that's not what Stephanie wants. He doesn't say anything. The next morning he says, Steph, when the nurse asked you yesterday if you wanted to go on a ventilator and you said yes, is that really what you want? And Stephanie Rinker said yes. Now you might argue that if Stephanie had written out an advance directive, if Stephanie had come into the hospital unconscious, if the nurse had asked John, what is it your wife would Want? John, without hesitation, would have said, of course she does not want to go on a ventilator. We should try and figure out a way to keep her as comfortable as possible so that she can die with dignity. But of course, this only solves the legal conundrum. It doesn't solve the ethical problem here. And the ethical problem is that Stephanie at age 39, as she was healthy, had no real conception of what Stephanie at age 59 with a terminal illness, gasping for air, would really want. For the older Stephanie, her younger self might as well have been a stranger, a stranger who was trying to make life and death decisions for her. ([Time 0:07:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/310354f0-54e2-4864-953c-5586d92bed56)) --- > We are a walking Ship of Theseus Transcript: Speaker 1 Philosophers have talked for many years about a thought experiment. It's sometimes called the Ship of Thesis. The great warrior Thesis returned from his exploits. His ship was stationed in the harbor as a memorial. And over the decades, part of the ship began to rot and decay. As this happened, planks were replaced by new planks until eventually every part of the Ship of Thesis was built from something new. And philosophers starting with Plato have asked the question, if every part of the Ship of Thesis is new, is this still the Ship of Thesis? You and I are walking examples of the Ship of Thesis. Our selves turn over all the time. The people you were 10 years ago are not the people you are today. Biologically, you have become a different person. ([Time 0:08:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d8c56fdd-cfda-42b8-85ba-3619296cd009)) --- > The Ship of Theseus and the Ever-Changing Self Transcript: Speaker 1 You and I are walking examples of the Ship of Thesis. Our selves turn over all the time. The people you were 10 years ago are not the people you are today. Biologically, you have become a different person. But I believe something much more profound happens at a psychological level. Because you could argue, a ship is not just a collection of planks. A body is not just a collection of cells. It's the organization of the planks that makes the ship. It's the organization of the cells that make the body. If you preserve the organization, even if you swap planks in and out or cells in and out, you still have the ship, you still have the same body. But at a psychological level, each new layer that's put down is not identical to the one that came before it. The famous plasticity of the brain that we've all heard so much about means that on an ongoing basis, you are constantly becoming a new person. This has profound consequences for so many different aspects of our lives. ([Time 0:09:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/86516b03-67a1-46d4-8444-8c8f4adf7294)) --- > The Pitfall of Imagining Permanence Transcript: Speaker 1 When we pass laws, we often do so with an intent of making a better country, improving our country. But any country that's been around for a few decades has numerous laws in the books that made perfect sense when they were crafted. In fact, they were seen as enlightened when they were crafted. And today they seem antiquated or absurd or even unconscionable. And all of these examples stem from the same problem, which is that we imagine that we represent the end of history, that the future is only going to be more of the same. ([Time 0:11:21](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3e49a13d-a4a5-485c-9b7e-05f785095794)) --- > We spend our lives trying to make our future selves happy Transcript: Speaker 1 And it is a wicked problem because all of us spend so much of our lives trying to make our future selves happy. We don't stop to ask, is it possible that in 20 or 30 years our future selves are going to look back at us with bewilderment, with resentment, that our future selves will ask us what made You possibly think that that is what I would want. ([Time 0:12:01](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cbe70be0-5ddd-439d-a194-b93f50ac6cc1)) --- > Curate Your Future Self Transcript: Speaker 1 The first piece of advice I have is if you accept the idea that you're going to be a different person in 30 years' time, you should play an active role crafting the person you are going to Become. You should be the curator of your future self. You should be the architect of your future self. But what does that mean? Spend time with people who are not just your friends and family. Spend time on avocations and professional pursuits that are not just what you do regularly. Expand your horizons because you're going to become someone different, you might as well be in charge of deciding who that person is going to be. So the first piece of advice is to stay curious. ([Time 0:12:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0390935c-ad8c-423b-92bb-aefb84adccd1)) --- > Be humble in your thoughts and words: future you might disagree! Transcript: Speaker 1 Second, as we make pronouncements on social media or in political forums or at dinner parties, let's bear in mind that among the people who might disagree with us are our own future selves. So when we express views with great certitude and great confidence, let's remember to add a touch of humility. ([Time 0:13:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/db855042-936e-4fa7-914d-17b5583dcec8)) --- > Be brave: trust that your future self will rise to the occasion Transcript: Speaker 1 I've given you a number of ways in which our future selves are going to be weaker and frailer than we are today. And that is true, that is part of the story. But it is only a part of the story. Our future selves are also going to have capacities and strengths and wisdom that we do not possess today. So when we confront opportunities and we hesitate, when I tell myself, I don't think I have it in me to quit my job and start my own company. Or I tell myself, I don't have it in me to learn a musical instrument at the age of 52. Or I tell myself, I don't have it in me to look after a disabled child. What we really should be saying is, I don't have the capacity to do those things today. That doesn't mean I won't have the capacity to do those things tomorrow. So lesson number three is to be brave. ([Time 0:14:09](https://share.snipd.com/snip/69566ed7-ec0c-4cf2-89f9-45a8e90920a2)) ---