Mental Time Machine

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The ability to imagine all these different hypotheticals really weighs us down with anxiety as human beings the way that other animals don't suffer? I think so. Well, because we're self aware enough to know that we're weak. It makes me wonder whether or not dogs or chimpanzees can have imposter syndrome. Can they like feel that they're not up to a task or just be embarrassed? Like, there's an evolutionary explanation for why people are able to anticipate threats in their environment. But it's a double-edged sword: It lets you prepare for upcoming dangers, but also plagues you with worries about all the possible things that could go wrong.

One of the most powerful of all human capacities is the ability to imagine ourselves in hypothetical situations at different times. We can remember the past, but also conjure up possible futures that haven’t yet happened. This simple ability underlies our capability to organize socially and make contracts with other people. Today’s guest, psychologist Adam Bulley, argues that it’s the primary feature that makes us recognizably human, as he argues in the new book The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight (with Thomas Suddendorf and Jonathan Redshaw).

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

Adam Bulley received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Queensland. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre and School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, and the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.