Viewing our future self like a stranger can influence our behavior. Research shows that when people think about their distant future selves, they tend to describe events as if observing from the outside, referring to their future self as another person in the scene. This third-person perspective highlights a subtle shift in perception, indicating a detachment from the future self.
We often do things now that will make our lives more difficult or stressful in the future. We spend money, when we should save. We eat junk food, when we should exercise. We agree to commitments, when we should protect our free time. We act so thoughtlessly that it's almost like we hate our future selves.
Dr Laurie asks UCLA's Hal Hershfield to help her find the happiness balance between listening to what she wants now, and the preferences she might have in the future. And she steps into an AI time machine to get some happiness advice for herself decades from today.
Try talking to the "you of tomorrow" using the MIT Media Lab's Future You chatbot at https://futureyou.media.mit.edu/
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