The future does indeed help create the present. Many events in my life are created in the present when I relive them later in my minds eye and connect with myself in the past from the point of view of the future me. When I connect, I cause myself in that past present to not only get a particular feeling, but I receive from myself images and feelings of what is about to occur. In this fashion I tell people what they are about to say, are thinking about (including specific numbers or details), or what is about to happen. I get that information from myself further down the time line as I relive it and connect with myself. After hundreds of these time loops, saving lives with it, having specific numbers and detailed knowledge of events about to happen which I inform people arround me of previous to them going down that path, I have no doubt that time loops exist. My familly, wife, friends, and co-workers are all amazed and think that I have some sort of psychic ability but I know that they are incorrect and in reality, for me, all time is NNNNNOOOOWWWWW and that I am just getting the information from myself farther down the time line when I relive it in my minds eye. I can not control it but when it happens, it has a distinctive feeling, is unforgettable, and defies scientific explanation. Often when it happens, I do or say things in the moment and that causes the reality to go down a particular path. My future creates my present as often as my past does. I assume that this is true for everyone, whether they realize it or not. There is truly no past, present, or future. That is a man made false breakdown of time to live in the moment. All time is NOW for all eternity. I AM for all eternity.

How does the Future act on the Present? Well, we find ourselves walking to the grocery store because we envision and desire baked salmon with asparagus. We pile up the bricks that will eventually become a cathedral, but the cathedral is already planned and desired.

Above and beyond the animal instincts, the future as project (whether great or small, individual or collective) is certainly important---some would say definitive) to humans when they direct their actions. In many instances, the past (or the remembered past) may also influence both the project and perhaps more immediately the steps taken to accomplish the project ( one wants to avoid the "mistakes" of earlier attempts, for example).

Above and beyond the animal instincts, the future as project (whether great or small, individual or collective) is certainly important---some would say definitive) to humans when they direct their actions. In many instances, the past (or the remembered past) may also influence both the project and perhaps more immediately the steps taken to accomplish the project ( one wants to avoid the "mistakes" of earlier attempts, for example).

Some judge other by their own experiences and if they have never experienced something that someone else has, they deem it impossible or a flight of fancy. Such is human arrogance.

. But I'm glad that someone else recognizes the important of the "Project" concept.

---------- Post added 05-14-2010 at 04:18 PM ----------

Let my try and elucidate on this time thing. Although quantum mechanics has proven that observation in the future of an event causes the event to take a particular path in the past (wave partical duality), on the human level, people have a hard time accepting that the future can influence or create the past experience (from the point of view of that future moment). The arrow of time thing points only one way for most people and anything else isn't what most people consciously experience, so they can't believe it is true (even if on the quantum level, scientists have shown that the future perception of the event influences that "past" event.)

For lack of another name and because when I discussed it with others, they had never experienced it nor heard of it, I made up my own terminology and called this phenomena "time loops". As an avid follower of all the sciences including quantum mechanics and astrophysics, I was excited that science was catching up on this front of how time actually works, even if it is only on the quantum level that it is now being measured and witnessed. I swear it is true and my wife, an avid realist who originally thought it sounded crazy when I met her and explained it to her 28 years ago, has not only witnessed it dozens of times but has now come to accept it since there is no other logical explanation.

As a child growing up, I would have events occur in which I was hyper aware of the "moment" and received "information" on the event starting up to a minute before the event, during the event, and a short time thereafter. The first time I remember it happening was when I was about 5 years old. A neighbor kid was about to say something and I said it for him. He looked at me and asked "what are you, a mind reader?" What am I thinking? I got a weird feeling and saw an image of a hoola dancer in my minds eye. So I told him, a hoola dancer. He freaked out, turned around and ran home. From that point on he told everyone I was a witch (which is ridiculous).

The second time I remember it happening was when I was 8 years old and asleep in the back seat of the car. The whole family was traveling to Wisconsin from Chicago and in my sleep, I perceived at a base level of my brain, even though I was asleep, the word "STOP" screaming at me. So I woke up and yelled STOP! my dad slammed on the breaks, skidded over the top of the hill, and came to a stop feet from a huge accident blocking the road that had just happened moments earlier. My dad was shaken and quivering with adrenalin and he asked me how I knew since there was nothing visible from the other side of the hill where I had screamed it. I told him that I had been asleep and I heard STOP in my brain, so I woke up and screamed it.

I later learned to understand and recognize the inner voice which turned out to be mine from later in the time line when I relived the experience in my minds eye. Every time I envisioned myself in the past "moment" when I had that weird feeling, or even told someone about it, I relived it and strengthened the signal to myself in the "moment". The more I viewed the event in my minds eye, the stronger the signal I received in that past moment when I experienced it. The "feeling" and information I received was from myself farther down the time line. I was connecting with myself and creating the future in the moment.

As I grew older, it would happen time and time again, but I could not control it. I would get the "feeling" and tell someone what they were going to say or even more complex things about to happen. Always, I would relive the experience later that day, week, month, or year, after it happened and connect with myself in the past, when I relived it. It sounds crazy but I would get the feeling and just see in my minds eye information that I could not know before the event, but I would. It was bizarre. My father called me the luckiest person he ever met in his life. After hundreds of "events" over several years, I came to accept the phenomena when it occurred and even gave it a name "time loops". Whether it was with co-workers asking "guess what happened to me this morning" and I got the feeling and I saw in my minds eye a squirrel flopping on the ground dying as his car moved on" so I told him. He told me that was exactly right, he didn't know if he had killed it or not but that he felt horrible about it, etc. He was shocked that I had "guessed" it. Later that night, I relived the moment in my minds eye and connected in the "moment" with myself, and that is when the image traveled back to my minds eye. I learned to recognize the feeling and my own self sending the minds image.

I figured out (over 30 years ago) that time is not as humans perceive it. There is no past, present, or future. That is just a man made human break down of time with everything already experienced as the past, this short elusive moment as the present (already the past) and all moments not yet reached as the future. Mankind goes now, now, now, now ..... In the real time of the universe, everything is ...NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOWWWWW... from the start of time to the end of time. Man's break down of time is just an illusion so he can live his daily life in the moment.

In conclusion, although a human perceiver of a quantum event affects the event, even if the perception happens "later" (in the human perception of time), most people don't realize that the future perception effects the moment (in the past from the future perceptions point of view), even on the human level (not just the quantum level). You may not ever remember having experienced a time loop or recognized it for what it is, but I (and all my family, friends, and co-workers who have witnessed it, repetitively) know that it is possible to get information from yourself in the future. At least that is what I believe is happening because I recognize my own self and relive the event which causes me to have that feeling in the past. Sounds crazy but I have no better explanation for it when it happens. When they happen (I have now had it happen several hundreds of times by the age of 46), I get a real weird feeling of super heightened awareness in the "moment" and I usually get detailed mental images of what is about to happen (sometimes specific numbers, objects, and names) that I know come from myself down the time line and never knew before from past experience or information. The future really does influence the present. I AM living it.

When I am in "doing mode" (outputting to accomplish a task in the moment) I am so busy doing and outputting that I receive nothing from myself down the time line. Every time a time loop has ever happened, I was briefly slip into "observation mode" (in which mode I am receiving, not outputting). I don't believe that time loops can occur in "doing mode".

Some judge other by their own experiences and if they have never experienced something that someone else has, they deem it impossible or a flight of fancy. Such is human arrogance. I accept that not all minds operate the same way and not all experiences that others have had, that I necessarily have. That does not negate their experience just because I haven't had it. It only makes me strive harder to experience it if it is something I wish to perceive or understand. Open minds absorb, closed minds block out information and experiences. Thank you for reading this with an open mind.:listening:

Both Sartre and Heidegger emphasize that it is through projects that one "owns" one's future, whether the plans are exceedingly complex (e.g. let's build a network of superhighways across the nation) to a simple one of buying a new coffee pot or making plans to attend a wedding. Both also recognise that projects (and the steps necessary to achieve them) are always open to "on the fly" adjustments as the process unfolds, and even complete rejection.

e. Without the importance of the future, would there be any argument between determinism and free will?

Many existentialists would say that the future is primary, especially since man is the being who is conscious of his death. Just as I own my future, in the same way, I own my own death. Religion seems a way to give an account for this phenomena even to the point of,
avoiding it by positing an afterlife with rewards and punishments for choices made during life.

If human life is always one of action (or reaction and avoidance), then the action is determined by a current vision of a future state. Without the importance of the future, would there be any argument between determinism and free will?