Create Your Ideal Future Using Science-Based Protocols | Ari Wallach

Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Andrew Huberman's conversation with Ari Wallach about creating your ideal future through science-based approaches and long-term thinking.

1. Mental time travel as a uniquely human ability

Humans have the extraordinary capacity for mental time travel - projecting ourselves into the future to anticipate potential outcomes. This ability, centered in the hippocampus, allows us to envision different possible scenarios and collaborate to make desired futures manifest.

Unlike most animals, we can think about different possible outcomes and work together to achieve the ones we want. This mental time travel ability evolved from our early hunting days when we needed to anticipate animal movements and plan accordingly. The hippocampus plays a crucial role, taking snapshots of past experiences and reassembling them to help us navigate potential futures.

2. Present-focused thinking limits our potential

Modern technology and cultural patterns have hacked our ancient neural circuitry, causing us to focus excessively on immediate gratification and short-term thinking. This "presentism" creates a hall of mirrors effect where we're constantly reacting to notifications and stimuli rather than engaging in longer-term planning.

The architecture of our technologies and human interactions has locked us into stimulus-response mode, making it difficult to connect our present actions with future consequences. Social media, particularly, functions like a casino with intermittent reward schedules designed to keep us engaged in short-term thinking. This narrowing of our temporal horizon diminishes our ability to think about and plan for the long-term future.

3. Transgenerational empathy as a foundation for future-thinking

Transgenerational empathy starts with self-compassion, then extends to those who came before us, and finally builds empathy for future generations. Self-compassion involves recognizing you're doing the best you can with what you have, rather than holding yourself to impossible standards of perfection.

This concept helps counteract the disconnection that characterizes modern civilization - disconnection from ourselves, from each other, and from nature. By fostering connections across time, we develop a deeper sense of purpose and meaning. Establishing this empathic connection with future generations requires feeling their emotional states, not just intellectually understanding them.

4. Emotions as future guidance systems

Emotions aren't just reactions to past events but essential guidance systems for future decisions. They serve as "kedge anchors" that pull us toward desired futures and drive behavioral changes. When we intellectualize future goals without emotional connection, we often fail to execute on them.

To effectively plan for the future, we need to connect emotionally with how we want future generations to feel, not just list external conditions like shelter or healthcare. Emotions will pull us toward those futures and alter our behaviors accordingly. This differs from simply visualizing outcomes, as it links desired states with emotional markers that motivate action.

5. Confronting mortality to embrace long-term thinking

Our reluctance to confront our own mortality creates a significant barrier to long-term thinking. As Ernest Becker argued in "The Denial of Death," humans uniquely recognize their mortality early in life, and much of what we create - from religion to culture to material possessions - serves to push back against the reality that we will cease to exist.

Until we reconcile ourselves with our mortality, it remains difficult to think properly about the future and our role as ancestors. Practices like death meditation can help us confront this reality and paradoxically free us from society's burdens. Western culture generally avoids direct confrontation with death and aging, making it harder to engage in meaningful long-term thinking.

6. Legacy beyond ego

True legacy isn't about having your name on buildings or being remembered personally, but about how you influence future generations through the values and behaviors you model. In just 250 years, you might have 50,000 descendants who will be influenced by the patterns you establish.

The most impactful way to influence the future isn't through egoic recognition but through how you interact with others in daily life. How you treat the barista, your partner, or colleagues creates cultural units (memes) that transmit both laterally and longitudinally to future generations. These behavioral patterns will impact future generations far more than any monument with your name on it.

7. Finding purpose in the absence of traditional structures

With the decline of religious frameworks that traditionally provided meaning and purpose, we need new ways to understand our role in the larger human story. Science can tell us how we got here but not where we should be going. This creates a challenge for society in finding shared purpose and meaning.

The concept of "telos" (ultimate aim or goal) is crucial but often missing in contemporary life. Without this larger sense of purpose previously provided by religion, people flounder and look for metrics to judge whether they matter. This creates an opportunity to consciously develop new shared goals focused on human flourishing rather than short-term gratification.

8. Practical protocols for future-oriented thinking

Several practical tools can help expand our temporal horizon. These include placing an empty picture frame alongside family photos to represent future generations, writing letters to your future self, and displaying an aged photo of yourself to connect with your future identity.

Research by Hal Herschfield shows that people who see aged versions of themselves make better long-term decisions, like saving more for retirement. This happens because we typically view our future selves as strangers (activating the same brain regions as thinking about celebrities). Visual reminders of our future selves help bridge this gap and improve decision-making.

9. Shifting from dystopian to protopian narratives

Most future-oriented fiction for young people depicts dystopian scenarios. This negativity bias attracts attention but limits our ability to envision positive futures. We need more "protopian" stories - depicting futures that aren't perfect but show meaningful progress and improvement.

Creating and sharing stories set in these better tomorrows can serve as kedge anchors, helping pull society through current challenges. These narratives should acknowledge imperfections while demonstrating significant progress. Protopian stories contrast with both utopian visions (perfect but unrealistic) and dystopian scenarios (collapse and destruction).

10. Creating ripples of influence through modeling

Every interaction creates ripples that extend far beyond our immediate circle. By modeling thoughtful, empathic behavior in daily interactions, we teach future generations how to behave, even if they never know our names. This influence works through social emotional contagion, where behaviors and attitudes spread like memes.

The way we interact with others becomes how we "meet" our great-grandchildren, as our behavioral patterns transmit across generations. Even our digital footprint and conversations, like this podcast, may influence people decades into the future. Examining inherited stories (both societal and personal), discarding unhelpful ones, and consciously creating new narratives helps us move forward with agency and purpose.