How we value time frames our outcomes and incentives.
I am aware that a human limitation is our understanding of time. Time itself is something that humans have created to help us comprehend the rules that govern us. Whilst society is exceptionally good at managing short-time frames (next minute, hour, day and week), it is well established that humans are very bad at comprehending longer time frames (decades, centuries and millenniums). Humans are proficient at overestimating what we can do in the next year and wildly under-estimate what we can achieve in 10 years. (Gates Law) Therefore, I know there is a problem when we consider how we should value the next 50,000 years. However, we are left with fewer short-terms options each year and are left to consider longer and bigger - the very thing we are less capable of. Why 50,000 years The orange circle below represents the 6.75 trillion people (UN figure) who will be born in the next 50,000 years. The small grey circle represents the 100 billion dead who have already lived on earth