When I watched the PredictionX interview with Dan Gilbert, I was surprised to learn that there are numerous similarities between the past and the future. Gilbert’s statement that remembering is using imagination as a lens with which to look at the past especially intrigued me. I often think that imagination is more pertinent to the future because it is often connected with what we hope will happen. Further, although the past is limited by the presence of data, I enjoyed learning that we can also use our imagination to remember events from the past. After watching the interview with Dan Gilbert, I realized that we can perhaps change our memories by using our imaginations or use factual events to maintain an accurate view of the past. However, it is challenging to determine how happy something will actually make us. Therefore, does memory exist in the space between imagination and factual events in the past?
I also found Gilbert’s statement about only looking for the good parts of the future surprising. When I think about the future, I find that I’ll sometimes only think about the bad parts, rather than avoiding them as Gilbert suggested. However, I agree that how we look at the future is determined by how we will react to future events instead of just what will happen. I also enjoyed learning about the connections between the past, present, and future. Although Gilbert explained that the future is often the focus of our thoughts because the present is a small moment and the past is no longer interesting because it’s over, I think that thinking about the past can be just as interesting as thinking about the future. Indeed, when I think about the past, I can imagine how things could have gone differently or what might have happened if I made a different decision. Just as Gilbert explained in the interview, imagination can be whatever we want it to be.
To watch the PredictionX interview with Dan Gilbert, please see the link to the interview here!