Future

[1] In the Occidental view, which uses a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected timeline that is anticipated to occur.

Physicists argue that spacetime can be understood as a sort of stretchy fabric that bends due to forces such as gravity.

While this effect is negligible under ordinary conditions, space travel at very high speeds can change the flow of time considerably.

As depicted in many science fiction stories and movies (e.g. Déjà Vu), a person traveling for even a short time at near light speed will return to an Earth that is many years in the future.

Some physicists claim that by using a wormhole to connect two regions of spacetime a person could theoretically travel in time.

Physicist Michio Kaku points out that to power this hypothetical time machine and "punch a hole into the fabric of space-time" would require the energy of a star.

Another view (not held by many philosophers) is sometimes called the 'growing block' theory of time—which postulates that the past and present exist, but the future does not.

Saint Augustine proposed that the present is a knife edge between the past and the future and could not contain any extended period of time.

Anticipatory behavior can be the result of a psychological outlook toward the future, for examples optimism, pessimism, and hope.

Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance—i.e., believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.

The term "afterlife" refers to the continuation of existence of the soul, spirit or mind of a human (or animal) after physical death, typically in a spiritual or ghostlike afterworld.

Deceased persons are usually believed to go to a specific region or plane of existence in this afterworld, often depending on the rightness of their actions during life.

Members of some generally non-theistic religions such as Buddhism, tend to believe in an afterlife like reincarnation but without reference to God.

While in mysticism the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine, in many traditional religions it is taught as an actual future event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore.

Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to determine the likelihood of future events and trends.

A key part of this process is understanding the potential future impact of decisions made by individuals, organizations, and governments.

It includes analyzing the sources, patterns, and causes of change and stability in the attempt to develop foresight and to map possible futures.

Second, futures studies typically attempts to gain a holistic or systemic view based on insights from a range of different disciplines.

Futures studies do not generally include the work of economists who forecast movements of interest rates over the next business cycle, or of managers or investors with short-term time horizons.

Modern efforts such as futures studies attempt to predict technological and societal trends, while more ancient practices, such as weather forecasting, have benefited from scientific and causal modelling.

The Futurists explored every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, poetry, theatre, music, architecture, and even gastronomy.

The car, the plane, and the industrial town were all legendary for the Futurists because they represented the technological triumph of people over nature.

The Futurist Manifesto of 1909 declared: "We will glorify war—the world's only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.

Luigi Russolo's futurist manifesto, "The Art of Noises", is considered one of the most important and influential texts in 20th-century musical aesthetics.

[14] Other examples of futurist music include Arthur Honegger's "Pacific 231" (1923), which imitates the sound of a steam locomotive, Prokofiev's "The Steel Step" (1926), Alexander Mosolov's "Iron Foundry" (1927), and the experiments of Edgard Varèse.

Futurist theater works have scenes a few sentences long, use nonsensical humor, and try to discredit the deep-rooted dramatic traditions with parody.

Futurism has produced several reactions, including the 1980s-era literary genre of cyberpunk—which often treated technology with a critical eye.

Sometimes authors publish a timeline of events in their history, while other times the reader can reconstruct the order of the stories from information in the books.