We cannot learn from the future. And it is impossible to have time to learn in the present. So the only section we can gain information on is from our past. Past is our only data bank. It is the laboratory where we can at least try to understand the world.
Whether we inspect an individual operational agent or a collective agent together, we see that they operate according to their environment. How is that possible that a cat knows how to be a cat? The answer has been provided by the discovery of DNA, where all genetic codes are archived and packed with histone proteins (for eukaryotes)
Humans learn how to speak without constantly inventing every word or syntax. A pig never forgets how to mate, even if it doesn’t perform the required actions.
In all the given examples, something is remembered somehow. The data previously gained had to be stored and used when needed. For the biological construction and innate instincts, DNA is enough. For the transmission of the culture, it had been necessary for two living members to have enough time to clone the information until the foundation of encoding some information into something that doesn’t require a heart. Years passed, and that way of transferring and storing information became binary codes in databases. Sequences of 0110…0110 could be systematically used to store the verbs within the computer systems.
According to evolution theory, DNA contains all the information if, at a given time, it has the opportunity to multiply itself. This meant that all living beings have been successful in the past’s filtration.
Similar to cultures, those who weren’t successful in passing the past trials can no longer convey themselves to the future.
Let us now give a synthesised function of time. Past is what had been filtered by the existence from a specific frame of time. Why is that important?
Humans use the above principle for a reason and need to learn. All beings who have reactions based on environmental inputs must have a decision-making system. To have a decision system, one has to develop a decision system. Naturally, you cannot make decision systems out of thin air. It would be best if you had a frame to construct a plan so that you now have a reasonable chance of working. And data is past looked at from some finite structures of the past incident.
When you know what has happened, you can predict what could happen with similar conditions by changing some parameters. So past can be used as a database containing all parameters and their results. Hence, by adjusting those parameters, one can develop an optimised idea.
The past is something that all living beings try to understand to manipulate the future for their benefit. It is the total of all frames of present passed by anything that time leaves some mark on.
Are there things that time never leaves its mark on? By the above definition, we cannot know such a thing because it isn’t past, present or future. It is either always or never.
All living beings are filtered by the currents of time. Intelligent systems try to gain some insight into the future. All those activities are not possible without the past.
Past is and will be humanity’s most remarkable treasure because it will contain answers to fatal problems ahead.
The more individuals know about the past, the more they can manipulate the future. Hence, they will know when to do certain things to harvest specific outcomes. This is how to evolve without dying. If you see what has been filtered, you can evade being filtered. Or better, you can choose which things to be filtered and become past.
Initially published for Polyhedron on 11/27/2022
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