Indeed, and this explains a lot of the problems we’re having on the global scale as well. Our brains are optimized for a relatively static world where we have short term concerns like not getting eaten, and making sure we can feed ourselves. We didn’t need capacity to plan decades into the future throughout most of our existence. Here and now was always more important, and our psychology prioritizes immediate wellbeing. It’s hard for us to make sacrifices that reduce our current standard of living for the benefit of our hypothetical selves sometime down the road.

This is precisely what gets us into trouble when it comes to dealing with large scale problems like the climate crisis. Most people understand on an intellectual level that this will be harmful, and that we need to be addressing this problem. However, the scale of the problem is so huge that it’s difficult for us to understand it on an emotional level in a way that would spur us into action. It would mean having to make serious changes to how our society is organized, our consumption habits, and so on. So, we just keep doing what we’re doing while the problem keeps getting worse.