Can we think of the future? Cognitive barriers to future-oriented decision making

Planning for the future is an ever more necessary requirement for the continued survival and long-term well-being of the human species, as is local and global cooperation to implement such plans. Yet resource depletion, species depletion in both flora and fauna, threats of catastrophic climate change, and extreme weather - to name only a few ways in which we are inflicting potentially irreversible damage on crucial ecosystems - indicate that the human ability to plan and coordinate for tomorrow may be severely limited and may indeed become outpaced by the speed of technological innovation and globalization of production and commerce. Whereas previous chapters in this book have described the evolutionary pressures for cooperation and the many forces that contribute to its emergence and success, this chapter will provide a counterweight to that position and argue that there are also many obstacles to cooperation.