第201章 时空旅行： 如果你遇到未来的自己会怎样？

Time travel: What if you met your future self?

时空旅行：如果你遇到未来的自己会怎样？

By Hal Hershfield

What if– and it is a big what if– you could meet your future self? What a very strange question， but one that I believe is worth asking.

假设，一个大胆的假设：如果你能遇见未来的自己会怎么样？这个问题非常奇怪，但我认为值得一问。

I'm a psychologist and professor. I explore the reasons why we have such a hard time making long-term decisions， and how– by improving the emotional connections we have with our future selves– we can ultimately make better choices.

我是一名心理学家和教授，主要研究为什么人们如此难以做出长期决定，以及通过改善我们与未来自我之间的情感联系，如何让我们最终能做出更好的选择。

In my research， I've learnt that we often imagine our future self as another person. That tendency can create problems for us. One way to bridge the emotional gulf is to think of future selves in more concrete and vivid ways. What's vivid is emotional， and what’s emotional can kick us into action.

在研究中，我认识到我们经常把未来的自己想象成另外一个人，但这种倾向会给我们造成一些麻烦。想要弥合这种情感鸿沟，一种方式便是更具体、更生动地想象未来的自己。因为生动意味着感性，而感性的事物能促使我们采取行动。

In one recent study， for instance， my collaborators and I partnered with a bank and found that when customers were shown age-progressed images of themselves alongside encouraging messages about saving for retirement， they were about 16% more likely to make a retirement contribution than people who solely received the encouraging messages.

例如，在最近的一项研究中，我和共事的研究人员与一家银行合作，我们发现当客户既看到自己随年龄增长（而容颜变化）的照片，也收到鼓励他们为退休储蓄的信息时，相比那些仅收到信息的人群，他们进行退休储蓄的可能性要高出约16%。

Admittedly， showing people images of their older face， or having them engage in a hypothetical conversation， are far cries from actually meeting one's future self.

诚然，向人们展示他们老去的照片，或者让他们开展一场假设性对话，都与真正见到未来的自己相去甚远。

However， the truth is， you don't need to wait for time travel or advanced AI for answers that you can act on. Through my research as a psychologist， I've learnt that simply taking a bit of time to picture this meeting can help you make better choices now. All you need is a little imagination， and the willingness to put yourself in the shoes of a person you currently treat as a stranger.

然而实际上，你并不需要等待时空旅行技术或者先进的人工智能来给你一个可以采取行动的答案。作为一名心理学家，我在研究中发现，你只需要花一点时间想象一下与未来的自己会面，就能帮助你在当下做出更好的选择。你所需要的只是一点想象力和一份意愿，愿意为你现在视为陌生人的那个人设身处地地着想。