Editing Future (section)

{{Other uses|Future (disambiguation)}}{{Redirects here|Futuristic|other uses|Futuristic (disambiguation)}}{{Short description|Time after the present}}
[[File:Zeitpyramide 2023 B.jpg|300px|thumb|upright=1.5|The ''[[Zeitpyramide]]'' is an unfinished [[concrete]] pyramid. Because a block is only placed every 10 years, it is expected to be completed in [[4th millennium|3183]].]]

The '''future''' is the [[time]] after the [[past]] and [[present]]. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the [[laws of physics]]. Due to the apparent nature of [[reality]] and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently [[existence|exists]] and will exist can be categorized as either permanent, meaning that it will exist forever, or temporary, meaning that it will end.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=UD8TAAAAYAAJ ''Encyclopædia of religion and ethics'']. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. pp. 335–337.</ref> In the [[Western culture|Occidental]] view, which uses a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected timeline that is anticipated to occur.<ref>Moore, C.-L. & Yamamoto, K. (1988). ''Beyond words: movement observation and analysis''. New York: Gordon and Breach. p. 57. (cf., The representation of time as a linear, unidirectional progression is a distinctly Occidental point of view.)</ref> In [[special relativity]], the future is considered [[absolute future]], or the future [[light cone]].<ref>Eddington, A. S. (1921). [https://archive.org/details/spacetimeandgra00eddigoog ''Space, time and gravitation; an outline of the general relativity theory'']. Cambridge: University Press. p. 107.</ref>

In the [[philosophy of time]], [[Philosophical presentism|presentism]] is the [[belief]] that only the present [[existence|exists]] and the future and the past are [[reality|unreal]]. Religions consider the future when they address issues such as [[karma]], [[afterlife|life after death]], and [[eschatology|eschatologies]] that study what the end of time and the end of the world will be. Religious figures such as [[prophet]]s and [[divination|diviners]] have claimed to see into the future.
Future studies, or [[futurology]], is the science, art, and practice of postulating possible futures. Modern practitioners stress the importance of alternative and plural futures, rather than one monolithic future, and the limitations of prediction and [[probability]], versus the creation of possible and preferable futures. [[Predeterminism]] is the belief that the past, present, and future have been [[Destiny|already decided]].

The concept of the future has been explored extensively in cultural production, including [[art]] movements and genres devoted entirely to its elucidation, such as the 20th-century movement [[futurism]].