A freely-made promise transforms uncertainty into fact by willing a future into being

Evidence

I made a promise to complete this work. This promise is my flag planted in the future tense. It represents my commitment to construct a future that cannot come into being should I abandon my promise. This future will not exist without my capacity first to imagine its facts and then to will them into being. I am an inchworm moving with determination and purpose across the distance between now and later. Each tiny increment of territory that I traverse is annexed to the known world, as my effort transforms uncertainty into fact. … My promise, though, is an anchor that girds me against the vagaries of my moods and temptations. It is the product of my will to will and a compass that steers my course toward a desired future that is not yet real. Events may originate in energy sources outside my will and abruptly alter my course in ways that I can neither predict nor control. Indeed, they have already done so. Despite this certain knowledge of uncertainty, I have no doubt that I am free. I can promise to create a future, and I can keep my promise. If the book that I have imagined is to exist in the future, it must be because I will to will it so. I live in an expansive landscape that already includes a future that only I can imagine and intend. In my world, this book I write already exists. In fulfilling my promise, I make it manifest. This act of will is my claim to the future tense. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1035

Categorization

• XREF: This meditation on the will-to-will and the future tense resonates with the book’s later argument about who owns the future tense — Zuboff’s own promised future stands against surveillance capital’s seizure of the future via prediction. Reads almost as a personal counterpoint to her central thesis. — connects to: Despair intends the future as totally as hope does — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 261; Freedom to will requires tolerating uncertainty through shared promises — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1061; Trust functions by treating the uncertain future as if it were certain. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 108 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Freedom to will requires tolerating uncertainty through shared promises #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1061
• Trust anchors future uncertainty back into the present #corroborates (0.82) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 122
• Trust functions by treating the uncertain future as if it were certain. #corroborates (0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 108
• Willing one’s freedom and willing that being exist are one choice #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 72
• Trust reduces future complexity by committing to a determinate future #corroborates (0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 138
• An acceptance of will determines the existence of the universe. #expands (0.75) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 79
• An object as phenomenon includes anticipation, warmth, and felt promise, not just sense data #expands (0.72)