Freedom to will requires tolerating uncertainty through shared promises

Evidence

So let us establish our bearings. Uncertainty is not chaos but rather the necessary habitat of the present tense. We choose the fallibility of shared promises and problem solving over the certain tyranny imposed by a dominant power or plan because this is the price we pay for the freedom to will, which founds our right to the future tense. In the absence of this freedom, the future collapses into an infinite present of mere behavior, in which there can be no subjects and no projects: only objects. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1061

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘right to the future tense’ as founded on the freedom to will, which requires accepting uncertainty rather than imposed certainty.
• DEEPTHINKING: The compact formulation ‘uncertainty is the necessary habitat of the present tense’ and the collapse of the future into ‘an infinite present of mere behavior’ is a dense, paradigm-level insight about what gets lost.
• XREF: connects to: Speculation re-enchants collectivities by projecting broken promises onto shared futures — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 96; A freely-made promise transforms uncertainty into fact by willing a future into being — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1035; Contract originates in shared wills and promises toward an uncertain future — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1045 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Mutual recognition functions as a promise binding two parties’ freedom #expands (0.88) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 644
• Trust requires credible promises grounded in knowledge of the other’s dispositions and options. #qualifies (0.78) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 785