# Future Selves Can Be Engineered to Change Present Behavior by Brian Knutson > "Third, and most importantly, future self-continuity can be manipulated. Simple manipulations include writing a letter to one’s future self, whereas more sophisticated interventions involve interacting with digital renderings of future selves in virtual reality. These interventions can change behavior. For example, adolescents who write a letter to their future selves make fewer subsequent delinquent choices, and adults who interact with an age-progressed avatar later allocate more available cash towards retirement plans. While the active ingredients of these manipulations remain to be isolated, enhancing the similarity and vividness of future self representations seems to help. Scalable future self-continuity interventions may open up new channels for enhancing health, education, and wealth." > **— Brian Knutson**, *2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Future Self-Continuity](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27208) — Edge published this passage in its 2017 Annual Question collection, *What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2017 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Escape Hatch in the Skull|Escape Hatch in the Skull]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Host Infrastructure Overview]] - **Article:** [[articles/Science of Digital Consciousness|Science of Digital Consciousness]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Psychological Continuity|Psychological Continuity]] - [[wiki/Autobiographical Memory|Autobiographical Memory]] - [[wiki/Recursive Self-Model|Recursive Self-Model]] - [[wiki/Virtual Reality|Virtual Reality]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "Third, and most importantly, future self-continuity can be manipulated. Simple manipulations include writing a letter to one’s future self, whereas more sophisticated interventions involve interacting with digital renderings of future selves in virtual reality. These interventions can change behavior. For example, adolescents who write a letter to their future selves make fewer subsequent delinquent choices, and adults who interact with an age-progressed avatar later allocate more available cash towards retirement plans. While the active ingredients of these manipulations remain to be isolated, enhancing the similarity and vividness of future self representations seems to help. Scalable future self-continuity interventions may open up new channels for enhancing health, education, and wealth." — Brian Knutson, 2017, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Term or Concept Ought to Be More Widely Known?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-brian-knutson-future-selves-change-behavior ```