A Theory of Human Temporality from the Perspective of Reciprocism
― Humans Pulled Toward the Future While Looking at the Past, and the Distortion of the Memory Plane ―
Abstract
This paper reconstructs the relationship between human beings and time from the perspective of Reciprocism. Reciprocism begins with the proposition that the objective direction of temporal progression and the human internal direction of temporal orientation are opposite to one another. Time proceeds from the past through the present toward the future, but human beings cannot directly look at the future itself, which has not yet occurred. What is directly given to human beings is an already-occurring reality and the traces of the past accumulated within that reality.
Therefore, even when human beings think about and predict the future, what is formed within present consciousness is not the future itself but a representation of the future. Human beings infer the future through past experiences and memories, as well as through observation and interpretation of present reality, and make choices based on those inferences. The results of those choices become new realities, and those realities in turn become the past, entering again as inputs into subsequent human judgments.
However, the fact that human beings look at the past does not mean that human memory is arranged in the same form as the objective sequence of time. Human memory does not form a flat plane that weakens uniformly with the passage of time. Instead, it forms a distorted memory plane in which certain events are enlarged or diminished according to the intensity and repetition of events, individual free interpretation and judgment, and forced sensory experiences.
Thus, human beings do not look at the past as it is; they look at the past through a temporally distorted structure of memory. An event from the distant past may emerge with greater intensity and appear subjectively closer to the present than a recent event, while even a recent event may feel extremely faint, as though it belonged to the distant past, if the memory associated with it is weak. In this process, not only the perceived distance of memories but also the perceived causal relationships and sequence of progression between events may be transformed.
This reverse orientation of time-consciousness and the distortion of the memory plane constitute fundamental conditions that prevent human judgment from operating like a mechanical and consistent function. Human beings do not retrieve the same past in exactly the same way, and even within the same reality, they may emphasize different memories and construct different temporal structures. Therefore, human judgment concerning the future is not a mechanical process that produces an identical output from fixed inputs, but a process that takes place within continuously changing structures of memory and interpretation.
The central proposition of Reciprocism is as follows.
Human beings are not beings who move forward while looking toward the future. They are beings who are pulled along by time while turning their backs on the future and looking toward the past. And the memory plane of the past that human beings look upon is itself continuously distorted.
1. The Reverse Orientation of Time and Human Consciousness
The basic progression of time moves from the past through the present toward the future.
An event that has already occurred becomes part of the past, and an event occurring in the present also becomes incorporated into the past as time passes. An event that has not yet occurred belongs to the future. This progression of time itself continues independently of human will.
However, the direction of temporal progression cannot be regarded as identical to the direction of human perception. What is directly given to human beings is an already-occurring reality. Human beings can remember events they have experienced, observe the consequences that remain in the present, and identify traces of the past accumulated within individuals and societies. In contrast, the future itself, which has not yet occurred, is not given as present reality.
Therefore, while time progresses toward the future, human perception is directed toward an already-occurring reality. Reciprocism defines this relationship as follows.
The future is behind human beings, while the past is in front of them.
This does not refer to the physical direction of the human body. It refers to the direction in which human consciousness encounters temporal reality. Human beings move toward the future. Yet what they directly look at is not the future itself but an already-occurring reality.
Therefore, the existential direction of human beings and their perceptual direction are different.
Direction of human perception → Past
Human beings exist between these two directions.
2. The Future Itself and the Representation of the Future
The fact that human beings think about the future does not mean that they are looking at the future itself. The future itself is a reality that has not yet occurred. In contrast, when human beings imagine, predict, and plan for the future, what occurs within present consciousness is not the future itself but a representation of the future.
When a person imagines tomorrow, tomorrow itself does not thereby exist within present consciousness. What exists in the present is the person's imagination of tomorrow.
Therefore, the following two levels must be distinguished.
and
The present representation of the future
Human beings do not bring the future into the present. They generate within present consciousness a representation that points toward the future. Therefore, human thought concerning the future is not direct cognition of the future itself but an inferential activity.
A representation of the future is formed through the past and the present. Human beings remember past experiences, observe recurring phenomena, compare previous outcomes, and analyze present conditions. On the basis of these materials, they infer a future that has not yet occurred.
Therefore, the basic structure of the representation of the future is as follows.
Human beings do not directly see the future. They look at the past and infer the future.
3. The Frontality of the Past and the Rearwardness of the Future
The reality placed before human beings is not composed solely of a pure present. The individual in the present contains past experiences. Human memory and knowledge are formed by the past, relationships contain previous interactions, and social institutions are results of historical processes. Therefore, the reality that human beings currently observe already contains accumulated traces of the past.
Through this reality, human beings grasp the structures of objects and events. What an object has actually done repeatedly, what results it has produced, and what relationships it has formed can be confirmed through already-occurring reality. Therefore, essence itself is not directly given to human beings from the future; rather, it is grasped through the reality of the past.
In contrast, the future has not yet occurred. Human beings can consider possibilities concerning the future, but they cannot confirm the future itself as present reality. Therefore, the past and the future occupy asymmetrical positions for human beings.
Future → Not directly observable
Because of this asymmetry, human cognition of the future is inherently inferential.
Human beings use the past reality placed before them to anticipate the future that lies behind them.
4. The Distortion of the Memory Plane
However, the fact that human beings look at the past does not mean that human memory is stored and retrieved in exactly the same form as the objective flow of time.
If human memory were arranged uniformly according to the order in which events occurred on a single flat temporal plane, and if the passage of time affected every memory equally, then events closer to the present would feel larger and more intense, while events further in the past would feel smaller and fainter.
In other words, the structure of memory could be arranged simply as follows.
Event farther away in time → Faint
Yet actual human memory does not operate as such a uniform plane. Human beings repeatedly recall certain events regardless of the passage of time. Certain events are continuously emphasized through an individual's free judgment and interpretation. Some experiences are excessively magnified within memory because of forced sensory intensity and shock.
Conversely, even an event that occurred recently may quickly become faint if it has little significance for the individual. Therefore, the intensity of a memory is not determined simply by the absolute passage of time.
Human memory does not maintain the same sense of distance as the objective temporal position at which an event occurred. An event that happened long ago may emerge with such intensity that it feels close to the present, while an event that occurred recently may feel as though it already belongs to the distant past.
This phenomenon means that memory does not maintain a flat temporal arrangement but is continuously enlarged and diminished within human consciousness. In Reciprocism, this can be defined as the distortion of the memory plane.
The distortion of the memory plane does not simply refer to differences in the strength of memories. Human beings can arrange past events according to their objective temporal sequence. When consciously checking historical records or the order in which events occurred, human beings can arrange events in their proper sequence.
However, when actually recalling specific memories and recollecting the past, the objective temporal arrangement is not necessarily preserved in its original form. An intense event may emerge as though it happened very recently even though it occurred long ago, while a weak event may feel extremely distant even though little time has actually passed since it occurred.
Therefore, subjective time in memory is not identical to objective time.
Memory plane → Arrangement of subjective distance and intensity between events
These two structures do not necessarily coincide.
5. Distortion of Memory and Transformation of Temporal Structure
When the memory plane becomes distorted, the way human beings look at the past is also transformed. Human beings do not look at the entire past from the same distance. Certain events are enlarged within consciousness, certain events are diminished, certain events are repeatedly recalled, and certain events are barely recalled at all.
Therefore, the past does not exist for human beings as a uniform temporal plane. It exists as a distorted structure in which intense and faint memories are arranged at different scales and subjective distances.
In this process, not only the sense of temporal distance between events but also the relationships between events may be transformed. When a particular event is remembered with excessive intensity, a human being may use that event as a central point through which to interpret numerous subsequent events. Conversely, if a particular event is remembered faintly, it may not be sufficiently considered in subsequent judgments even though it was objectively important.
Furthermore, within human memory, interpretations of causal relationships and sequences of progression between events may also change. An event that was actually only one part of a series of processes may become magnified in memory as though it were the cause of all subsequent outcomes. Conversely, if an important preceding event becomes faint, a human being may explain a subsequent outcome through a different cause.
Therefore, the distortion of the memory plane is not merely a problem of memory capacity. It is a problem of temporal structure that affects the entire process through which human beings interpret the present and infer the future through the past.
When human beings look into the past in order to respond proactively to the future, the past they are looking at is not the entire objective past but a plane of memory that has already been selectively enlarged and diminished.
Therefore, human judgment concerning the future has the following structure.
Human beings infer the future through the past. Yet the past they refer to has already been transformed by the structure of human memory.
6. Choice and the Feedback Structure of Time
Human choices are likewise not made by directly seeing the future itself. Human beings remember and interpret past reality. However, those memories are retrieved through a selectively distorted memory plane rather than through a uniform temporal arrangement.
Human beings form representations of the future on the basis of these memories and present reality, and then make choices based on the representations of the future they have constructed.
Therefore, the structure of human choice can be expanded as follows.
And choice generates a new reality. However, the moment the future becomes reality, it is no longer the future. It becomes the present, and as time passes, it becomes the past again.
The new reality enters human memory again. Yet this new past is not stored in memory in exactly the same way. Some events are intensely magnified, some quickly fade, some are repeatedly recalled, and some almost disappear.
Therefore, the moment the result of a choice becomes a new past, that past once again enters the distortion of the memory plane.
Thus, the feedback structure can be expanded as follows.
Time itself does not flow backward. Time continues to progress toward the future. However, human perception repeatedly refers to the past, and the past to which human beings refer is selectively enlarged and diminished within the memory plane.
This constitutes the second condition of the temporal feedback structure described by Reciprocism.
7. Human Beings Sitting in a Backward-Facing Seat on the Train of Time
In Reciprocism, the relationship between human beings and time can be compared to human beings sitting in a backward-facing seat on a train called time.
The train moves in a fixed direction. Time likewise proceeds from the past through the present toward the future. Yet a person sitting in a backward-facing seat cannot directly see the scenery in the direction in which the train is traveling. What the person sees is the scenery that has already been passed.
A new landscape appears behind the human being. The moment that landscape appears to the human being, it becomes the present. As the train continues moving, that landscape moves farther away from the human being. It becomes the past.
However, not all of the scenery that has passed appears at the same size and distance to the human being. Some landscapes may already have passed far into the distance, yet remain so large in memory that they appear to be directly in front of the person's eyes. Other landscapes may have passed only moments ago, yet rapidly become smaller and fainter.
In other words, the distance of past scenery within human memory does not necessarily correspond to the actual distance traveled by the train.
In Reciprocism, human beings can be said not only to sit in a backward-facing seat but also to be beings whose very window of observation is distorted. The past does not appear to human beings exactly according to its objective distance. Intense events are enlarged, faint events are diminished, and certain events repeatedly return to the foreground.
Therefore, human beings do not simply observe scenery that has already passed. They observe that scenery through a distorted window of memory. And based on that distorted scenery, they infer a future that they cannot yet directly see.
This structure is directly connected to why human judgment does not mechanically repeat identical results.
8. The Reverse Orientation of Time-Consciousness and the Distortion of the Memory Plane
The mere fact that human beings cannot directly look at the future already introduces uncertainty into human judgment concerning the future. However, what makes human judgment even more irregular is the fact that human beings do not refer to the past exactly as it exists objectively.
Human beings cannot directly see the future. Therefore, they infer the future through the past. Yet the past to which they refer is not a flat temporal database. The past exists as a distorted memory plane that has been selectively enlarged and diminished according to the intensity and repetition of memories, individual interpretation and judgment, and the coercive nature of sensory experiences.
Therefore, two fundamental conditions operate within human judgment concerning the future.
First, human beings cannot directly look at the future.
Second, the past that human beings look at in order to infer the future is itself not preserved in a uniform and objective form.
This can be summarized as follows.
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Inferring the future through the past
↓
Distortion of the memory plane
↓
Judging the future through a selectively emphasized past
↓
Irregular and non-mechanical judgment
Within this structure, human beings find it difficult to behave like machines that always produce the same output from identical inputs. Human beings do not remember the same event with exactly the same intensity every time, nor do they retrieve the same past in exactly the same manner every time.
A particular memory can be magnified through repeated recollection. New experiences can change the meaning of existing memories, while present emotions and circumstances can make a particular past event more important or, conversely, make it more faint.
Therefore, human judgment is not simply a process of calculating objective data from the past and producing the future as an output. Human judgment takes place on a continuously changing memory plane.
9. Irregularity, Instability, Dynamism, and Reciprocism
When the reverse orientation of time-consciousness and the distortion of the memory plane are combined, human judgment does not operate like a fixed formula.
Human beings cannot directly see the future, and therefore infer the future through the past. Yet the past they look at is not a plane preserved exactly according to objective temporal order. Intense memories are enlarged, faint memories are diminished, and certain events repeatedly influence present judgment.
Therefore, human beings may make judgments about the same reality by centering on different memories. Even the same human being may emphasize different memories at different points in time.
For this reason, human judgment cannot be reduced to a mechanically consistent function value. Even when identical or similar conditions are repeated, there is no guarantee that human beings will make the same judgment. This is because the very structure of memory retrieved for present judgment may change.
Here, irregularity arises.
And this irregularity prevents human judgment from remaining in a single fixed state. Here, instability arises.
Human beings may repeat previous judgments exactly as before, but when new memories become emphasized or the meanings of existing memories change, they may make choices different from those they made previously. Here, dynamism arises.
Furthermore, human beings can create new choices beyond responses directly derived from existing experiences and memories. Here, creativity arises.
Therefore, human creativity and dynamism do not arise solely from the fact that the future cannot be known. They arise from a dual temporal condition in which human beings who cannot directly see the future must refer to the past in order to judge the future, while at the same time being unable to preserve that past itself in an objectively fixed form.
This can be summarized as follows.
Human beings look at the past because they cannot directly see the future. Yet the past they look at is already distorted within memory. Therefore, human judgment becomes not a repetition of a fixed past, but an irregular response to the future through a distorted and reconstructed past.
10. A New Driving Principle of Reciprocism
In Reciprocism, feedback does not occur simply because a prediction was wrong. The fundamental driving principle of feedback lies in the temporal position of human beings and the structure of memory.
Human beings cannot directly look at the future. Therefore, they refer to the past. Yet the past is not preserved uniformly within human memory. Human beings enlarge certain events and diminish others. The subjective temporal distance of memories differs from objective temporal distance. The causal relationships and significance of past events can also change according to human interpretation.
Therefore, human judgment is not mechanically generated from a fixed past. Human beings infer the future through a memory structure that changes from moment to moment, and they make choices according to those judgments.
The result of a choice creates a new reality. That new reality becomes a new past. And the new past is once again enlarged or diminished within the memory plane.
Through this process, human beings come to refer to a past different from the one they previously referred to, creating the possibility of making judgments different from those they previously made.
Therefore, the structure of feedback can be expanded as follows.
↓
Inference of the future through the past
↓
Selective distortion of the memory plane
↓
Irregular and non-mechanical judgment
↓
New choice
↓
New reality
↓
New past
↓
Formation of a new memory plane
↓
New interpretation
↓
New representation of the future
↓
Feedback
Within this structure, human irregularity is not merely an error. It is a condition that makes feedback possible.
If human beings stored completely objective past data in exactly the same manner and always made the same judgment under identical conditions, their judgment would operate like a mechanical function.
But human beings do not operate in this way. They selectively remember the past, alter the intensity of memories, repeatedly recall certain events, and reinterpret the existing past as they experience new realities.
Therefore, human judgment cannot become completely rigid. This lack of fixation creates human irregularity, irregularity creates new choices, new choices create new realities, and those realities form new memory structures once again.
This is precisely the continuous driving principle of feedback.
11. Structural Correspondence with Other Theories of Reciprocism
The various theories of Reciprocism each take the form of independent discussions, but they share the common structure in which human perception of reality and human choice undergo feedback. Therefore, the structure presented in the theory of human temporality does not necessarily form a direct contradiction with the other theories of Reciprocism. Rather, it can form structural correspondences with the problems addressed by each theory.
First, in correspondence with Inductive Reciprocism, the central issue is the relationship between reality and judgment. Human beings infer the future through past reality and present observation, make choices according to those judgments, and encounter new reality as a result of those choices. Thus, the following structure is formed.
Here, distortion of the human memory plane does not alter the objective results of reality itself, but affects how human beings retrieve and interpret those results. Therefore, objective reality and human memory and interpretation can be distinguished, and there is no need to equate distortion of memory with distortion of reality itself. The distortion of memory presented in the theory of temporality does not deny the response of reality; rather, it functions as a structure explaining the irregularity of the process through which human beings receive and interpret the response of reality.
In correspondence with Suicidal Reciprocism, the central issue is the relationship between representations of the future and present choice. Human beings cannot directly see the future itself, but they can form present representations of the future, and those representations can organize present choices. Therefore, the structure in which an ultimate orientation toward the future formed within human consciousness determines present life and choices can also coexist with the basic structure of the theory of temporality.
What is important here is that a representation of the future does not literally bring the actual future into the present. When a human being forms a representation of the future within present consciousness and acts according to that representation, this constitutes a directionality of intention and choice, not a reversal of the objective direction of temporal progression. Objective time still proceeds from the past through the present toward the future. Therefore, future-oriented life design and the objective progression of time can be understood as belonging to different levels.
In correspondence with Karmic Reciprocism, the central issue is the structure through which consequences of the past continue as conditions of the present and future. The human past does not exist merely within memory; it can also remain within present conditions through the consequences and traces produced by past actions. Therefore, the following structure is possible.
This structure is also compatible with the distortion of the memory plane. Human memory may enlarge or diminish past events, but the distortion of memory does not mean that the actual consequences of the past disappear as well. Therefore, the disappearance or distortion of a memory is not identical to the disappearance of an objective consequence. The way the past remains as memory for human beings and the way the consequences of the past remain within reality can be distinguished.
In correspondence with Cyclical Reciprocism, the central issue is the structure through which memory and interpretation are connected to the construction of meaning. Human beings remember the past, interpret present reality, and represent the future. In this process, the way in which something is remembered as important and the way it is interpreted can alter the alignment of one's desires and meanings.
Therefore, the following connection is possible.
And the new reality once again becomes the past and enters memory.
Here, the distortion of the memory plane does not merely mean remembering the past incorrectly. Which aspects of the past are enlarged and which become faint can influence the interpretation of present meaning and the representation of the future. Conversely, when a new system of meaning is formed, the very perspective through which the same past is viewed can change. Therefore, memory and meaning can undergo feedback by continuously influencing one another.
In this way, the four independent theories correspond to the temporal feedback structure of human beings at different points.
Suicidal Reciprocism → Feedback between representation of the future and present choice
Karmic Reciprocism → Feedback between action and consequence
Cyclical Reciprocism → Feedback between memory, interpretation, and reconstruction of meaning
This correspondence does not mean that the four theories simply repeat the same content. Rather, it means that when a single human feedback structure is viewed from different problem domains, different forms of feedback emerge.
The integrated structure can be expressed as follows.
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Memory and observation
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Selection and distortion of the memory plane
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Interpretation
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Judgment of reality and construction of meaning
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Representation of the future and formation of purpose
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Present choice
↓
New reality and consequence
↓
New past
↓
New memory and interpretation
↓
Feedback
Within this structure, each theory poses a different question. How does reality respond to human judgment? How does a representation of the future organize present choice? How do past actions remain as conditions of the present? How do changes in memory and interpretation reconstruct meaning and purpose? These questions become distinct problem areas.
Therefore, the reverse orientation of time-consciousness and the distortion of the memory plane presented in the theory of human temporality can be understood not as concepts subordinate to one particular applied theory, but as an independent temporal perspective for explaining the feedback structure in which reality, memory, interpretation, representation of the future, and choice are interconnected.
12. Conclusion
The human theory of temporality in Reciprocism reconstructs the perspective that defines human beings simply as entities moving forward while looking toward the future.
The progression of time moves from the past through the present toward the future. However, human perception is directed toward an already-occurring reality. Human beings cannot directly look at the future itself. What they create within present consciousness is not the future itself but a representation of the future.
This representation of the future is formed through past experiences and memories, as well as through observation and interpretation of present reality. Therefore, human beings are not entities that directly see the future.
Human beings are entities that look at the past and infer the future.
However, the theory of temporality in Reciprocism goes one step further. The past that human beings look at is also not remembered in the same form as the objective flow of time.
Memory is not a flat plane of time. Intense events are enlarged, while faint events are diminished. An old event may emerge as though it were close to the present, while a recent event may feel like it belongs to the distant past.
Therefore, the temporal distance of the past is continuously distorted within human memory.
Human beings can verify the objective temporal sequence of events, but when they actually retrieve memories and make judgments, they look at the past through a memory plane distorted by intensity and repetition, interpretation, and sensory experience.
As a result, human judgment concerning the future cannot become a simple computational process. Human beings refer to the past because they cannot directly see the future. Yet the past to which they refer is itself selectively enlarged and diminished within memory.
Therefore, human beings are not machines that receive fixed data as input and always produce identical results as output.
Human judgment changes irregularly through the combination of the reverse orientation of time-consciousness and the distortion of the memory plane. Even the same human being may center on different memories at different moments, and even under identical conditions, different choices may emerge when different memories are emphasized.
New realities change the meanings of existing memories, and new memories in turn alter the structure of subsequent judgment.
Therefore, human irregularity and instability are not merely defects. They are conditions that enable human dynamism and creativity, while simultaneously serving as the driving force that continuously generates feedback.
The temporal structure of Reciprocism can be summarized as follows.
Therefore, the fundamental driving principle of feedback does not lie merely in the fact that the future cannot be known.
More fundamentally, human beings look at the past because they cannot directly see the future, yet they cannot even look at that past in a fixed form within memory.
This dual condition makes human beings not mechanical entities but entities that make irregular judgments. And precisely this irregularity creates new choices.
New choices create new realities. New realities become new pasts. New pasts are once again distorted within memory. And human beings once again infer the future through that distorted past.
Feedback continues.
Therefore, the temporal proposition of Reciprocism concerning human beings can be expanded as follows.
Human beings are entities that are pulled along by time while turning their backs on the future and looking toward the past. Yet because the memory plane of the past they look at is itself continuously distorted, their judgments do not become mechanically rigid but continuously change.
More concisely:
Human beings look at the past because they cannot directly see the future, yet because even that past is viewed through a distorted memory plane, they can never make judgments in exactly the same way. It is precisely this irregularity that creates new choices and new realities and keeps feedback in motion.
And if the temporal position of human beings is expressed in the most human terms:
Human beings turn their backs on the future and look toward the past, being dragged backward through time by the scruff of their necks. And even the landscape of the past spread out before them is continuously enlarged, diminished, and distorted within memory.
Time pulls human beings toward the future.
Human beings look toward the past.
Yet the past they look at is not flat.
Memory is distorted.
Judgment wavers.
Choices change.
Reality is newly created.
And that reality once again becomes the past and enters into a new distortion of memory.
The reverse orientation of human time-consciousness and the distortion of the memory plane transform human beings from mechanically rigid entities into beings who make irregular judgments and continuously create new realities. And precisely this irregularity is the fundamental driving force that generates feedback.