Douglas Hofstadter has a theory that consciousness of "I" is a strange loop. What he means by this is that consciousness is a recursive process. At a certain point the mind gets enough data and experience to create a story of "I" and maintain it as an ongoing narrative. But if we actually break this loop down I is really a logically recursive loop, It's like the "I" has folded in on itself and now creates its own energy and momentum.
But also its own suffering because there is something, after all, artificial about it.
I have a theory now that meditation shifts us back into the strange loop of natural intelligence. In fact, more and more I can actually feel this loop as a physical energy. In time we become adept at switching out the "I" loop and into a place of peace, beyond concepts, and those of us who become really adept at it eventually see that natural loop fold back in on itself. From there we can switch in and out of "I" and natural intelligence depending on what our life demands.
When that happens we can re-take control of the now. If the now of our life is constantly defined by technology, then yes it will become more and more difficult to imagine a future, and not being able to imagine a future is profoundly demotivating. Imagining a future, though, that's just like the past merely repeats the problems of the past.
That's why it's useful to have an idea of god, or a spirit, or a sense of a future that is bright, but fuzzy and not entirely under our control. A good future, a future we can be grateful for, a future filled with compassion and joy.
