This linking of the past with the future, according to Sir John Eccles, demonstrates “the extraordinary ability of humans to plan for the future while profiting from the memory of past experiences.” Eccles added that “we live in a time paradigm of past-present-future. When humans are consciously aware of the time NOW, this experience contains not only the memory of past events, but also anticipated future events.” It has even been claimed that “the primary role of episodic [autobiographical] memory … may be to provide information from the past for the simulation of the future.”
