Temporal Horizons of Worlding: 3 Anticipation and the Horizon of Emergence

If memory anchors worlds in their past, anticipation situates them in relation to futures yet to be actualised. Within a relational ontology, the future is not an external, pre-existing dimension awaiting realisation; it is a construal field, co-formed by present patterns of potential and by the temporal resonances of past worlds. Anticipation is the active engagement with these potentials—a mode of worlding in which horizons of emergence are dynamically sensed, oriented toward, and negotiated.

Anticipatory structures operate through what might be called temporal affordances. A world perceives certain futures as possible, probable, or desirable, not in isolation but in relation to its own internal patterns and the surrounding network of co-individuated worlds. These anticipatory cues influence present actualisations: what is enacted now is always conditioned by the projection of potentialities into the immediate horizon. The world, in effect, is already partially inhabited by its own possible futures, which shape its trajectory even before they are fully realised.

The horizon of emergence is not uniform or singular. Multiple co-existing futures may intersect, overlap, or conflict, creating zones of temporal tension and resonance. Consider a technological ecosystem: the development of a novel platform is guided not only by current capacities and constraints but by anticipatory visions of user behaviour, market dynamics, and societal impact. The unfolding of the platform is thus a negotiation among competing temporal potentials, each shaping the present as it projects itself forward.

Anticipation also mediates relational alignment. Worlds attune to one another, synchronising or diverging in expectation of mutual possibilities. This co-temporality implies that the future is not merely “mine” or “yours” but emerges across the interweaving of multiple world-horizons. Conflicts of anticipation—misaligned projections or competing valuations of potential—can destabilise worlds, while resonance among anticipatory structures can amplify coherence and accelerate emergence.

Crucially, anticipation is not deterministic. Potential futures are enacted relationally: the act of projecting a horizon is itself a construal that may reinforce, redirect, or collapse certain possibilities. In this sense, anticipation is both enabling and constraining: it opens paths by making them perceivable and actionable, yet it also closes others by structuring attention, energy, and resources toward selected trajectories. The relational temporality of anticipation thus actively co-shapes the topology of worlding.

Engaging with anticipation relationally demands sensitivity to the subtle interplay of projection and responsiveness. Worlds do not merely wait for the future to arrive; they prefigure it through distributed patterns of expectation, negotiation, and enactment. By cultivating this awareness, we can observe how temporal horizons are continuously reframed, expanded, and contracted, generating the ongoing dynamism of worlding.

Next in the series: Historical Entanglements — Interweaving Past Worlds, where we will examine how multiple pasts intersect, overlap, and constrain present and emergent worlds, highlighting the relational texture of temporal entanglement.