  Drawing upon a body of research on the evolution of creativity, this paper
proposes a theory of how, when, and why the forward-thinking story-telling
abilities of humans evolved, culminating in the visionary abilities of science
fiction writers. The ability to recursively chain thoughts together evolved
approximately two million years ago. Language abilities, and the ability to
shift between different modes of thought, evolved approximately 100,000 years
ago. Science fiction dates to at least the second Century AD. It is suggested
that well before this time, but after 100,000 years ago, and concurrent with
the evolution of a division of labour between creators and imitators there
arose a division of labour between past, present, and future thinkers.
Agent-based model research suggests there are social benefits to the evolution
of individual differences in creativity such that there is a balance between
novelty-generating creators and continuity-perpetuating imitators. A balance
between individuals focused on the past, present, and future would be expected
to yield similar adaptive benefits.
