The future is incorporated into all phenomena, conscious or unconscious, physical or ideational, as anticipation, from those forms of anticipation that are observed, for instance, in a tree that loses its leaves in the Autumn to human planning that colonizes the future inspired by imaginary futures. Looked at as “ways-of-knowing” the Discipline of Anticipation (DoA) consists of the codification of the myriad of systems of anticipation, both conscious and non-conscious. The DoA develops, sorts, and diffuses descriptions of the processes/systems of anticipation or how the later-than-now enters into reality.
A full-fledged classification of the various forms and types of anticipation has still to be developed. Furthermore, an adequate recognition of the ways in which anticipation is understood by different sciences and disciplines (biology, anthropology, sociology, cognitive science, etc.) is still in wait. A better and more complete understanding of anticipation will help not only the DoA, but also biology, sociology, and economy, from one side, and medicine and architecture, from the other side.
