{
  "id": "future.temporal",
  "term": "future",
  "sense": "temporal",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 4,
  "arena": "future",
  "domain": "time",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "the part of time that is after now",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "time.dimension",
      "possible.potential",
      "part.relation"
    ],
    "interaction": "time and possibility together allow what may occur, while part.relation distinguishes a segment of time distinct from the present and past",
    "novel_properties": [
      "temporal posteriority",
      "openness to occurrence",
      "partiality within time"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Voyager 1 probe continues transmitting data 46 years after launch, now in interstellar space.",
      "domain": "space exploration"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Svalbard Global Seed Vault preserves seeds from over 1 million crop varieties in Arctic permafrost.",
      "domain": "agriculture"
    },
    {
      "text": "Japan's 2011 Fukushima disaster reshaped global nuclear energy policies for decades after.",
      "domain": "energy policy"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "previous.temporal",
      "note": "contrasts‑with",
      "type": "contrasts-with"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "later.temporal",
    "loan.financial",
    "seize-the-day.window",
    "status.social"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "future",
    "futures"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Added 'part.relation' to account for the definitional reliance on a segment or portion of time; interaction and novel properties updated accordingly."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-future.temporal"
}