Here’s a question: If the present was percieved as a dimensionless membrane dividing the past from the future, could we experience consciousness? Could a mind exist on such a temporal knife’s edge?
That leads to a theory: As a precursor to consciousness, evolution developed in brains a concept of ‘now’ that included a short period of the past and perhaps a little bit of the future. Enough time for neurons to process incoming signals and to develop a predictive model of the world interacting with our bodies.
That describes a condition: Consciousness exists in this thicker ‘now’. The future is projected, and the past is remembered from the anchor of the present. This short lived ‘now’ is the only place where we can think and act. It is the seat of existence.
That inspires a goal: To enhance our engagement with the world we should nurture and expand the temporal span of ‘now’. (I think that’s what art can do!)