End-of-history illusion

Biological Parallel

A juvenile salmon smolt undergoes radical transformation—physiologically adapting from freshwater to saltwater, changing diet, behavior, and habitat. Yet the smolt has no "model" of its future adult form; each developmental stage treats its current state as terminal until hormonal triggers force metamorphosis. The end-of-history illusion—believing we've finished changing while acknowledging past change—reflects ontogeny's structure: organisms are optimized for their current developmental stage, not for predicting future transformations. We overinvest in current preferences because evolution didn't reward accurate modeling of adult-you while juvenile-you needs to survive today.