1. Ancient creatures crawled out of water to see better.
2. Since eyes see farther in air, it brought access to new food on land.
3. All the poking out, seeing and trying led to limbs; to help them move.
4. As animals came onto the land, two types of spaces defined ecosystems.
5. These gave rise to predator–prey dynamics, dominance and survival strategies.
6. Open spaces, like grasslands and plains, favoured strategies for chasing and speed.
7. Closed spaces, like forests and jungles, favoured strategies for hiding and escape.
8. Big predators dominated in the open space; small ones took shelter in closed terrain.
9. At this stage, not much planning was needed; options to hide or hunt were defined.
10. But neither speed nor stealth had a distinctive edge in a certain ecological sweet spot.
11. A zone where open and closed habitats mingled, so it wasn't too sparse or too dense.
12. The palaeontologists Malcolm MacIver and Lars Schmitz call this the 'Goldilocks Zone'.
13. With a balanced edge for both predators and prey, this zone required animals to plan.
14. Which led to the beginnings of our planning circuitry; to envision, determine, be strategic.
15. So our ability to imagine or choose future paths is based on what we think others will do.
16. But our planning circuitry is limited and evolving, so we're still bad at planning ahead.