The problem of trust therefore consists in the fact that the future contains far more possibilities than could ever be realized in the present and thus be transferred into the past. The uncertainty about what will happen is simply a consequence of the very elementary fact that not all futures can become the present and hence become the past. The future places an excessive burden on a person's ability to represent things to himself. People have to live in the present along with this everlastingly over-complex future. They must, therefore, prune the future so as to measure up with the present, that is, to reduce complexity.

XREF: Connects to systems theory (Luhmann) and general discussions of risk, uncertainty, and trust as a complexity-reduction mechanism in social systems. Builds on: "Complexity means possibilities exceeding what a system can realize."

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 120