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The whole point of the "fly ball" analogy is to give effect to our "sense" of the future. To chase a ball moving at an oblique angle -- and to judge where to be at some later point -- is more than a mechanical act. Like anything involving planning, the activity doesn't even make sense unless we have a non-abstract "later" in mind. The future, in that example, is quite concrete -- it only lacks our (intentional) participation, which we are providing.

Is the future "real" in that example? Hard to say ... by taking positive action we certainly make it real. One supposes it's a reasonable analogy to the "observer" aspect of quantum theory.... And in that sense I suppose the future in our macro world, is similar to what we can observe in the quantum world. I don't think there's serious doubt that the quantum world exists in some objective sense ... and I think "the future" has many of the same features.

As religious folks, of course, we accept that the "God's eye view" of reality most likely eliminates the distinction between present and past, at least in the way we perceive them.

Current physics theory (the standard model) has particles as the medium of exchange tying you to your universe via sensing due to particle impact upon your sensing mechanism. By what means deos the future communicate ‘back’ to you in the present?

"Is the future "real" in that example? Hard to say ... by taking positive action we certainly make it real." Well, if you do not chase the flyball, will it impact the ground where you may have calculated (hence 'calculus') it would impact? Only interceding to catch the ball is made real since the ball would fall on the same path to impact somewhere/when whther you take positive action or not. Interjecting your intersection is all you actually 'do' and that doesn't make anything indenedent of you and your interaction 'real'. It has reality independent of your intercession, really reflecting photon energy to observers and being influenced by the gravitational field of the Earth.

Is the path of least action followed because a future outcome pulls upon temporal position, or sends particles to the past? Or is there some medium whereby temporal position future communicates with temporal position past/present?