Sure, I think this will probably just be reaffirming what you already interpreted the idea as but basically I think that the notion of humans being able to perceive self sacrifice in an abstract manner (as opposed to traditionally killing other humans as a means of sacrifice and whatnot) gave us the ability to perceive 'the future' in a sense.

An example would be the parents in poor family working very hard day in and day out to ensure that their children go to college and secure future prosperity. That's just one example but you can think of countless different scenarios where people sacrifice a bit of their present to capture an ambitious future - or to make that present sacrifice in the name of ambition and future success.

I actually heard all of this in a video but I can't for the life of me remember who said it, and it was put infinitely better than my explanation. If I remember I will let you know!