Time Is Ignorance. “The Order of Time,” by Carlo Rovelli

"The Order of Time," by Carlo Rovelli

otqtxwmy October 18, 2023

Why Read It.

In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton published Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and human civilization was never the same. In the early 20th century, Newtonian Physics had so revolutionized modern society that scientists actually thought our understanding of the natural world was complete and there was very little left to do! And then along came Albert Einstein. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, published in 1915, quite literally decimated Newtonian Physics and led our species into an entirely new scientific and technological age. In Newtonian Physics, TIME is an absolute and fundamental entity. Einstein’s work showed that time, in fact, is not fundamental, but rather a relative emergent phenomenon.

TIME is an important concept in the Ancient Teachings. The notion that mind is often trapped in the illusion of past or future and attention ought to be brought into the present moment is a key teaching in many spiritual disciplines that resonate with the Perennial Philosophy. Physics has finally caught up with the Ancient Rishis, who have long held that time is an illusion, and in this short work, Carlo Rovelli explains why this is so, not from a purely spiritual standpoint, but from the scientific standpoint of modern physics.

Overview

In “The Order of Time,” Carlo Rovelli elegantly unravels the fabric of time, challenging our deepest intuitions about its unyielding flow. Venturing from the vast cosmos to the quantum realm, Rovelli reveals a universe where time’s linear march is an emergent phenomenon, intimately tied to the dance of entropy. As the boundaries of our understanding of time dissolve, we’re confronted with a world where the present is a delicate interplay of myriad events, and the universal “now” is but an illusion. This masterful synthesis of science and philosophy invites readers to reimagine their place in the ever-elusive river of time.

Key Takeaways

Nature of Time: Rovelli challenges our intuitive understanding of time, suggesting that the linear progression of past, present, and future isn’t fundamental to the universe but rather emerges from a more basic level of reality.
Thermodynamics and Entropy: Rovelli explains how the direction of time (the “arrow of time”) is intrinsically tied to the increase in entropy, which gives rise to our experience of time flowing in one direction.
Time in Quantum Gravity: At the smallest scales, the conventional idea of time breaks down. Rovelli discusses how in quantum gravity, the idea of a universal “now” might not exist.
Human Perception of Time: The book also touches upon how humans perceive and conceptualize time, contrasting our subjective experience with the objective reality described by physics.
Philosophical Implications: Beyond the physics, Rovelli reflects on the human condition in the light of these revelations about time, pondering on matters of existence, death, and the transient nature of our lives.

"Quotes"

~ “There is no single time: there is a different duration for every trajectory; and time passes at different rhythms according to place and according to speed. It is not directional: the difference between past and future does not exist in the elementary equations of the world; its orientation is merely a contingent aspect that appears when we look at things and neglect the details.”

~ “The hardest stone, in the light of what we have learned from chemistry, from physics, from mineralogy, from geology, from psychology, is in reality a complex vibration of quantum fields, a momentary interaction of forces, a process that for a brief moment manages to keep its shape, to hold itself in equilibrium before disintegrating again into dust..and, gradually, an intricate knot in that cosmic game of mirrors that constitutes reality. The world is not so much made of stones as of fleeting sounds, or of waves moving through the sea.”

~ “What makes the world go round are not sources of energy but sources of low entropy. Without low entropy, energy would dilute into uniform heat and the world would go to sleep in a state of thermal equilibrium — there would no longer be any distinction between past and future, and nothing would happen.”

~ “The entire coming into being of the cosmos is a gradual process of disordering, like the pack of cards that begins in order and then becomes disordered through shuffling. There are no immense hands that shuffle the universe. It does this mixing by itself, in the interactions between its parts that open and close during the course of the mixing, step by step. Vast regions remain trapped in configurations that remain ordered, until here and there new channels are opened through which disorder spreads. What causes events to happen in the world, what writes its history, is the irresistible mixing of all things, going from the few ordered configurations to the countless dispersed ones.”

~ “In the third part of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, a powerful spirit named Yaksa asks the oldest and wisest of the Pandava, Yudhistira, what is the greatest of all mysteries. The answer given resounds across millenia: ‘Every day countless people die, and yet those who remain live as if they were immortals.’”