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The Order of Time

Carlo Rovelli

4.11 · Rating details · 22,558 ratings · 2,764 reviews

Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at d ...more

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Hardcover, 240 pages

Published May 8th 2018 by Riverhead Books (first published May 25th 2017)

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Apr 26, 2018 Brian Clegg rated it liked it · review of another edition

There's good news and bad news. The good news is that The Order of Time does what A Brief History of Time seemed to promise but didn't cover: it attempts to explore what time itself is. The bad news is that Carlo Rovelli does this in such a flowery and hand-waving fashion that, though the reader may get a brief feeling that they understand what he's writing about, any understanding rapidly disappears like the scent of a passing flower (the style is catching).

It doesn't help either that the book There's good news and bad news. The good news is that The Order of Time does what A Brief History of Time seemed to promise but didn't cover: it attempts to explore what time itself is. The bad news is that Carlo Rovelli does this in such a flowery and hand-waving fashion that, though the reader may get a brief feeling that they understand what he's writing about, any understanding rapidly disappears like the scent of a passing flower (the style is catching).

It doesn't help either that the book is in translation so some scientific terms are mangled, or that Rovelli has a habit of self-contradiction. Time and again (pun intended) he tells us time doesn't exist, then makes use of it. For example, at one point within a page of telling us of time's absence Rovelli writes of events that have duration and a 'when' - both meaningless terms without time. At one point he speaks of a world without time, elsewhere he says 'Time and space are real phenomena.' The difficulty I think Rovelli faces is that he uses the common physicist's approach of talking of a model as if it were reality.

The wofflyness often gets in the way of understanding. For example, when talking about the second law of thermodynamics and entropy, he claims (I think - it's difficult to tell exactly what he is claiming) that the only reason we perceive the arrow of time from the increase of entropy is the way we label things. The implication is that, for example, the atoms in your body are no more ordered than the atoms in a scrambled mess - it's just that it's easier to see the order in your body because on the scale of atoms everything is blurred, but if we could see every atom exactly, whatever configuration they would be in would itself be unique. It sounds impressive, but skips over the way that fundamental quantum particles are indistinguishable. The arrangement of the cloud of atoms is only unique if you can tell one hydrogen atom (say) from another.

This is rather a shame, as Rovelli covers a considerable amount in what is a distinctly short book (though, thankfully, you get more for your money than in Seven Brief Lessons). Amongst other things, Rovelli passingly covers the special and general theories of relativity, thermodynamics and, of course, loop quantum gravity. And it's particularly frustrating because his attempt to put across the idea that it’s better to model reality in terms of events rather than things is a very powerful one which isn't often seen in popular science - but the message could easily be lost in the confusion. You come away with very little information - far more that rapidly disappearing odour.

I've no doubt this book should do well for those who are impressed that a physicist can refer to Proust. But I like a popular science book with significantly more meat in it, rather than vague impressions. ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Fergus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Before I begin my usual segues, I have to say this is a magnificent book. Though I read it three years ago, I return to it whenever I need to de-clog my brain!
***

One of the self-appointed gurus of the seventies (who at one point was the leader of a cult headquartered on a Pacific island - you may remember him) used to bash ‘scientism’ as if there was no tomorrow.

Many of us addled hippies agreed back then.

Although I had a nagging feeling he was just in it for the glitz, glam and dineros. And I ...more

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Aug 10, 2018 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018-shelf, science, metaphysics

Take two. Time has swallowed my review. My first one anyway.

I wish I could take back the time, do it over, but entropy hit GR (or at least my internet connection) and something less than the total heat-death of the universe made me realign my perceptions of reality and time.

Oh, wait. That was this book!

Half historical science, some equations, the theoretical underpinnings of quantum loop theory, the role of entropy and heat in the determination of what makes TIME, and half philosophy and what ma ...more

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Aug 03, 2019 Bharath rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Time has always been an enigma – with philosophers and even scientists calling it an illusion. And, Carlo Rovelli tells us that it is increasingly appearing to be so. A topic which without doubt captures your attention & is very intellectually stimulating. It would have been an exceptional book, but in parts struggles between being a book for everybody vs being a book of serious science. I have observed many science books do run into this issue – and it is quite obviously a difficult balance to Time has always been an enigma – with philosophers and even scientists calling it an illusion. And, Carlo Rovelli tells us that it is increasingly appearing to be so. A topic which without doubt captures your attention & is very intellectually stimulating. It would have been an exceptional book, but in parts struggles between being a book for everybody vs being a book of serious science. I have observed many science books do run into this issue – and it is quite obviously a difficult balance to achieve.

The start gets you immediately hooked with the description of how time moves slower at lower altitudes than higher altitudes. When you fall, you are actually tending to go towards the place where time moves slower. The advances in our understanding of time makes for very interesting reading with the big breakthrough coming with Einstein’s theory of relativity. Einstein’s concept of the spacetime fabric affected by mass as well as speed completely changed how time was viewed. This also brings into question what we really mean by present – which really holds only here and is highly localized. The present somewhere else – on a different planet for instance is known to us much later and may mean nothing.

It makes sense for the universe to be seen as a series of events, rather than as objects interacting with each other. Objects are a logical outcome of events and quite possibly so is time - a result of a change of entropy rather than something which passes by objects. There has been progress in creating theories & models of the universe without time. The Loop Quantum theory is discussed – which Carlo is personally involved with as well.

The later part of the book discusses the practical uses of time – emerging out of a universe which does not really need time to explain it.

This is a book which will kindle your curiosity to think and read more about time theories. There are vague & incomplete references to Vedanta & Lord Shiva from Hindu philosophy. Despite the inconsistent treatment – oscillating between simple language and more detail, this is a book to read, for the fascinating topic it explores.

It is not a big book and will not take you too much time to read. Oh well, it will not be that easy to banish time from my mind yet though 😊

My rating: 4.5 / 5. ...more

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Dec 02, 2018 Alice Lippart rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction, read-in-2018

My brain hurts and I love it.

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May 28, 2018 Brendan Monroe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, science, time

It rules over each and every one of us, but is there any greater mystery in life than time? What even is time?

Carlo Rovelli sets out to explain just that question in his latest book, "The Order of Time". Rovelli's explanation of time isn't always clear - there were many moments where I lost the thread - but it is beautiful. For a theoretical physicist, Rovelli is wonderfully poetic. It certainly helps that the audiobook is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, whose deeply rich voice lends Rovelli's It rules over each and every one of us, but is there any greater mystery in life than time? What even is time?

Carlo Rovelli sets out to explain just that question in his latest book, "The Order of Time". Rovelli's explanation of time isn't always clear - there were many moments where I lost the thread - but it is beautiful. For a theoretical physicist, Rovelli is wonderfully poetic. It certainly helps that the audiobook is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, whose deeply rich voice lends Rovelli's words added impact. As a result, this is one of the few books that's actually better listened to.

Just imagine Cumberbatch reading the following:

"Things in themselves are only events that, for a while, are monotonous. But only before returning to dust... the absence of time does not mean, therefore, that everything is frozen and unmoving, it means that the incessant happening that wearies the world is not ordered along a timeline, is not measured by a gigantic tic-tocking... it is a boundless and disorderly network of quantum events. The world is more like Naples than Singapore. If by "time" we mean nothing more than happening, then everything is time. There is only that which exists in time."

That's beautiful, even if I don't quite fully understand it.

Rovelli also quotes a beautiful passage by Hugo von Hofmannsthal from the famous aria in Richard Strauss' opera, "Der Rosenkavelier". It's an ode to the passing of time, and it's one of the most somber passages I've ever heard. It's titled "Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar ding", in English, "Time Is Weird".

"I remember a little girl, but how can that be? Once I was that little girl, and then I became an old woman. If God wills it so, why allow me to see it? Why doesn't he hide it from me? Everything is a mystery. Such a deep mystery. I feel the fragility of things in time. From the bottom of my heart, I feel we should cling to nothing. Everything slips through our fingers. All that we seek to hold onto dissolves. Everything vanishes like mist and dreams. Time is a strange thing. When we don't need it, it is nothing. Then suddenly, there is nothing else. It is everywhere around us, also within us. It seeps into our faces. It seeps into the mirror. Runs through my temples. Between you and I, it runs silently like an hourglass. Sometimes I feel it flowing inexorably, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and stop all the clocks."

Like time itself, I often felt the words of Rovelli's "The Order of Time" vanishing from my mind nearly as soon as I read them. Such beautiful words, even if they left me far too quickly. ...more

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Jul 25, 2018 Holly rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-reads

I suspect that these Carlo Rovelli books are popular because they are short and imaginative! The first half of The Order of Time was clear and thought-provoking. But the second half went a little off the rails and I'm not sure it all even made sense. (His science is sound, I assume, but what about his metaphysical speculations ?) My mind kept wandering as I was lulled by Benedict Cumberbatch's voice (which reminded me of Neil Gaiman's hypnotic audiobook narrations). I amused myself by imagining ...more

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Feb 23, 2020 Darwin8u rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020, philosophy, nonfiction, science

"We are stories, contained within the twenty complicated centimeters behind our eyes, lines drawn by traces left by the (re)mingling together of things in the world, and oriented towards predicting events in the future, toward the direction of increasing entropy, in a rather particular corner of this immense, chaotic universe."
- Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time

description

An interesting short exploration of time as deconstructed (crumbled), shown to not exist except as relationships, and rebuilt through som ...more

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Jan 01, 2022 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Q:
Why do we remember the past and not the future? Do we exist in time, or does time exist in us? What does it really mean to say that time “passes”? What ties time to our nature as persons, to our subjectivity?
What am I listening to when I listen to the passing of time? (c)
Q:
... the book becomes a fiery magma of ideas, sometimes illuminating, sometimes confusing. If you decide to follow me, I will take you to where I believe our knowledge of time has reached: up to the brink of that vast noctu ...more

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Oct 01, 2021 India M. Clamp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: divinity

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The entropy of a neutrino is not a common discussion. Nor is how all celestial bodies orbit around a hot massive entity that blasts its' photons or immortal neutrinos to those planets in motion. Orbits are quite ordered and predictable. The movement of things and the construct of time is a poetic undertaking that Rovelli pens. He is the founder of the theory of loop quantum gravity and author of "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics." What we think is the present, past or future may be considered even The entropy of a neutrino is not a common discussion. Nor is how all celestial bodies orbit around a hot massive entity that blasts its' photons or immortal neutrinos to those planets in motion. Orbits are quite ordered and predictable. The movement of things and the construct of time is a poetic undertaking that Rovelli pens. He is the founder of the theory of loop quantum gravity and author of "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics." What we think is the present, past or future may be considered events--like humans.

Much time is needed to contemplate the concepts in "The Order of Time." Additionally, consultations with physicists catalyze comprehension for they have a gifted way of looking at the universe. They encourage questions like why time seems to move slower or faster in different locations (mountain vs. beach). This is not a book that may be consumed quickly---its like a very hot cup of tea that needs time to assimilate. You may try to drink it quickly, yet be prepared for the consequences of such. Why is there no variable for time? What is the ratio of a hot photon to its "cold" companions? Consultant Physicists Jediah (ASH) & C.A.R. (USC) and CH. Sending my thanks and appreciation.

"We are for ourselves in large measure what we see and have seen ourselves reflected back to us by our friends, our loves, and our enemies.”
—Carlo Rovelli (Theoretical Physicist)

Can there be a fundamental granularity of life? How do blurry ideas transform into a crisp reality that has a mathematical dimension to its existence. As color relates to frequency and also the same could be assumed of spectrum of light (Newton studies). Quanta can be thought of as energy packets. German Heisenberg was twenty-five (like Einstein) when he brings about to existence the equations of quantum mechanics. If we can endear a handsome electron to be in existence---by way of a soft, perfumed and mellifluous collision on a silky base with pearls jiggling, butterflies fluttering and some heat being released into the field---surely we can imagine how the many fields exist yet by their limitation do we gain velocity. Not an easy read, yet worth the investment of time. ...more

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Apr 09, 2021 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, read-2021, borrowed, translations

The final one of my three short books this week was a recommendation from my late father, who was impressed by Rovelli's ability to communicate difficult scientific concepts to a lay audience and felt it would help us to understand the foundations of his own mathematical interests.

The book is an ambitious attempt to explain how ideas of time have been refined to accommodate the needs of modern physics, and for me it was mostly successful, though at times I got a little lost by the arguments. On ...more

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May 08, 2018 Rama Rao rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physics, cosmology, science, physical-reality

Time is an Illusion, says physicist Carlo Rovelli

Physicists calling time an illusion is not a new idea. Julian Barbour, in his 1999 book argued for the same hypothesis. Contrary to this idea, physicist Lee Smolin proposed that time is real. He suggested that laws of physics are not fixed in the universe but evolve over time. The principle argument in support of his theory is that mathematical models provide an abstraction of reality and ignore time dimension. Carlo Rovelli observes that since t Time is an Illusion, says physicist Carlo Rovelli

Physicists calling time an illusion is not a new idea. Julian Barbour, in his 1999 book argued for the same hypothesis. Contrary to this idea, physicist Lee Smolin proposed that time is real. He suggested that laws of physics are not fixed in the universe but evolve over time. The principle argument in support of his theory is that mathematical models provide an abstraction of reality and ignore time dimension. Carlo Rovelli observes that since theory of general relativity assumes spacetime is smooth and continuous, and quantum theory describes matter and energy in discrete quantities which implies that spacetime is also quantized. i.e. they exist in discrete quanta. These two realities are unconnected because quantum physics cannot deal with the continuous spacetime, and general relativity cannot reconcile with quantization of space and time. In fact, space, time and gravity are suggested as emergent properties of a system. Emergent properties are not identical with, reducible to, or deducible from the other physical properties. Examples include, temperature, pressure, viscosity, spacetime and gravity. Therefore, the author concludes that Isaac Newton’s picture of a universally ticking clock, and Albert Einstein’s relativistic space-time that bends so that local times differ depending on one’s relative speed or proximity to a mass is an over simplification. According to Rovelli, the time; the sequences of past, present and future is an emergent phenomenon of thermodynamics.

One of the principal arguments Rovelli advances is the Wheeler-De Witt equation which describes quantum gravity, but it has no time variable associated with it. Quantum mechanics and general relativity, taken together, imply the possibility of quantum superposition of different spacetimes. But the Wheeler-de Witt equation, which is based on a wave function Ψ[q] over geometries offers new perspectives.

In this book, Rovelli often muses about metaphysics, poetry and spirituality but fails to convince the reader that his idea is on the right track. It reminds me of Einstein’s famous saying that “God does not play dice,” Which makes me believe that if time is an illusion, then space would also be an illusion. There is a beauty and symmetry in the universe, and time alone could not be an illusion without space. Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Mars explorer suggest that this universe is a computer simulation on someone’s computer. And black hole physics suggests that the information in 3D world could be described in 2D dimension, in fact reality is a hologram. In quantum reality, the wave functions of a reality must be collapsed by physical observation (conscious observers), until then the reality is smeared out in spacetime. In fact, reality is in the eyes of beholder. Taken together, reality of matter and energy in spacetime could be an illusion (Maya), as interpreted by the Vedanta School of Hindu philosophy. ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Chip Huyen rated it it was amazing

Mind-blowing. So beautifully written. Entropy makes the world go round. Time exists within us. I can't see the world the same way again. ...more

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Sep 02, 2019 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2019, science, science-september

My first read of #scienceseptember (2019) was a bit of a mind blowing experience, with physics meeting philosophy for a discussion of time. I barely grasped the concepts that were already dumbed down for a layperson - the absence of a "present," how time and entropy relate, equations without time, etc. But I did meet my goal of reading more than just nature stuff for the theme!

"In order to exit from a black hole, you would need to move toward the present rather than toward the future!...This is ...more

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Jun 09, 2018 Veronica rated it really liked it

One star lost. Either I am simply in a bitter mood tonight, or the last thirty-seven minutes of this audiobook were depressing and existentially soul-crushing. Everything vanishes. Time is suffering. We suffer because we can't hold onto things. This is not physics?! Physics isn't supposed to be depressing; that's philosophy. I do wish he had perhaps confined himself to loop quantum gravity. I might as well next read Buddha's teachings tonight. Desire is suffering. Then Schopenhauer. Will is suff ...more

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May 16, 2018 Terry Pearce rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is without a doubt the best science book I've ever read. Possibly the best book I've ever read. It takes something (Time) that is ultra-important to us all and really tough to think about, and, in graceful language and thoughtful structure, explains first how everything we think we know about it on a day to day basis is wrong, and then how we can think about it in a way that is profound and useful. Along the way, he ties it in with the deepest core of what it is to be a human being, alive, ...more

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Aug 02, 2019 Ed Erwin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, science

The parts summarizing relativity and QM and their implications relative to the concept of time are very well done. When he comes to describing the sort of thing he himself works on, loop quantum gravity, it gets too vague and hand-wavey to make much sense.

PS: This website refused to allow me to put a start date later than the date finished which proves that there is an order of time.

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Oct 13, 2019 Camelia Rose rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, audio, physics-chemistry

This is probably the hardest book I've listened. The concise yet poetic language and Benedict Cumberbatch's deeply affective voice keep me going. It is 4 hours 20 minutes long. I listened twice, doing my best to "get" as much as I can.

The first part of the book describes well-established aspects of time in physics that have been repetitively proved by carefully conducted experiments--gravitational time dilation and relative velocity time dilation, i.e. time passes slower nearer to a mass, faste This is probably the hardest book I've listened. The concise yet poetic language and Benedict Cumberbatch's deeply affective voice keep me going. It is 4 hours 20 minutes long. I listened twice, doing my best to "get" as much as I can.

The first part of the book describes well-established aspects of time in physics that have been repetitively proved by carefully conducted experiments--gravitational time dilation and relative velocity time dilation, i.e. time passes slower nearer to a mass, faster farer away from a mass, faster at lower speed and slower at higher speed. Then it goes deeper, much deeper. It dismantles what we, non physicists, think we know about time: something flows uniformly, equally throughout the universe in the course of which all things happen, and reality flows from the past, to the present and towards the future. According the book, the present that is common throughout the whole universe does not exist...There is "present" that is near to us, but nothing is present in a far away galaxy...The present is localized rather universal...The difference between past and future does not exist in the elementary equations that govern the world.

A large part of the book talks about Thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states total entropy of an isolated system can only increase over time, where "time" is the asymmetrical, one-directional process and what we "perceive" as time. The concepts of Thermal Time and Quanta Time have lost on me. I do not even attempt to understand Loop Theory and Spin Networks (which are the author's fields.)

The universe starts at a lower entropy (a particular configuration, ordered), and gradually moves towards higher entropy (less ordered), but what is considered ordered, what is not? To explain, the author uses the analogy of cards shuffling. There are actually infinite possibilities of the order of cards, similar to the universe. However, we can not "see" (does the author mean we, the conscious being, the classical entity, to see with our eyes?) the infinite details of things, of the infinite happenings in the world, can not grasp the infinite possibilities and combinations, instead, we can only "see" what we are able to "see". The universe starts at a lower entropy because in our blurred "vision", that's the particular configuration we are associated with. No, I don't think I truly understand, but I am fascinated by the theory. Also this: In a system where time does not exist, change is ubiquitous. And this: The universe is a collection of events, not things, and not ordered by time.

The last two chapters are quite philosophical. Indeed, new development in modern philosophy comes from theoretical physics and neuroscience. The impermanence of the universe described in the book complies with Buddhism's world view. The author discusses what makes "I", the conscious being. He sees memory is one of the three elements that makes one the one.

“Because everything that begins must end. What causes us to suffer is not in the past or the future: it is here, now, in our memory, in our expectations. We long for timelessness, we endure the passing of time: we suffer time. Time is suffering.”

“I am my mother’s caresses, and the serene kindness with which my father calmly guided me; I am my adolescent travels; I am what my reading has deposited in layers in my mind; I am my loves, my moments of despair, my friendships, what I’ve written, what I’ve heard; the faces engraved on my memory. I am, above all, the one who a minute ago made a cup of tea for himself. The one who a moment ago typed the word “memory” into his computer. The one who just composed the sentence that I am now completing. If all this disappeared, would I still exist? I am this long, ongoing novel. My life consists of it.”

...more

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Sep 19, 2018 Blaine Snow rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: natural-science, general-science

Don't be fooled - this book is not an attempt to explain time but to assert the singular reality of symmetrical and relativistic time as viewed by physicists. Rovelli's attempt to explain away asymmetrical thermodynamic-entropic time and the whole of biology, ecology, economics, and complex systems by telling us “time is ignorance,” "it's all a blur" and it’s a “world without time;” his discounting of our experience of past, future, and the direction of time, of evolution, growth, decay… that wh ...more

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Jan 26, 2022 Isabelle reads a book a day because she has no friends rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, reviewed, 2022, oooh-sciencey, 4-stars

This was great, I just keep needing to remind myself I can’t give it an extra star because Benedict Cumberbatch was the narrator.

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May 02, 2019 Andy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Excellent narration by Benedict Cumberbatch. The universe is events. Good to think about this mind bending stuff now and then.

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Dec 08, 2020 Mehdi Khazaeian rated it it was amazing

Perfect explanation for time if you are into physics or mechanics.

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Sep 18, 2018 Mary rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

“This is time for us: a multilayered, complex concept with multiple, distinct properties deriving from various different approximations.” Page 198.

The Public Library only allowed me 7 days to read this book with no renewals. So Time was a problem from the beginning. Nevertheless, I plowed through and finishing tonight, I ended up buying the Kindle Version.

There is much to contemplate and digest in this book. A reread at some point in Time is in order. Reading this work, you will encounter expl ...more

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Nov 28, 2021 Dax rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

A brief look into the field that Rovelli has spent his entire career studying. I came away with several snippets that summarize my takeaways nicely, but I admit that the deeper dive into his work stuck in my head for only the briefest of moments and then was gone again. But that does not diminish my enjoyment of the book. In fact, my favorite moments of the book are when Rovelli goes beyond his field of work and shares his thoughts on mortality and our experience of time. It's quite philosophica ...more

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Oct 06, 2021 Chenna rated it really liked it

Time has always been one of the most mysterious entities for humans. Like the idea of consciousness, it's been a fascinating subject for philosophers and thinkers over centuries. Our perspective towards Time as a constant and uniform flow was shattered by Einstein with his revolutionary theories of relativity. Since then it has become more of a physical quantity to be studied and understood. Physicists have been trying to understand and explain the concept of Time through the eyes of Thermodynam ...more

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May 19, 2018 Murtaza rated it liked it · review of another edition

I was looking for a book about the philosophy of time, but found this one instead which is more of a physics book about the contemporary state of science on the subject. Despite not being exactly what I was looking for, Rovelli does a great job of laying out the present state of knowledge about what "time" really is in the universe and how it functions. Contrary to our limited perception, time is a far more relative and ephemeral phenomenon than we like to imagine. It is also better described as ...more

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Nov 09, 2019 Anton rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-twice, my-physical-library, physics-and-cosmos, philosophy

Incredible and astounding! Strongest possible recommendation!

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Jan 03, 2020 Crystal Starr Light rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science, audiobook, philosophy

Bullet Review:

First book of the year - yippee!

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Aug 21, 2018 Thomas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read_2018, science

All I can say is that this book is delightful and amazing. I'll need to return to it again and again so I can keep absorbing what Rovelli has to share. ...more

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Jul 24, 2021 Xinyu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: re-readable, science, favorite, 2008-2018, italy, physics

Reading this book when I am about to leave Ann Arbor, a small town that I have lived since I came to the US 9 years ago, is poignant.

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About Carlo Rovelli

Carlo Rovelli

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Carlo Rovelli is an Italian theoretical physicist and writer who has worked in Italy and the USA, and currently works in France. His work is mainly in the field of quantum gravity, where he is among the founders of the loop quantum gravity theory. He has also worked in the history and philosophy of science. He collaborates regularly with several Italian newspapers, in particular the cultural suppl ...more

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Quotes from The Order of Time

“This is time for us. Memory. A nostalgia. The pain of absence. But it isn't absence that causes sorrow. It is affection and love. Without affection, without love, such absences would cause us no pain.
For this reason, even the pain caused by absence is in the end something good and even beautiful. Because it feeds on that which gives meaning to life.” — 69 likes

“Because everything that begins must end. What causes us to suffer is not in the past or the future: it is here, now, in our memory, in our expectations. We long for timelessness, we endure the passing of time: we suffer time. Time is suffering.” — 38 likes

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