The Order of Time

by Carlo Rovelli

The entire evolution of science would suggest that the best grammar for thinking about the world is that of change, not of permanence. Not of being, but of becoming.

The world is not a collection of things, it is a collection of events.

“Things” in themselves are only events that for a while are monotonous.58 But only before returning to dust. Because sooner or later, obviously, everything returns to dust.

At the fundamental level, the world is a collection of events not ordered in time. These events manifest relations between physical variables that are, a priori, on the same level. Each part of the world interacts with a small part of all the variables, the value of which determines “the state of the world with regard to that particular subsystem.”

Time, then, is the form in which we beings, whose brains are made up essentially of memory and foresight, interact with the world: it is the source of our identity.