The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
What I love most about Rovelli’s book isn’t his remarkable ability to simply convey complex topics in modern theoretical physics. It’s that it is humbling. The science of today has come some way, but it has a long, long way to go. Rovelli reminds us of this.
Imagine that the universe is an ocean. Somewhere in that ocean, there’s a ripple. The ripple causes a group of particles to move in a certain direction. It also causes the particles to run into each other and create patterns. Inside that ripple, within those patterns, is our world.
Rovelli says that we experience linear time because the ripple is pushing us in one direction. He calls it the direction of increasing entropy. Perhaps, the push is like skydiving. It’s theoretically possible to go up, but the skydiver can’t. But what’s more fascinating to me is that all that exists around us is a function of the same push, from simple atoms to the complexities of human society.
There is very little that we understand about the underlying forces in our universe. Maybe that will change with time. And open up a whole new world for humanity. Regardless, it’s good to be reminded that we have a long way to go.