The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
The universe is fundamental made up of events, not objects.
Time is the source of our identify and of our suffering.
For suffering to exist, we must be attached to something that no longer exists. Since time is forever slipping away, to become attached to a moment in time is to create suffering.
Everything that begins must end. We endure the passing of time.
Time gives us everything, yet takes everything away.
"The fleeting illusion of permanence is the origin of all our suffering." ~ Carlo Rovelli
Time: When we don't need it, it is nothing. But when we do, it is everything.
Reality flows from the past through the present towards to the future.
The present is localized and our past is personalized.
The world is made of events, not things (Chap. 6)
Time is what gives life life.
Without time, nothing exists.
Contents:
Part 1: The Crumbling of Time
- Loss of Unity
- Loss of Direction
- The End of the Present
- Loss of Independence
- Quanta of Time
Part II: The World Without Time
- The World Is Made of Events, Not Things
- The Inadequacy of Grammar
- Dynamics as Relation
Part III: The Sources of Time
Time Is Ignorance
This is where the book gets really interesting. The concept is this:
Life is not things, but rather events.
Who we are is a sequence of events.
All living creatures are the culmination of events that conspired to lead us to what we call life.
It's our relationship to the events that unfold that determine who we are.
Perspective
Gets into how our interaction with the physical world determines our perception of it.
When we become time.
When the dancer becomes the dance.
When the singer becomes the song.
What Emerges from a Particularity
Chapter 12: The Scent of the Madeleine
This is it! Reframe who we are... What we are is the cumulation of time.
- The Source of Time The Sister of Sleep
More reading/watching
- 1 Hour talk with Carlo Rovelli
- Q & A with Carlo
- Events and the Nature of Time
- Sean Carroll on Time & Events