El orden del tiempo

by Carlo Rovelli
translated by Francisco J. Ramos Mena

I remember how excited I was, when I first read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, to learn about light cones. Then I forgot almost all about them, apart from that there is a place outside of a light cone called “elsewhere”. Now, reading this book, I had a happy reencounter with light cones. This time, what surprised me most was the illustration showing that the orientation of the cones could even be like this:

The Order of Time is a bit longer than Seven Brief Lessons but still quite short and almost as easy to read. I cannot say I’m convinced by everything Rovelli says, but that’s the reality — and, for me, the beauty — of science. The way he explains some of his ideas, like the one that the world is not a collection of things but of events, is sheer poetry.

La differenza fra cose e eventi è che le cose permangono nel tempo. Gli eventi hanno durata limitata. Un prototipo di una «cosa» è un sasso: possiamo chiederci dove sarà domani. Mentre un bacio è un «evento». Non ha senso chiedersi dove sia andato il bacio domani. Il mondo è fatto di reti di baci, non di sassi.

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La diferencia entre cosas y eventos es que las cosas permanecen en el tiempo. Los eventos, en cambio, tienen una duración limitada. Un prototipo de «cosa» es una piedra: podemos preguntarnos dónde estará mañana. Mientras que un beso es un «evento»: no tiene sentido preguntarse adónde habrá ido el beso mañana. El mundo está hecho de redes de besos, no de piedras.

(Translated by Francisco J. Ramos Mena)

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The difference between things and events is that things persist in time; events have a limited duration. A stone is a prototypical “thing”: we can ask ourselves where it will be tomorrow. Conversely, a kiss is an “event”. It makes no sense to ask where the kiss will be tomorrow. The world is made up of networks of kisses, not of stones.

(Translated by Erica Segre and Simon Carnell)

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The book is written to intrigue you. Or, at least, this seems to be its main purpose. I’d say The Order of Time is more concerned with history and philosophy of time rather than (hard) physics or math of time. For more in-depth (but still accessible) treatment of physical aspects of time, you’ll need to look, er, elsewhere. I recommend The Arrow of Time by Coveney and Highfield as well as the aforementioned Hawking’s classic.

For those who prefer listening, there is an audiobook read by the man who played Hawking in Hawking, the one Benedict Cumberbatch.