Review: The Order of Time

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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: 3.75 / 5.


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