In this eloquent lecture, the Italian theoretical physicist and writer Carlo Rovelli takes audiences on a journey to the edges of our understanding of time. Working from ideas explored in his book The Order of Time (2017), Rovelli explores the theories of thinkers from Aristotle to Newton to Einstein up to his own work on quantum gravity, brushing up against what we know about time and what remains a mystery. Using metaphors and examples to elucidate enigmatic concepts, Rovelli helps to untangle why, on the surface, our experience of time seems so at odds with how physicists and philosophers view it.
What do past, present and future mean to a philosopher of time?
Video by the Royal Institution
26 February 2025
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