Carlo Rovelli

The notions of cause and effect are widely employed in science and commonly understood as temporally ordered: causes precede effects. I discuss why and how these notions are rooted into thermodynamics. The entropy gradient (i) explains in which sense interventions affect the future rather than the past, and (ii) underpins the time orientation of the subject of knowledge as a physical system. Via these two distinct paths, it is the entropy gradient, and only the entropy gradient, the source of the time orientation of causation, namely the fact the cause comes before its effects.

Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics based on the idea that quantum states do not describe an absolute property of a system but rather a relationship between systems. There have recently been some criticisms of RQM pertaining to issues around intersubjectivity. In this article, we show how RQM can address these criticisms by adding a new postulate which requires that all of the information possessed by a certain observer is stored in physical variables of that observer and thus is accessible by measurement to other observers. This makes it possible for observers to reach intersubjective agreement about quantum events that have occurred in the past. We suggest a possible ontology for a version of RQM employing this postulate; this ontology upholds the principle that quantum states are always relational, but it also postulates a set of quantum events that are not strictly relational. We show that the new postulate helps address the preferred basis problem in RQM.

This text will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it, or similar thoughts. Its meaning could be summed up somewhat as follows: whatever can be said at all, can be said clearly by any speaker who is part of the world that is spoken about, and who speaks from its perspective. \noindent Of course others far better than us have already been around here. But we feel some details have been left out, which quantum phenomena have brought into sharp light, and these bring further clarity. Whoever understands us recognizes again the following propositions as senseless. After climbing through these, over them so to speak, will kick away the ladder, once more. Thanks to this futility, we feel shamelessly entitled to parrot a Master. Inspired not by his preaching but rather by his example (and not in small part by its later reflections), we have written all this, as we actually think that not to remain silent, even whereof one cannot speak, is not such a bad idea after all, maybe only, as we learned from him, to keep the warning alive that there are questions that have no meaning. What we hold onto is not knowledge of an absolute order, but the fleeting grasp of a perspective on perspectives. Hence this is at most just a manifesto for a picture of the world suggested by quantum mechanics. Each proposition attempts to show a possible way of formulating questions about nature in a manner coherent with what we have recently learned about it. A manner aware of its own partiality. Good philosophy, seems to us, dismantles idols, rather than creating them, and, like a gentle friend, reminds us with indirect hints, over and over again, that the answer to the riddle is that there is no riddle.

We offer a fresh perspective on the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics as a way of thinking about the world described by quantum theory based on quantifiable notions of information. This allows us to provide a definition of a relative fact, with no addition to orthodox quantum theory and no fundamentally special role for observers. By associating perspectives with commutative observables rather than entire quantum systems, several previous problems with the interpretation are dissolved. As a side result, we show how a quantum measurement, properly described, is a continuous process.

Lawrence et al. have presented an argument purporting to show that “relative facts do not exist” and, consequently, “Relational Quantum Mechanics is incompatible with quantum mechanics”. The argument is based on a GHZ-like contradiction between constraints satisfied by measurement outcomes in an extended Wigner’s friend scenario. Here we present a strengthened version of the argument, and show why, contrary to the claim by Lawrence et al., these arguments do not contradict the consistency of a theory of relative facts. Rather, considering this argument helps clarify how one should not think about a theory of relative facts, like RQM.

In his 1956 book ‘The Direction of Time’, Hans Reichenbach offered a comprehensive analysis of the physical ground of the direction of time, the notion of physical cause, and the relation between the two. I review its conclusions and argue that at the light of recent advances in physics Reichenbach analysis provides the best account for the physical underpinning of these notions. I integrate results in cosmology, and on the physical underpinning of records and agency into Reichenbach’s account, and discuss which questions it leaves open.

Relational quantum mechanics (RQM) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics based on the idea that quantum states do not describe an absolute property of a system but rather a relationship between systems. There have recently been some criticisms of RQM pertaining to issues around intersubjectivity. In this article, we show how RQM can address these criticisms by adding a new postulate which requires that all of the information possessed by a certain observer is stored in physical variables of that observer and thus is accessible by measurement to other observers. This makes it possible for observers to reach intersubjective agreement about quantum events that have occurred in the past. We suggest a possible ontology for a version of RQM employing this postulate; this ontology upholds the principle that quantum states are always relational, but it also postulates a set of quantum events that are not strictly relational. We show that the new postulate helps address the preferred basis problem in RQM.

One of the world's most renowned theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli has entranced millions of readers with his singular perspective on the cosmos. In Helgoland, Rovelli examines the enduring enigma of quantum theory. The quantum world Rovelli describes is as beautiful as it is unnerving. Helgoland is a treeless island in the North Sea where the 21-year-old Werner Heisenberg first developed quantum theory, setting off a century of scientific revolution. Full of alarming ideas (ghost waves, distant objects that seem to be magically connected, cats that appear both dead and alive), quantum physics has led to countless discoveries and technological advancements. Today our understanding of the world is based on this theory, yet it is still profoundly mysterious. As scientists and philosophers continue to fiercly debate the theory's meaning, Rovelli argues that its most unsettling contradictions can be explained by seeing the world as fundamentally made of relationships, not substances. We and everything around us exist only in our interactions with one another. This bold idea suggests new directions for understanding the structure of reality and even the nature of consciousness. Rovelli makes learning about quantum mechanics an almost psychedelic experience. Shifting our perspective once again, he takes us on a riveting journey through the universe so we can better understand our place in it.

The bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics illuminates the nature of science through the revolutionary ideas of the Greek philosopher Anaximander Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. He introduced a new mode of rational thinking with an openness to uncertainty and the progress of knowledge. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander's overlooked influence on modern science. He examines Anaximander not from the point of view of a historian or as an expert in Greek philosophy, but as a scientist interested in the deep nature of scientific thinking, which Rovelli locates in the critical and rebellious ability to reimagine the world again and again. Anaximander celebrates the radical lack of certainty that defines the scientific quest for knowledge.

A number of thorny issues, such as the nature of time, free will, the clash of the manifest image and the scientific image, the possibility of a naturalistic foundation of morality, and perhaps even the possibility of accounting for consciousness in naturalistic terms, seem to be plagued by the conceptual confusion nourished by a single fallacy: the old fisherman's mistake. This is the mistake that consists in disregarding the fact that knowledge is not just learning new facts about old concepts. Knowledge is often to realise the inadequacy and misleading character of some of our old concepts, and the intuitions that ground them.