It has happened, will happen and is happening as we speak
Some brief and initial ramblings on physics, philosophy and if things happen for a reason
A few years ago I read a physics book about time that changed my life forever. It was written by a physicist who proposed that time is not real as we know it to be. Yes, time, the crucial fabric of our day to day existence is arguably… an illusion? Well my head just blew off!
Rovelli (the physicist in question) argues that time is not something that is happening chronologically, but something that is happening all at once. It’s not something that passes; but something that we move forward through. The past, the present and the future are all happening at the same time. It’s worth noting that ‘all at once' doesn’t mean we’re experiencing past, present, and future simultaneously—it suggests that these moments might all exist as part of a larger reality, even if we perceive them sequentially. What we experience as the flow of time could just be our perspective on this deeper structure…
The book suggests that events in the past haven’t simply 'ended' in the way we often think. Instead, they might still be part of the fabric of reality, even if we’ve moved through them onto the next moment. The boundaries between past, present, and future are less rigid than they seem. And importantly, moments in the past very much still exist… as do moments in the future.
Is this why we get deja vus? Maybe that is a push. However this book did really make me think about a lot of things and consider whether there are any connections between this theory of time and theories surrounding ‘fate’. Do things happen for a reason, are they meant to be, are they already written in the fabric of our universe?
I also feel the need to say: please know that this piece is purely ramblings and I definitely need to do more research on the links I am trying to make here. But I am fascinated and so many thoughts are in my head so I need to think out loud (on paper) ((on my screen))…
Do you ever get that gut feeling that something is just meant for you? It is meant to happen to you and you can feel it in your bones. Is that because it has already happened? Like it already exists in your timeline but you just haven’t reached it yet?
For example, the love of your life is walking around as we speak right now. You may not have met them yet, and if you haven’t, they could be anywhere. They are happening right now but you have not reached them yet. You are moving through time until you do, but all the time spent moving through without them, they still exist. They are still very real and arguably, you are destined to meet them. You are meant to.
The same goes for events perhaps. If there is something that you really deeply want, is there a chance that this is because it has already been set in stone? Ooo, I wonder how many scientists believe in fate. I wonder what Rovelli thinks about fate. I could probably find out. But this does bring me to my next rambling of a thought… I’d like to believe that we have free will and that we therefore have the ability to change the course of our lives easily, but another theory I’ve read actually made it impossible for me to believe that. It’s a theory called ‘the locked room theory’ and it was put forward by philosopher John Locke.
The idea is this: say you wake up in the morning and you feel incredibly unwell. You decide to not get out of bed, you fall back asleep and that’s the end of it. You ostensibly are making a choice to not leave your room in that moment. But what if… your bedroom door was locked the whole time without you knowing? You have indeed made a choice, but in actual fact you did not have a choice. You wouldn’t have been able to leave your room regardless, despite your very real and voluntary decision to stay. I think that free will can and must exist in this nuanced way. I think that events are bound to happen and you simply make choices that, although are real in the context of your own reality, are not changing your overall predetermined path. Could this tie into the notion that things are meant to happen because they already exist, therefore we cannot really influence them?
This is where all of this becomes quite complicated and probably stretches beyond the ramblings of this little Substack think piece to be honest.
But yes, anyway. I’ve been thinking about that physics book and that philosophical theory a lot recently and how or if they can relate to each other.
But outside of that; sometimes I really truly do get a deep rooted feeling that something is meant to happen to me or that I am meant to meet a specific person. So, I started to take on this belief that if this was the case, it would happen eventually or I would meet that person eventually. And strangely enough, so many of those things have happened. For example, I’ve randomly ended up in rooms with people I have thought about meeting. Weird things have happened. But what, if anything, does this have to do with time and physics and fate and free will and all the other stuff I’ve mentioned? I don’t know exactly, but I think there is something to be said for feeling like something is meant for you and having strong wants and desires. It leads me to believe that in the future you might already have those things, and that’s why you are so drawn to them.
Maybe everything does happen for a reason, albeit sometimes those reasons aren’t clear immediately. Anyway, just some food for thought. :)
Bibliography:
Rovelli, Carlo, 2017, ‘The Order of Time’, Penguin Books
Locke, John, 1690, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, edited by Peter H. Nidditch, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
