The Difference Between Things and Events
Things persist in time, events have limited duration.
A stone is a thing. We can ask, “Where will it be
tomorrow?” Conversely, a kiss is an event. It makes
no sense to ask where a kiss will be tomorrow.
……………. The world is made up of a network
……………. of kisses, not stones:
The basic units, the terms by which we comprehend
the world, are not in some specific point in space.
They are, if they are at all, in both a where and a when,
spatially and temporally delimited. They are events.
In fact, with a closer look, even things that are most
“thinglike” are but long events. The hardest stone
in light of what we’ve learned — of chemistry, of physics,
mineralogy, geology, from psychology, are but
complex vibrations of quantum fields, momentary
interactions of forces, a momentary process that
keeps its shape, holding itself in equilibrium before
disintegration, before turning again into dust.
by Carlo Rovelli
from The Order of Time—Chapter 6
Riverhead Books, NY, 2017
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