Introduction
For centuries, science, from Newton to Einstein, treated time as a passive background for events or an illusion. This model, though effective, fails to describe the evolution of the universe and societies. This article presents a revolutionary perspective: time is the fundamental fabric of reality. Understanding this fact redefines the laws of nature, connects natural and social sciences, and restores the significance of human agency in an open, undetermined future.
The Nature of Time: A Historical Dispute in Philosophy and Science
The historical dispute over the nature of time has dominated the paradigm of "thinking outside of time." Isaac Newton defined time as absolute and independent, and Albert Einstein, despite weaving it into spacetime, considered the division into past, present, and future an illusion. This view immobilized time, reducing it to a geometric dimension where "the world simply is, rather than happens."
Contemporary cosmology and philosophy propose a radical shift. According to this, time is fundamental – it constitutes the primary fabric of reality. In this vision, the present is an objective, real component of the world, and the future remains radically open and undetermined.
Cosmology: New Laws of Nature Redefine the Universe
Accepting the reality of time leads to a revolutionary thesis: the laws of nature can evolve. Instead of eternal, Platonic rules, we are dealing with principles that themselves change throughout cosmic history. An example is the theory of cosmological natural selection, which only makes sense within a real, historical process.
Key to understanding the emergence of novelty is the concept of the "adjacent possible". It describes the set of all innovations (biological, social, technological) that become achievable from the current state of a system. This is the essence of the "thinking in time" paradigm: reality is not a ready-made landscape, but a process of continuous becoming.
The Reality of Time: Connecting Nature and Society
This perspective connects natural and social sciences, leading to consilience – a unity of knowledge. In economics, it challenges static equilibrium models by introducing the concept of path dependence, where past events irreversibly shape the future. In political science, it overturns the "end of history" vision, demonstrating that the future is open to radically new forms of organization.
This is the core of the "relational revolution": the emphasis shifts from entities to processes. Even Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), to function, will need to adopt a temporal ontology, modeling the world as a dynamic, historical process.
Conclusion
Recognizing the fundamental nature of time has profound existential consequences. If the future is open, humanity becomes its active co-creator, not a passive spectator. Freedom ceases to be an illusion, but it comes with immense responsibility for shaping what is to come. Since time is real, are we not destined to continuously create the world? Instead of searching for eternal laws, we must learn to accept uncertainty, aware that we are both children and co-creators of the cosmic drama.