“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...”
Still following a previous post about the universe and its lack of perfection it makes perfect sense to initiate this post by quoting the opening paragraph of Charles Dickens's novel, A Tale of Two Cities, as an introductory note for a recent article in The Economist over a famous clash that unfolded a century ago, precisely on April 6th, 1922, between the 43-year-old Albert Einstein and the 63-year-old French philosopher (and ardent vegetarian) Henri Bergson about the nature of time.
The article recently published in The Economist offers a noteworthy insight from theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, who observes "Bergson correctly pointed out that experiential time has more features than the time the physicists were talking about". It is important to bear in mind that Carlo Rovelli is the same scientist who said back in 2019 that "You have to be a rebel to be a creative scientist" anticipating the findings of the paper "New directions in science emerge from disconnection and discord" published a few months ago in the Journal of Informetrics.
PS - Ironically, but also tragically, time is the very commodity humanity lacks in its endeavors to combat climate change. Another article in the same edition of The Economist forewarns that we are entering a season of Darkness. Notably, the carbon intensity—indicative of the amount of carbon emitted for each unit of energy—should have seen an annual decline of 3.5% to curtail global warming to 2 ºC (7.7% for a 1.5 ºC goal) regrettably, it has only declined just 0.3% per year. Moreover, technological solutions for carbon sequestration are extremely expensive. Furthermore, the technological solutions for carbon sequestration prove exorbitantly expensive, with the two commercial entities offering to remove one tonne of carbon dioxide demanding fees between $300 and $1,000."
