Time Reborn

Lee Smolin's argument that time is genuinely real, and that the laws of nature themselves evolve. The cosmological grounding for why treating any social arrangement as final is a category mistake.

What it is, and what it is for

Time Reborn is Lee Smolin's argument that time is genuinely real, that the laws of nature evolved, and that a universe in which this is true has no room for the idea that any human institution is a natural fact.

The book was published in 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is written for general readers. Smolin is a theoretical physicist, one of the founding faculty members of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, where he has worked since 2001. The popular book is the accessible surface of a technical research program he had been developing for decades. The rigorous version arrived the following year: The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (Cambridge University Press, 2014), co-written with philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger.

The reason it belongs in a library for community builders is in the final section. Smolin's argument is about physics, but its implications reach human governance directly. If even the laws governing physical matter evolved, rather than being eternal necessary truths, then the claim that any social arrangement is natural or inevitable, that it reflects deep necessities rather than historical choices, has lost its last philosophical refuge.

Where it came from

Lee Smolin was born in 1955 in New York City. He studied at Hampshire College and received his PhD from Harvard. He held faculty positions at Yale, Syracuse, and Penn State before becoming one of the founding faculty members at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario in 2001. He also holds an adjunct professorship at the University of Waterloo and a position on the graduate faculty of the University of Toronto's philosophy department. The cross-appointment matters: the questions in Time Reborn sit at the edge of physics and philosophy, and he has been working on both sides of that edge for his entire career.

His earlier books trace the intellectual path. The Life of the Cosmos (1997) introduced his first major idea: cosmic natural selection, the hypothesis that universes reproduce through black holes and that the laws of physics evolved via a selection process over cosmological time. Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (2001) was an accessible account of the three main approaches to reconciling general relativity and quantum mechanics. The Trouble with Physics (2006) was a pointed critique of string theory and the sociology of physics that had allowed it to dominate theoretical physics for decades without producing testable predictions.

Time Reborn arrives after these books as a synthesis. The target is not string theory specifically but the deeper assumption shared by all the main approaches to fundamental physics: that time is not fundamentally real, and that the correct theory will eventually be timeless. Smolin's argument is that this assumption is the source of the crisis, and that reversing it is the way out.

The book's two parts reflect the two phases of the argument. Part I, "The Expulsion of Time," traces how physics arrived at the block universe, moving from Galileo and Newton through Maxwell's electrodynamics, Einstein's special and general relativity, and into quantum cosmology. Each step in the story is a genuine intellectual achievement and also, Smolin argues, a step in the direction of making time unreal. Part II, "Time Reborn," is his alternative. He argues that the cosmological context changes everything, that the methods suited to systems inside the universe do not transfer to the universe as a whole, and that taking the uniqueness of the universe seriously requires taking time seriously.

The collaboration with Roberto Mangabeira Unger in The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (2014) extended the argument into political philosophy. Unger's Democratic Experimentalism and Smolin's temporal naturalism share a core claim: treating any given order as permanent, whether a physical law or a social arrangement, is an error. The universe is singular. History is real. The future has not happened. This is the cosmological ground under Unger's political philosophy.

How the argument runs

Part I: The expulsion of time

Smolin begins with the "Newtonian paradigm": physics as a method for discovering timeless laws that govern the behavior of systems. The trick, which has worked extraordinarily well for centuries, is to isolate a system, find the variables that describe its state, and write down equations that determine how those variables change from any given initial state. The laws themselves sit outside of time. They do not evolve. They apply equally at every moment in history.

The method works well for systems inside the universe. The problem appears when you apply it to the whole universe, which has no outside, cannot be isolated, and cannot be run again. It is a unique event. Smolin calls applying the physics-in-a-box approach to the whole universe "the cosmological fallacy."

Einstein's relativity deepened the problem. In special relativity, the simultaneous present is observer-dependent: two observers in relative motion do not agree on which events are simultaneous. This seems to eliminate the present moment as a physically meaningful category. The block universe interpretation of relativity says that past, present, and future are all equally real, laid out as a four-dimensional structure. The experience of time flowing is, in this picture, a kind of cognitive artifact.

The quantum mechanics chapter adds another layer. In quantum cosmology, if you apply quantum mechanics to the entire universe, the equation that governs the state of the universe, the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, contains no time variable at all. Time disappears completely from the most fundamental description of things.

Part II: Time reborn

Smolin's reversal starts with the cosmological context. The laws of physics, he argues, were themselves the outcome of a process that took place in time. They were not fixed in advance. They emerged. He proposes a principle he calls the Principle of Precedence: when a physical system encounters a situation it has not encountered before, the outcome is genuinely novel. Outcomes that have happened before are more probable; genuinely new situations are genuinely open. Laws are not eternal constraints on nature but something closer to habits, built up through the history of the universe and continuously active.

The central thesis follows: "Space may be an illusion, but time must be real." Space, Smolin suggests, may be an emergent property of more fundamental relationships. But time, specifically the distinction between the past that is fixed and the future that is open, is basic. The present moment is the only moment that exists. The past has happened and cannot be changed. The future has not happened and is not fixed.

The final chapters turn toward implications. If the laws of nature evolved, the most commonly used philosophical defense of the status quo in any domain loses its foundation. Whatever exists does not exist because it had to. It exists because of what happened. History is real. The future is open.

What it is and what it is not

Time Reborn is a physics book written for general readers. It is not a governance manual, a political philosophy text, or a community-building guide. The argument is about the foundations of physics, and the implications for human institutions appear only in the final section and as asides.

The book differs from The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (2014), the co-written collaboration with Unger. That book is a work of technical philosophy: two long essays, one by each author, followed by a dialogue, written for academic readers and engaging with the philosophical literature. Time Reborn is the accessible predecessor, written without assuming prior knowledge of physics.

Temporal naturalism is the philosophical position Smolin develops. It should be distinguished from the political philosophy Unger builds on it. Smolin's claim is about the nature of time and physical law. Unger's claim is about what follows for social theory. They support each other but are not the same argument.

The book is also distinct from Smolin's earlier The Life of the Cosmos (1997), which proposed a specific evolutionary mechanism for the laws of physics (cosmic natural selection through black holes). Time Reborn is more fundamental: it argues that laws evolve, without committing to a specific mechanism for how.

Communities and practitioners engaging with it

SpiritDAO is a 501(c)(3) Church of Temporal Naturalism based in the United States. It explicitly describes itself as building on Smolin's cosmological argument. Its governance is organized around the Eight Dignities, food, water, housing, healthcare, education, information, communication, transportation, and energy as sacred rights. It runs governance through decentralized autonomous organization mechanisms and treats its institutional structure as permanently revisable. SpiritDAO is the most direct attempt currently active to build a community on this philosophical foundation.

Ron Rivers, co-founder of SpiritDAO, applied the framework to community practice in Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis (SpiritDAO Press, 2022). Where Smolin provides the cosmological argument and Unger provides the political philosophy, Rivers translates both into a practical framework for how communities actually organize themselves. The three books form a sequence from physics to philosophy to practice. [Library entry: /library/self-actualization-age-of-crisis (forthcoming)]

The Unger collaboration, The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time, is the academic elaboration. Unger's essay in that book develops Democratic Experimentalism, the governance framework for communities who take Smolin's cosmological claims seriously. [Library entry: /library/democratic-experimentalism]

No intentional community in the ToGather archive has named Temporal Naturalism directly. The connection runs through SpiritDAO and through the communities that are practicing Democratic Experimentalism without using that name.

How to begin reading it

If you have no physics background: Start with the Introduction and then read Part II first ("Time Reborn"), beginning with the chapter "The Cosmological Fallacy." Smolin's argument about why the physics toolkit breaks down for the whole universe does not require prior knowledge of that toolkit. Then read Part I to understand what the prevailing view is and why it seemed compelling.

If you have some physics background: Read straight through. Part I will be familiar ground with Smolin's particular framing layered on. The new argument is concentrated in Part II.

If you want the governance application directly: Read the Introduction, then skip to the final chapters: "Time, Laws, and the Future" and "The Future of Time." Then read Democratic Experimentalism or The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time for the governance translation.

If you want the rigorous version: The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (Cambridge University Press, 2014) is the technical elaboration. It is two long scholarly essays plus a dialogue. Smolin's essay covers the physics; Unger's covers the political philosophy. Reading Time Reborn first is the right preparation.

The book is available in hardcover (2013), paperback (2014), and audiobook.

Living examples and entry points for community builders

The clearest living example: SpiritDAO is a community of practice built explicitly on temporal naturalism. Their governance experiments are publicly documented and they welcome engagement. If you want to see what a community looks like when it is consciously organized around the philosophical architecture Smolin describes, SpiritDAO is the place to look.

The governance translation: Democratic Experimentalism is the direct application of the cosmological argument to community governance. Designing layered agreements, revision cycles, and destabilization rights is the practical work of taking temporal naturalism seriously. [Library entry: /library/democratic-experimentalism]

The practice translation: Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis by Ron Rivers translates the framework into the Eight Dignities and the daily practices of communities organized around them. [Library entry: /library/self-actualization-age-of-crisis (forthcoming)]

Entry points:

Before reading Time Reborn, try one of Smolin's shorter public lectures on temporal naturalism. Several are available on YouTube through the Perimeter Institute's public lecture series. The live-lecture versions of his argument often reach the central argument faster than the book does.

After Time Reborn, read The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time with a community group. Unger's essay is long but works well read aloud across several sessions. The dialogue between Smolin and Unger at the end of the book is one of the few places where the cosmological and political philosophy arguments directly address each other.

Notice where "natural law" arguments appear in your community's governance conversations. The phrase "that's just how things work," or "we've always done it this way," or "there's no alternative" usually signals the cosmological fallacy operating at community scale. Smolin's argument gives you a name for what is happening and a philosophical ground for challenging it.

Where it gets hard

The philosophy-versus-science problem

Sean Carroll, reviewing the book, raised a pointed objection: Smolin draws sweeping conclusions from philosophical arguments in ways that are not standard scientific practice. The claim that "time is real" is not, Carroll argued, the kind of claim that can be settled by the philosophical considerations Smolin offers. The book is honest about being a philosophical argument, but it is presented in the register of physics, and some physicists found the conflation uncomfortable.

The shifting definition problem

Several reviewers noted that the core claim, "time is real," means different things in different parts of the book. Sometimes it means that the present moment is objectively special (presentism). Sometimes it means that the laws of nature evolve. Sometimes it means that the future is genuinely open. These are related claims but they are not the same claim, and the argument for each requires different support. The book moves between them without always marking the transitions.

The block universe is not obviously threatened

Sabine Hossenfelder, one of the most technically careful physicists to review the book, wrote that she disagreed with "pretty much everything." Her specific objection: the block universe interpretation of relativity is a philosophical stance about the nature of time, not a physical prediction. It does not follow from the equations; it is one way of interpreting them. Smolin's alternative is another way of interpreting the same equations. The dispute between presentism and the block universe may not be settleable by physics at all.

The cosmological fallacy critique

Some philosophers of physics pushed back on the specific claim that applying physics to the whole universe is a fallacy. The argument, they noted, requires more development than Smolin gives it. Why exactly does the uniqueness of the universe mean that the methods of physics cannot be applied to it? The intuition is clear but the argument as presented is not fully rigorous.

The community translation gap

The book's implications for human governance are compelling in outline but underdeveloped. Smolin gestures toward the political consequences in the final pages, and Unger develops them in their joint work. But Time Reborn itself is not a book for community practitioners. Readers looking for practical guidance will need the Unger collaboration and Rivers's translation to get there.

More resources

The same argument, more rigorously

• Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Lee Smolin, The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Two long essays and a dialogue. Unger's essay develops Democratic Experimentalism; Smolin's develops temporal naturalism at full technical length. The right book for readers who want the rigorous version of both arguments.

The governance translation

• Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Democracy Realized (Verso, 1998). The more accessible political application. [Library entry: /library/democratic-experimentalism]
• Ron Rivers, Self-Actualization in the Age of Crisis (SpiritDAO Press, 2022). The community-practice translation: the Eight Dignities as a framework for living temporal naturalism. [Library entry: /library/self-actualization-age-of-crisis (forthcoming)]

The philosophical context

• The philosophical position of presentism (only the present exists) has a substantial academic literature. Smolin's version is close to what philosophers call "dynamic time" or "the growing block." A. N. Prior and C. D. Broad are the canonical early sources if you want to go deeper into the philosophy of time.

Smolin's other accessible books

• The Trouble with Physics (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). Smolin's critique of string theory and the sociology of theoretical physics. Not about time directly, but establishes the context for why he thinks physics is in crisis.
• Einstein's Unfinished Revolution (Penguin Press, 2019). His later account of the foundations of quantum mechanics, with the temporal naturalism argument as a recurring thread.

Lectures

• Perimeter Institute public lecture series (perimeterinstitute.ca/videos). Smolin has given several public lectures on temporal naturalism available for free. The 2013 and 2021 lectures are the most directly relevant.

From the ToGather archive (related through Democratic Experimentalism)

• Thirty-One Years of Freedom Without a Rulebook. Kibbutz Samar. What it looks like to govern without fixed rules.
• Twenty Years of Squatting: What Cooperation Actually Looks Like. ADM Amsterdam. Governance built through revision, not founding documents.