Carlo Rovelli’s New Book Questions the ‘God’s-Eye View’ of Physics

In his latest publication, On the Equality of All Things, renowned physicist Carlo Rovelli challenges the long-held scientific aspiration for perfect, objective knowledge of the universe. Moving away from the “God’s-eye view” often celebrated in popular science, Rovelli contends that physics cannot deliver a complete or absolute explanation of reality.

Rovelli begins by noting that human perception is limited by our physical existence on a planetary surface. We instinctively believe objects are solid and possess fixed locations because our environment provides stable reference points such as mountains. However, modern physics has demonstrated that these assumptions are illusions. Einstein’s theory of relativity showed that measurements of time, space, and simultaneity are relative rather than absolute. Similarly, quantum mechanics reveals that the properties of matter cannot be separated from the methods used to measure them.

The book dedicates significant attention to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics. Emerging in the early 20th century, this framework disrupted the Newtonian belief that physical laws described a reality entirely independent of human observation. Rovelli rejects alternative interpretations, such as the many-worlds theory, which suggests the universe splits into parallel versions upon measurement. Instead, he argues that quantum mechanics teaches us that everything exists only in relation to everything else, and no ultimate perspective is possible.

“Physics is often credited with a power it does not have: that of exhausting what can be known about the world. This is nonsense,” Rovelli writes. He maintains that understanding physical laws is not equivalent to knowing the world in its entirety, a stance that directly contradicts both scientific triumphalism and the views of many contemporary philosophers of science.

To support his argument, Rovelli draws on a diverse range of philosophical traditions beyond the typical Greek or European canon. He places significant emphasis on classical Indian and Asian thought, citing figures such as the second-century philosopher Nagarjuna and Zhuangzi. For Rovelli, the irreducibility of relationships—viewed from within rather than from an external vantage point—is the central lesson of both relativity and quantum mechanics.