Physicist Carlo Rovelli's new book argues that modern physics—relativity and quantum mechanics—reveals we cannot achieve an ultimate, objective understanding of reality independent of observation. Instead, Rovelli proposes that all properties are relational, existing only in connection to other things, fundamentally rejecting the notion that physics can exhaust what can be known about the world.
The article compares Jack Vance's novel The Languages of Pao to current AI model fragmentation, arguing that value emerges not from individual models but from the interpretive practice of mediating between incompatible systems. Just as Pao's partition unexpectedly created a fourth caste of translators, today's divided AI landscape—open models versus restricted enterprise models—produces capability through the synthesis work that individuals perform between them.