Introduction

The block universe view is the view that our world is a four-dimensional block of spacetime in which all events that ever exist—past, present, and future—exist somewhere within the block. According to this view, there is no objective, non-perspectival fact of the matter regarding which events are really present, which are past, and which are future. Rather, to talk of what is past, present, or future is simply to talk about where events are located relative to oneself, and hence to talk of entirely perspectival matters. As of Thursday, 2 February 2023, the event of Annie sitting on the couch is present. Events that are earlier than this—the big bang and the extinction of the dinosaurs—are past relative to that event, and those that are later than this—the rise of the robots and the mass extinction of the mammals—are future relative to that event. What is past relative to Annie’s sitting on the couch is future relative to other events. Relative to Dorothy the dinosaur, located where she is in the block, the extinction of the dinosaurs is in the future. And just as Annie is right, at her location, that the dinosaur extinction is in the past, so too Dorothy is right at hers, that the extinction of the dinosaurs is in the future. They can both be right because there are no non-perspectival facts about what is past, present, and future that would ground one, and only one of them, being correct.