History in the Space-Time Continuum

This is the paradox of historical knowledge. Knowledge that does not change behaviour is useless. But knowledge that changes behaviour quickly loses its relevance. The more data we have and the better we understand history, the faster history alters its course, and the faster our knowledge becomes outdated.

Indeed, Sima Qian’s Shiji depicts a kind of empty, homogeneous space-time. The chronology consists of “a series of years that proceed at a perfectly mechanical pace with events in the various states that made up China,” revealing a space-time within which unrelated things could be contemporary.11

Unlike physics or economics, history is not a means for making accurate predictions. We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.