Inevitable Surprises

“History, Michio believed, was a long series of surprises that seemed inevitable in retrospect.”

James S. A. Corey, Babylon’s Ashes

This concise sentence nicely sums up a profound topic. James S. A. Corey books are a rich source of quotes like this.

A lot could be typed about this sentence; observations about cognition, causality, free will, and fate. Also, whether the retrospective inevitability is about the clarity of hindsight, or the convenience of the stories we tell ourselves.

But, I’ll skip that exercise. The sentence is beautiful by itself.