Progress in science comes when experiments contradict theory
What John #Wheeler is probably implying in this quote is that an observer in the #present moment (i.e. someone or some of us right now and time t=a) could define our #past (i.e. life formation on earth 3.5–3.8 billion years ago, time=a-z, with z=3.5–3.8 billion years) by just observing, studying and assuming right now (t=a) that the life began as a prokaryotic organism during the Precambrian Period 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago, and therefore also setting a #future (t=a+z) where life indeed originated from bacteria 7–7,6 billion years ago.
Moreover, if this assumption (or quote) is real this could consequently imply that #time #travel of information is possible and our present moment is just THE cosmic time travel machine we all dreamed about somehow. Additionally, in this scenario it seems that we are just being the messengers or carriers of the information that can affect our past and our future at the same time! In the end our life is somehow a time travel process — i.e. we are born to travel through the years 1976–2066 — and we have come here only to observe and create information…and probably wormholes and black holes are just gateways for this information we constantly create every day, eventually for this information to travel far away, far beyond time and space and back and forward in time (the perfect #loop).