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Dear Grace Stemp-Morlock, Joanna, all,
Joanna Karczmerek- "If one could construct a theory where the entire spacetime including the time were emergent, then you would discover that time is an illusion and have a more fundamental understanding of why it is there," .. "But that's the holy grail of the field, and I wouldn't be surprised it if takes fifty years to make any progress on it."JK.
So Joanna doesn't read anything that the FQXi community writes! I refer you and her to the recent discussions between Mr. J.C. N . Smith and myself on the thread Elegance and Enigma.It will answer the before after problem for you and much, much more.
Mr.Stemp-Morlock you said "Scarily, the work may also force us to rethink what time actually is" Why do you presume that to be scary. I have been doing just that for many years and discussing it with others on this site for many years. The community is very familiar with time being called into to question and has been considered by various people in a number of ways.It is not only PHDs with large grants that think about such questions. You should not presume concern or surprise. It seems to be catching up.
But Hooray how wonderful to hear that there is a growing movement to develop a theory where space-time is emergent. I wonder how far they want to go. Stopping with consideration of how data is distributed in the environment and calling that data pool space-time, or continuing through the processes of various types of reality interface into space-time image output. Not in the external environment but chemical or electrical output fabricated by the observer, organism, device or material. Which will ultimately mean the unification of physics theory and biology.
IMO Space-time is not in the external reality but photon data is. Anything affecting the paths taken by the photons will have the potential to affect the output reality created when those photons are received and processed. Mirages and the shimmering of the air on a hot day are common examples. The space-time image output is altered by the change to the distribution of the data in the environment, but the Source or Object reality is unaffected. There is no feedback from space-time output to Source (or Object) reality.
Thank you for that article I wish her luck, when she has decided what she is doing. As it sounds like it has the potential to be a promising avenue of research. I'll not comment on the big bang part.