Mark,
I also thank you for presenting a logically deep argument, without resorting to mathematical shorthand, of which some of us are less than proficient.
While I agree atomism is conceptually limited, though in line with historical western object oriented assumptions, I wouldn't go so far as to do away with space and have problems with monism.
Space does provide us with the foundational conceptual parameters of absolute(inertia) and infinite. While we tend to prefer something physical to hang our hats on, that may be bias, but I'll try explaining myself better.
The logical conundrum of monism is that if we truly have one universal, indivisible state, then it would be neutral and thus zero, not one. In order to have this field express something, there has to be some inherent dichotomy; positive/negative, expansion/contraction, mass/energy, up/down, on/off, yes/no, conservative/liberal, etc. This then is dualism, of the Taoist variety, not monism.
In my entry, I make the argument that we are looking at time backward. It isn't the present moving along from past to future, which physics re-enforces by treating it as a measure from one event to the next, but is an emergent effect of action. That the changing configuration of what is, turns future into past. The earth doesn't travel the fourth dimension from yesterday to tomorrow. Tomorrow becomes yesterday because the earth rotates.
Duration is not a dimension external to the present moment, but is the state of the present between measured events.
When we try to impose an external, past to future timeline on action we go from a determined past to a probabilistic future and the result is multiworlds. The future is not deterministic because while the causal mechanism may be completely deterministic, the input cannot be known, as the lightcone of any event is not complete until the occurrence of the event.
This makes time an effect of action, similar to temperature. In fact, if we change the level of activity, as gravity and velocity do to quantum behavior, this affects the rate of change. Though rather than an accelerated clock rate causing the frame to move into the future quicker, it causes it to move into the past quicker, since it ages faster.
Which leaves just space as the background to action, not spacetime. Lacking any physical properties, space cannot be bent, or bound, thus it is both inert and infinite. Proof of inertia is centrifugal force, which is not due to the existence of some outside reference to determine spin, but only relates the spinning frame to an inertial state. Given that C is the speed at which all mass is converted to momentum, it would seem to be relative to this inertial state, since spacetime is only correlation of distance and duration, not a causal property.
The apparent cosmic expansion of space and contraction of gravitational spatial geometry are in inverse proportion, resulting in an overall flat space. The simplest explanation is some form of cosmic convection cycle of expanding energy and contracting mass. Light, then, on leaving its source, would expand like a gas and not remain a point particle. The absorption of light by mass is a multispectrum sample of this field, not a particular photon. So redshift is as much a property of light, as gravity is of mass, not a doppler effect of a receding source. I suspect gravity is not so much just a property of mass, but an effect of radiant energy condensing into and being absorbed by mass and lighter mass becoming more dense. When mass releases energy, it creates pressure, so logically the opposite process of energy condensing into mass would create a vacuum. The reason gravity waves cannot be detected is because we are looking in the wrong place. The energy released by fusion is light. Light is the gravity wave.
This then is two sides of a dualistic cycle.
While the present goes from past events to future ones and the events go from future to past, the underlaying dynamic is energy creating and consuming structure. The energy is what is present. Being dynamic, it is constantly changing form, thus creating and dissolving information. So energy goes past to future, while information goes future to past. Our bodies and brains, being physically extant, go past to future(while living), while our minds, as information processors, record these events streaming away into the past. Because energy is conserved, information is not. Even the destruction of information is information.
While the measure of time is a regular cycle, the effect of time is irregular action, otherwise there would be no arrow, just a constant repetition.
