Declan, I'm sorry it isn't your cup of tea! The final section 'Sandcastles and science' is about the practice of science and how it is a good that hypotheses and methods are disproven or discredited, however well regarded, as finding 'it's not like that','doesn't happen like that 'and 'can't be found like that' is certain advance in knowledge. In my reply to Gene, (you might like to read it), I have written about the value of collaborative testing and evaluation in a spirit of mutual helpfulness to enable products to be improved. Feedback in my experience is really useful but very hard to come by.
I have put a paper in the reference section under background "Woodward , G., Uni-Temporalism, the Relation of Human Beings to Time and the 'future' of Time in Physics,(2016), vixra.org" if you are interested in finding out where some of the idea have come from.
The essay is broken into sections dealing with different fundamentals. The first part deals with the foundations needed for fundamental foundational, uni-temporal time. The next is electromagnetism which is fundamental to observation and perception. The next is the fundamental forces, and finally what I consider fundamental to science.
The base of the soup, existence rather than nothingness: see my replies to Gary. As host to all of the fundamental forces it allows their unification.
The list of differences between the seen and the materially existent is to emphasize that physics is dealing with two different facets of the universe. Actualized existence and material things, and products of signal receipt and information processing. That is not trivial but the necessary realization for understanding the temporal paradoxes as the result of a category error.
Foundational passage of time is the time needed by QM. The time that emerges from signal receipt gives non simultaneity of events. The two kinds of time allow QM and Relativity to be non contradictory as they are not about the same facets of physics happening in the universe.
The part about measurables being relational rather than sole properties of the entity of interest is important for understanding QM, providing a 'picture of superposition of the unseen/unmeasured','picture of evolution of a variable profile over time and reduction to a limited fixed state outcome when a limiting viewpoint or protocol is applied. Providing a 'what's going on'at what physicists call 'wavefunction collapse' or 'decoherence'.It discounts Many worlds post outcome in favour of many alternative possible measurements prior to the limiting mental consideration and physical treatment of the entity of interest.
I have tried to explain the difference between the universe experienced and the universe as it is, and how it can be conceptualized despite our being unable to have all viewpoints from all relations simultaneously.That relates back to the beginning where I mention the difference between human and universe centered views, there was also a little comment about not mistaking consequences for causes , which was pertaining to the anthropic principle.
The Terry Pratchett quotes were for entertainment but I hope their relevance can be seen too. Georgina