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But for me, I just picture the universe like a bubble with an outer meniscus. Time envelops all the 3d space within that bubble and all of the space beyond. Not matter how small matter gets, time will always be smaller. No matter how big matter gets, time will always be bigger. But, I should really say, I picture the universe as we can observe it to be a bubble. If there is space beyond our universe as we think of it, its actually not something else..its just more of our universe. The fact that it exists outside of everything we think of as matter, or that it might be made up of dark matter is irrelevant to that statement. The universe doesn't care what its made of, or what is or isn't the universe. The universe just is.

I very much picture matter as being a sponge that is completely submerged in and saturated with a liquid that we think of as time. Matter provides the materials of the universe, the dimensions give it a framework or shape (skeleton?), and time gives it impetus (muscles?). Gravity, Magnetism and Light all have their place too (organs?).

If the universe is a flat sheet from the outside that is made up of all of those items. Although gravitational fields seem to suggest there are dimples and divots in the sheet. I tend to believe that the sheet is like the ultimate LCD screen, made up of pixels (matter), a timing circuit (time), Color processing (Gravity and Magnetism), and a main processor of some kind that decides what happens when.

Basically, what I am saying with metaphors is that the universe has both mechanical, organic, and intelligent operations. As I have said before, we are the universe, the universe is us. When we try to understand more about the universe, it is the universe asking another portion of itself (us) questions to understand more about itself.

One of the reasons that I like this sheet idea, is that techncially time, matter, and other forces can occupy the same space, but be very different sheets. They all interdepend on eachother.

It is for this reason that I find no problem understanding why atoms at two different locations very far apart can get information instantaenously. In an idealized experiment, imagine you had a plate floating on a raised section of water connected to a pipe, and an exactly sized duplicate plate and raised section. For the purpose of this ideall, friction is not a problem, the tube is absolutely air tight. If you push down on one plate, the other rises instantly. Now if you repeat this experiment, no matter how long you make the pipe, the result should always be the same. 1 Ft. or a 100 light years.. As long as everything fits the ideals, the experiment should be just as instanteaneous.

So, imagine that everything in the universe actually is so packed into the universe, that it fits this ideal. Then the oppositely rotating atom should always react to the change you make in your test atom the same way. What really blows my mind about this isn't that it works this way, but that other matter doesn't get confused by or doesn't confuse this process. In essence, by changing your test atom, you are making it a loose piece compared to the rest of a very rigid universe, and as a result, doing the same to the atom that reacts.