Well written, Harrison, and understandable, too. I like how you bring some order into the disorder that we call reality.
I work on a distinctly different model, but I am curious if there are links between your work and that model. I am going to write the model down, if interested.
The idea that all exists on one level of reality only is rejected in this model. I use different terms than you, so I hope you can bear with me. Matter and dark energy can be proposed as the two levels. GR and QM can also be seen as the two levels. Among the forces, there are two levels. Let me start with the forces.
In this model, gravity is the synergistic force of the other forces. The nuclear forces and electromagnetism are declared the specific forces and their collective presence is declared the generic outcome with gravity.
In layman terms, we're talking the forest and the trees. The trees are the known outcomes with specific qualities. But the forest also has qualities that are not tree-specific but rather group or setting specific. I hope you recognize QM and GR in this. The whole explains parts of what is happening to the whole or in parts within the whole (GR). Meanwhile, the parts explain what is happening to the parts and how each contributes to the whole (QM). Neither can be taken as directing the other.
If we mix green, red, blue and yellow we end up with gray as the outcome. That is exactly the same duality because the specific colors establish a generic color (that some would not call a color).
If we take a pyramid and place those four specific colors at the corners on the ground and color in the pyramid, then the center of the pyramid would be gray. The gray area would take on the shape of a cone. The cone is the tool to express the outcomes of gravity. One can cut through the cone and end up with a circle, an ellipse, a parabola and a hyperbola. The combination of the four specific forces (splitting electric and magnetic forces toward two sides of the pyramid) delivers us the fifth generic force of gravity.
The same reality can be seen with matter and dark energy (let's leave Dark Matter out for now). Matter was created some 13.8 billion years ago from something that was capable of creating matter. Had everything that existed prior been turned into matter, then all would have collapsed onto itself and returned to the original state. One cannot have creation/transformation of the whole and it not returning to the original state (within days, to give it a common term about time without being all too specific). Matter occurred from parts only and this indicates the separation that guides the proposed model. Matter is separated from dark energy.
For the subatomic level, something like the following is proposed: the neutron and proton are established matter as separated from dark energy. They derived from dark energy (i.e. from dark-energy parts known as quarks that cannot be seen as complete entities by themselves, which then established subsequent new balances in proton and neutron that can be seen as having some self-based qualities (needed to consider them as independent and separate from dark energy). The positive charge of the proton calls in for the negative charge, the electron, and does this from the original remnant, from dark energy.
* proton and electron come in pairs and can be seen as one and the same from two realities (being 1/ self-based-matter and 2/ from-dark-energy-not-fully-making-it-into-matter).
* proton and neutron can sit in the center area of the atom, while the electron tries but cannot make it all the way. There is no end result available in which negative charge annihilates the positive charge. The negative charge is simply put exactly the opposite of the positive charge.
* the behavior of proton and neutron are distinct from the behavior of the electron.
I won't go into further details about how the quarks resulted from dark energy. That is for another time, if interested.
Let me end with declaring that there are two versions for time as well. This is a bit abstract, but you may like it. Two distinct approaches:
* There is only the Now in the entire universe. No other time. In this approach, time is a phenomenon that automatically accompanies matter and has matter as the essential feature and has time simply as a byproduct that we can recognize by itself but that does not exist by itself. That is one approach.
* There is no Now, and only the past and the future are real. Where these two come together/touch, that is where we experience reality.
I hope you like how this is set up in two ways (either just the Now, or just past/future) and how past/future is nicely split itself as well.
Last note on time and this reply: if matter is the forward motion in time, then dark energy is the path in which the negative motion of time may occur.
Dark energy is in this respect the state that used to be whole, but is no longer (matter was subtracted from it), and as such there is a matter-focus for it from the position of trying to make things whole the best way possible (whole, the dark-energy way). The pieces of the broken vase are regarded as the new items to cherish, so to speak, the new way all energy is organized. For instance, with our needing to sleep a quarter to a third of our lives, we may not be able to move forward in time unless we establish some point within where all experienced time recollects and reconnects in order for us to move forward another day.
I hope you were able to read my scribbles and understand the model. I am curious what your reaction will be. If no response, no worries. That happens all the time. Thank you for your article. A good and interesting read. I like your brain.
