This work proposes a conceptual framework in which time is not a global or fundamental property of reality, but an emergent feature of localized energetic interaction. Observation is treated not as a passive act, but as an energetic interaction that obeys the laws of thermodynamics. Within an infinite, non-temporal context, temporally coherent structures called “ripples” arise, and time exists only within these structures. The framework rejects the need for a “first interaction” or global time, arguing that causality and temporal ordering are internal features of these localized ripples.
Jeffrey Phinney (Sun,) studied this question.