Space/Time Dis-Continuum?
The basic model of the universe used by most physicists, cosmologists, etc. seems to be based on the same underlying assumptions as calculus--that is, that space and time are continuous, and can always be divided into smaller pieces. This makes for some very elegant theories and powerful equations, but what if that's not the way things are?
A couple of years ago, Julian Barbour emerged from years of generally solitary research and theorizing with the notion that time does not exist as a continuous medium or dimension. He claims (and I'm still working on the book, so there are details that I'll get wrong) that reality is actually composed of discrete "instants" that each contain a version of the state of the contents of the universe (for lack of a better way to put it). And these instants are not arranged in order along some track down which we travel in one direction at a constant speed. From what I've read so far, it sounds kind of like a linked list.
Earlier this year, Stephen Wolfram also emerged from years of generally solitary research and theorizing with the notion (again I haven't read all of the book, so I might get some of this wrong as well) that all natural phenomena, including staggering complexity and chaos, can be explained as the result of simple, discrete calculations. One article went so far as to ask whether or not God is a software engineer (as opposed to a farmer or a watchmaker).
After encountering these two ideas and investigating them further, I find them very suggestive, and I believe that they might be complementary. Perhaps what we see of the universe can be thought of as the state of the memory of a massive chip in a given instant, and what we see as change, motion, etc. is merely an artifact of the way that our mind connect two separate instants. Somehow this makes the universe seem more manageable to me, and I find that comforting.
9:08:56 PM 
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