The Void

In a universe where all physical properties are associated with matter, space itself has no properties at all. To illustrate this point, consider the void which is an infinity of nothing.

A void does not have a box around it. It is not the mere absence of particles, it is the limitless absence of particles.

Since there is nothing in a void, and it has no boundaries, a void has no size, no dimensions and no time. To ask the size of a void is as meaningless as asking the size of Super Mario's hat. There is no answer to such a question.

To talk of size and dimensions, we need a reference. We can talk of Super Mario's hat in relation to Super Mario. However, we cannot talk about his hat in relation to ourselves. We are made of matter. Super Mario and his hat are made of bits and bytes. There is no meaningful relationship between Super Mario's universe and our universe as far as size and dimensions go.

This same logic applies to the void. Only when we bring some reference into it does size and dimensions come into existence as meaningful quantities. The number of dimensions that spring into existence is determined by the number of dimensions inherently present in our reference. Matter has three dimension, so we get three dimensions we can talk about in the context of matter.

Size and dimensions of an electron

For time to come into existence, we need matter that move at a variable speed and matter that move at a fixed speed. I.e. we need both ordinary matter and the aether. We need at the very least an electron and a photon.

Electron, with photon acting as a pendulum

To see why this is the case, we can ask ourselves a simple question related to the void. Imagine we put a few electrons and protons into it, but no photons or neutrinos. This allows us to construct a coordinate system. However, it does not allow us to construct a clock. We cannot in any way figure out the rate of the local time inside the void. The only clock we have is our own, which is outside of the void. There is no time inside the void if there is no aether in it to act as a pendulum.

Put another way, let us imagine that we could rid ourselves of the aether, so that there no longer existed anything that moved at a predetermined fixed rate of speed. This would stop all natural processes. Temperatures would be at absolute zero. Any mechanical clock would stop.

Let us now stay in this state for an hour, using our own local time.

This is of course impossible. The absence of the aether has removed the very existence of time. There is no way to know when an hour has passed in a space that has no aether.