I’ve recently read an interesting theory (wish I had time to go find the source), which goes something like this… Our universe was born from a black hole in another (possibly similar) universe. The “seed” of our universe was everything that had ever “fallen into” that black hole over its entire existence. Of course, matter “falling in” that seed black hole, time stops for that matter as it approaches the event horizon. Then, somehow with physics that I don’t understand, that space time in the seed black hole become inverted and creates our universe, such that the “time” that “fell in” become our space and the “space” that “fell in” or was “consumed by” the seed black hole becomes our time. I can intuitively grasp the nature how this could happen, but I could not possibly describe this mathematically. It’s definitely an interesting prospect.

Also, I’m with Rovelli. He’s saying the same thing non-dualists have been saying for over 2 millennia, just without the vague ancient terms and religious/spiritual aspect. There is only the eternal now in which stuff is happening. The past and future are just stories we tell to try and make the eternal present make sense to us. Anything other than just the stuff happening is our minds adding to what is there.