@n_dimension That's a fair way of putting it. So perhaps we are not saying different things: I like to think of the Big Bang, a phase transition, as an epistemic boundary rather than "happened in the past."

The Aymara people in the Andes gesture forward when referring to the past. "Future" is […]

@n_dimension This is out of context, but relevant: "The electron's trajectory can be modeled as a helical path in four-dimensional spacetime." That's a correct block-universe-like appropriation of "time" but it's probably not what most think of.

What about the block universe appeals to you?

@n_dimension Time as a container versus time as an order/sequence.

@n_dimension Block universe is a reversible/symmetric Hamiltonian, valid. Thermodynamics are not reversible however, and that is essentially what we mean by "time" when it is essentially a bifurcated (and ill-posed) concept.