Dylan,

I was fortunate to come of age back in the 70's, when the popular theoretical physics literature was actually trying to discuss what was theorized logically and coherently. Rather than today, where it seems mostly cultish and any speculative fever dream is taken as God's Word, emanating from the black box of academia.

The conceptual basis of "spacetime" is that as nothing can move faster than the speed of light, then in a moving frame, the rate that frame is moving has to be subtracted from the rate of activity within the box. Such that the speed of light is measured as slower, as well as atomic activity and thus the mass it manifests, such that measures of distance shrink as well.

While the belief extracted from this, that there is some "fabric of spacetime" that affects and is affected by mass, is the official conclusion drawn, it seems to me there is a far more basic conclusion; That there is an inherent inertia of space. Of this void through which light does travel at C.

Consider that in a frame moving at the speed of light, both time and distance are dilated equally, effectively both to zero. So consider the implications of the frame where the clock is fastest and distance is longest. It, logically, would be closest to the equilibrium of the vacuum. The unmoving void of absolute zero.

The conventional view of space is that it is three dimensional. Yet this is a mapping device, like longitude, latitude and altitude.

The function of a map is reductionist. To distill the most distinct and clear information out of the territory. Otherwise, if you tried to include all possible information in the territory, in the map, you would lose the signal back into the noise.

Which gives the lie to the belief that math is of some platonic realm, underlaying physical reality. Rather than a human effort to extract useful information from the larger reality.

Remember epicycles were brilliant math, as an effective and accurate description of our view of the cosmos and if any discrepancies appeared, some little fix could always be applied, given the fact that we are our own point of view of the cosmos and that was exactly that was being modeled.

Similarly modern physics has taken various axioms as beyond question, so simply adding a few patches when necessary, such as Dark Matter and Dark Energy, is acceptable practice.

So rather than explaining space as three dimensions, what properties does it have?

The aforementioned equilibrium, as well as infinity. Think in terms of a number line, from zero to infinity.

Now in terms of time, we are mobile organisms and so our experience manifests as a sequence of perceptions, in order to navigate, so our concept of time is as the point of the present, moving along a narrative sequence, from past to future. Which physics codifies as measures of duration.

Though if you asked a plant to model time, it would be likely be cycles of expansion and consolidation, rather than some narrative movement through space.

The reality is that change turns future to past. Tomorrow becomes yesterday, because the earth turns. Potential>actual>residual. Duration is the present, as the events coalesce and dissolve.

There is no literal dimension of time, because the past is consumed by the present, to inform and drive it. Conservation of energy and causality. Cause becomes effect.

So time is an effect, like temperature, pressure, color and sound. Time is frequency, events are amplitude.

Ideal gas laws correlate volume with temperature and pressure and even though they are as foundational to our emotions and bodily functions, as time is to thought, we don't see them as dimensions of space.

Energy, then, is "conserved," because it is the present, creating time. Consequently the energy goes past to future, while the patterns generated go future to past. Energy drives the wave, while the fluctuations rise and fall.

Consciousness also goes past to future, while the perceptions, emotions and thoughts giving it form and structure go future to past. Though it's the gut and heart processing the energy, feeding the flame, while the central nervous system sorts the information. Signals from the noise.

So, there is energy and the forms it manifests. The energy radiates out, toward infinity, while the forms coalesce in, toward equilibrium. Thus galaxies.

As well as people being the tension between desire and judgement.

Energy and form, rather than order and chaos. That's just signals and noise.