Paul,

“Thus is the equation 2 + 2 = 4 also “outside of time”?

The operation is a verb! It is modeling time.

As I keep trying to argue, we experience reality as a sequence of perceptions, as a consequence of being intentionally mobile organisms, so we think of time as the point of the present moving past to future, but it is change, turning future to past. It’s an effect, like temperature, pressure, color, noise, etc. Think frequencies and amplitudes.

Sorry to rant. It’s a habit.