That does sound interesting.
I've somewhat had issues with Smolin's view of time as foundational, as the process by which evolution occurs. It is certainly logical, as linear, sequential progression of the development of structure, but I've tended to go with a more non-linear view, of space as the binary of infinity and equilibrium. In which this dynamic cycles between expansion of energy, toward infinity and consolidation of structure, toward equilibrium.
I think that intellectually and consequently academically, we tend to focus on structure, because that's what the central nervous system is evolved to deal with. To extract signals from the noise, in order to navigate and progress. Think how vision is like a movie camera, taking a sequence of static observations, otherwise it would be whiteout, ie, all noise.
Yet that path has us running in circles, trying to figure out all the feedback loops.
As a neuroscientist, consider the left/right brain dichotomy. Basically the rational, left side is a clock/ruler, seeing frequencies and amplitudes, while the right, emotional side is like a thermostat/barometer, sensing the energies/waves building up and breaking down, as heat and pressure.
So the intellectual side tries to narrow its focus and extract ever more clarity, but loses connection to the processes generating the patterns. All math and no physics. All signal and no noise.
I'm starting to get off the topic of Smolin.... Yes, the present is thick, because it is all the energy, not just a dimensionless point on a time dimension. That need to frame the moment is a consequence of our mind capturing the clarity of details. The frequency and amplitude, not the energy driving the wave.
The energy is the dynamic present, going past to future, while the patterns defining it, the fluctuations, rise and fall, future to past. So time is one with temperature, pressure, color and sound....Rising and falling, spectrums, not just points.
E.O. Wilson described the insect brain as a thermostat, but it has been shown that ants can count, as a navigation tool;
