Subject: QM versus GR
As for "what is reality"? That gets very hairy, since almost everyone will dive into quantum mechanics at some points when discussing that. Even if they don't understand QM. (I was a physicist, so I can tell you most people who talk about it don't actually understand it. Heck, some aspects I won't claim to understand.) Distilled down a lot, one could argue that this universe is a collection of fields that manifest the various observational phenomena that we see/observe/measure.

I don't claim to understand QM, or even General Relativity, though I do my best to comprehend both and to integrate them, resolving their apparent inconsistencies. The problem is that both QM and GR are among the best verified of scientific theories. Reconciling QM and GR may be the most fundamental of all scientific challenges. To the best of my knowledge, no one — physicist or philosopher — has yet managed that.

As I see it, GR is an assessment of macroscopic observations drawn from within existence, accurately describing the most sophisticated experience of earthly denizens to date. From that perspective, we humans have managed to discern that the universe of our experience is exponentially expanding. Accordingly, the universe of our past is regarded as exponentially receding, motivating theories like inflation to get from original nothingness to everything observable.

On the other hand, QM verifiably relates our most minuscule observations to date with overwhelming consistency. It describes molecules comprised of atoms consisting of protons, neutrons and electrons, all composed of quarks and gluons. The whole affair is macroscopically communicated via photons, perceived as light.

At the most fundamental level, quarks, atemporally emergent within infinite potential, comprise materiality.

It's true that all such materiality seems to boil down to fields of one sort or another — as best we know, strong force, weak force, electromagnetism and gravity.

The strong force is mediated by gluons, dictating the behavior of quarks comprising positively charged nuclear protons along with neutrons, and their counterbalancing negatively charged electrons. Together these components comprise atoms, which, in combination, compose molecules of what's regarded as matter.

The weak force, often detected as radiation, more fundamentally aggregates atoms into molecules.

The electromagnetic force is mediated by emanations that we humans perceive as light, propagating at a finite speed. That's the origin of GR. Electromagnetism also includes natively imperceptible radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, all components of its widely ranging spectrum. Thus does the finite speed of light render perception within a temporally evolving universe.

The force of gravity is often regarded as the source of perception, as it recognizes spatial-temporal differentiation among masses. Yet its imperceptibility at quantum scale is significant.

My suggestion is that quantum emergence of organically entangling experience within infinite potential is atemporal, eliminating any need for inflationary theories.

Neil Turok's proposal of simultaneous mirror universes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?...) seems to accord with that.

Tom