I am really impressed with your conceptual understanding of GR. So many people know the math, but fail to see the conceptual implications.

What you said has profound implications for the universe, and gives veracity to the Geometric Universe model. It is possible to scientifically hit some people over the head with the reality of eternal existence without their understanding the implications, though I think you made that other fellow just a hair nervous!

What you correctly asserted is headline news, way, way down in the threads of a bulletin board!

You have to have studied the work of Marek Artur Abramowicz on black holes. He was for some time the chairman of the astrophysics department at the university of Goteborg, Sweden,

He had a popular introduction to his work printed in the Scientific American some years back: "Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox". His findings, while discussing macroscopic black holes are also applicable to submicroscopic Photon spheres.

Of particular interest to me was the prospect of seeing the universe "flat" as a result of having a certain overall average distance in scale from the photon spheres of which we consist, giving us this 4-D linear perspective on the universe.

Of just as much interest is the fact that our perspective is "not quite" perfectly linear.

Best Wishes in your work, Sam Cox