Too much time on my hands
What exactly is the essence of time?
I understand the limitations of this question, so let me explain what I mean.
M-Theory says it is mathmatically attractive that there are 11 dimensions, encompassing the 3 we can negotiate (width, height, depth) and one we "experience" - time. If dimensions exist above our "home 4", then the hyptothesis is understood that time can be negotiated on these higher plains, as much as we can negotiate 3 dimensions.
(Side question - are dimensions like a spectrum and we merely operate within a section of that spectrum?)
Now space has matter, and has vacuums of nothingness. Is there educated conjecture on the substance of "time" - it's own vacuums, its own ways of how to negotiate it, where time is applied and when it is not?
Is time itself just another anamolous membrane genereated by chance? What does String Theory, M-Theory, and other string theories have to say about time?