I have, on occasion, pondered the nature of time. In my latest insane delusions, I have begun to question its existence as an actual physicality. Perhaps time is a perception and convenient way of tracking of some other phenomenon.

Only energy and incident reactions dictate the doings of the physical world. If a particle is bestowed energy it will react (perhaps a translation or an energy state change). The reaction will occur until enough energy is lost to return the particle to a state of equilibrium.

We must use some measure to track the progress of the energy change and we call this time. The measure must be based upon some other known energy transfer. In that way we can say that the reaction of such-and-such particle will occur for X of this other interaction. Since the second is currently defined in terms of atomic decay, this is already in practice.

Even if this rationale were correct, it does not really change the nature of how the physics of the world are quantified. It would be a different way of thinking about the nature of how the universe changes.