“And if it does turn out that space and time are the products of some deeper level of reality, who knows what new phenomena await our discovery? Could cosmic mysteries such as dark matter and dark energy signify the breakdown of space? Might there be conditions under which we could travel faster than light (presumably in a way that forestalls paradoxes)? To me, these heady speculations pale beside a simple realization. If the ultimate constituents of the universe aren’t spatial, they have no size, and they can’t be probed by cracking matter into ever-smaller bits. They exist everywhere. They may well be right in front of our eyes and have gone unnoticed all this time. We may find the most exotic phenomena in the most prosaic places.”