Personally I have always found the notion of a discreet -- cellular -- universe quite compelling. Planck units certainly strongly suggest it (don't they?) This would have some interesting consequences. (For example, the space of possible forms would be constrained and defined by group theoretic constructs).
A treasure trove can be found here: http://empslocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatkin/zeta/physics...
I feel strongly that this is close to the truth. I actually, touched on my perspective on this in a bit in a recent post: http://hubski.com/pub?id=837 (I'm at work on the follow-up.)
We often hear or ask questions like “What was before the Universe?” Which, to me, highlights our common non-evidence-based notion of what time is. Once you start to ask questions like “What is a day?”, you quickly realize that time is a quality of a relationship, not a backdrop, dimension, or medium, of any sort. The question “What was before the Universe?” is akin to asking “What is the quietest noise?” or “What is the hottest temperature?” There is no timeline on which anything occurs.
Einstein understood the significance of the relativity of simultaneity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity#cite...), and the illusion of absolute time that confounds so many. So many years along, we are still debating the fundamentals of well-tested theory. IMHO it’s because our gray matter reflects interactions that don’t highlight these realities.