Hello John,
I think what cavediver is presenting is best understood with a review of
light cones. It takes time for any event to reach an observer. So lets say we had a solar flare large enough to notice the visual effects on Earth. If it happened around dusk. You would see Venus brighten first than several minutes later you would notice Jupiter brighten. So the light cone can be in Earths/ Venus's past while still being in Jupiters future.
Abe- Cavediver, I would really enjoy discussing the point Straggler brought up about entropy and how that might relate to universal time. (I know universal time is the wrong wording for it, since time is relative to the observer.) But wouldn't the universe entropy at the same or close to the same rate regardless of observation. No rush when we get to it.
Edited by rueh, : No reason given.