Hi bogz,
Certainly I can understand and respect this view. Any maybe describing Time as an “illusion” is not really what I was getting at. Certainly Time is not an illusion to our conscious minds. We perceive it and we share that perception with other humans. If we all agree that we perceive the passage of Time, then it would be hard to call it an illusion. Perhaps another way to say what I am trying to say is that “Time is a byproduct of perception, sentience, cognition.”
Now, I also think that your comments on matter interacting with the universe in a predictable way are going in the right direction for how we would describe (and measure) Time. I’ve pointed out before that every single means that we humans have to “mark Time”, as we perceive it, is derived from MATTER in MOTION. Indeed, our very definition of a “day”, as 24 hours, is semi-arbitrary in that it corresponds to the amount of TIME required for the MASS of the earth to complete one complete rotation of MOTION about its axis.
So now to modify my statement in quotes above, I would also classify “Time as being a byproduct of MATTER in MOTION.” Or perhaps “Time is dependent and derived from MATTER that is in MOTION.” And indeed the science of Albert Einstein has even shown this to be true because of what happens to the perception of Time as a moving reference frame reaches relativistic speeds.
I completely agree, and I would even go further and say that the term “intelligent” is not a fixed (static) quantity, but rather a constantly-changing dynamic. Since there are a lot of people around this forum that seem to get kicks out of predictions, I will toss out one here:
I PREDICT THAT: Once someone creates a form of “AI” that consistently passes the Turing Test (as administered by several testers), mankind will once again re-set the bar for what constitutes “intelligence.” And that, BTW, is a very good thing. For it ensures us that we as humans are not merely “intelligent” (as if it is a place you can “arrive at” and “stay at”), but rather we are EVOLVING our intelligence constantly, as a species. And this is not even taking into account current conceptual ideas of “spiritual intelligence”. 
And isn’t it funny (and interesting!) that this pretty much sums up the arguments of Evolutionists… that our “ascension” to our current status as “the most intelligent form of life on our planet” came about through a long series of trials and errors. And if this is the truth about us as an “intelligent” species, then I would think it would hold true for any other “intelligent” species which arises from… wherever! 
As you know, I like to focus on the concept and reality of “Systems”. I am fascinated by the human body as a system… one which we all certainly agree supports “intelligence”.
It is an interesting coincidence because my chiropractor (who is also a good friend of mine) and I were discussing the amazing systemic architecture of the human body system and its subsystems. We had quite a spirited discussion about it over lunch just yesterday. She and I always are amazed by the knowledge the other exhibits in their profession. She knows SOOOOO much about the human body and its systems, and she does a great job helping me understand what she knows so I can keep my system in decent shape! And then she will always exclaim in surprise about how it is amazing the things I do and the complex control systems I design that literally fly airplanes autonomously.
That was when we both looked at each other and our eyes grew wide: Closed-loop control systems! It is the single most important concept behind the work that BOTH of us do. Suddenly we began to discuss a cooperative project for our future. I build operational, functional, and physical models (using computer modeling tools like MATLAB/Simulink) of complex aircraft and their complex systems. I model system inputs, system transformation functions, and system outputs. Inasmuch I develop extremely accurate models of how the integrated airplane works.
What is to stop us from developing similar extremely complex models of the human body, and all of its closed-loop transformation systems, their performance, and its inputs and outputs? Nothing, of course. That lead to some excellent ideas for collaboration that we are going to be working on in the coming months.
As you know from some of my other posts, bogz, I am in strong agreement with you on this. And I think the key is in being able to model various levels of: Mass, Matter, Space, Motion, Time, Force, Energy, and finally (at the top) Information. An integrated model of all of these “aspects of reality” that describes their interrelationships and dependencies can become a very powerful tool indeed.
And in terms of human evolution, I believe we are approaching a point where we will be able to integrate a VAST amount of accumulated human knowledge on: Mass, Matter, Space, Motion, Time, Force, Momentum, Energy, and Information.
And this is why I tend to have an extremely POSITIVE view of our future (quite the opposite of so many of our alleged time traveling visitors to this site).
We are EVOLVING, not DEVOLVING!
RMT
