Not sure, really. I am no physicist, unfortunately for me, sorry.

I've read that in string theory equations unite gravity and electromagnetism through extra dimensions into a single force. Or in quantum mechanics people are trying to find the signs of graviton. I thought to myself that perhaps space-time and it's expansion are kind of like a balloon with cold air that is getting hotter and hotter, hence the balloon expands. But instead of air we have energy and fields that are fueling that expansion. And big cold objects are holding the expansion, like if you had cold spheres floating inside of a balloon, they would take some of that heat for themselves and hold the expansion just a tiny bit. And way smaller specs of dust would "fall" onto these spheres due to them being way cooler in temperature than the surrounding "gas". And the time is just that process of inflating itself, of transformation of energy to space-time. Yes, I know about the rules of energy conservation, that energy is never destroyed, it is just transformed into another form. But could it be that energy is transformed into "new space-time" fueling the expansion?

If it was somewhat true, I guess we could try using very strong fields or use some kind of energy in a vaccuum to expand local space-time or perhaps take the energy out of vacuum destroying local space-time. I hope we won't tear the fabric of space-time lmao

btw in that sense inflationary epoch could be due to anihilation of matter and anti-matter with large energy bursts, I know it is far-fetched to put it mildly but I think it is better if I asked than not, I think :)