Just random thoughts so do not get huffy. I've been studying alternate theories and following the early works of Einstein, Maxwell and Newton. A force of attraction implies an undetectable connection between two bodies that would bring them together from a distance. Like an invisible rope tied to the objects that pulls them together. Because of this ambiguity of an attraction force, Einstein theorized that perhaps gravity and other attraction forces were really forces of repulsion / pushing forces. So instead of the earth pulling us down we are actually being pushed down onto the earth. For any Newtonian mathematical relationship to exist to support this repulsion forces required a very important component, physical matter.  Before the 1900’s science was heavily based on a component referred to as the Luminas Aether. Now before you shut down your minds and start flaming hear me out. 

        It has been approximated that of the known universe only 20% of it is made up of physical matter.  That leaves 80% of the universe made up of a vacuum of matter less space. A vacuum of complete nothingness. Yet, light and other forces can easily travel through this space. So instead of having space void of absolute nothingness, what if there was a very, very small piece of flexible matter (actually the smallest piece of matter in the universe) that was under great pressure that could fill every available void between larger pieces of matter. 

     As such we live like fish at the bottom of the ocean and are blind to the fact that we live in an intensely pressurized fluid. Fish, in an ocean trench, know that they encounter a resistance to change in velocity and to their movement but are oblivious to the intense pressure their bodies are subject to.  This is because they are surrounded by this pressure.

   So if I performed a thought experiment about a possible reason for the presents of gravity on earth it would go like this. I would place a semi-porous ball in to a bucket of water and then spin it at a high speed. So what I should see is that the water in the bucket would swirl in the same direction as the ball’s rotation. Any object in the water would orbit that ball like a moon. Lastly the water would form a very thin high-pressure zone between the surface of the rotating ball and water interface. Further away from the surface of the ball a low pressure zone would attract objects to the ball like bent space gravity.  So it is the present of matter in the watery Aether that creates differential pressure zones and movement that effect near by objects. This is an over simplified visualization next we would have to consider wave functions. These concepts works both on the mega structures as well as the microstructures (atoms).
 
     Look just because Michaelson and Morley could not prove the existence of the Aether doesn’t mean that they disproved it. If you use a model of a Hydro-dynamic Aethereal universe it simplifies a lot. So Einstein’s E=MC2 only describes the energy required to physically displace and maximum rate at which the small particles of the Aether can move. Newton’s laws remain in tacked, and light becomes pressure waves transmitted from a source and received by our eyes like sound in water to our ears. Also the need for 12 dimensions of space-time becomes less important. Lastly there is no need to fill empty space with imagination. 

 If it helps you then refer to the Aether as Dark Matter. For me I think that the Aether is just photons since light bends around a mass and twist when passing by a magnet in a vacuum.  Best wishes. Have a nice day.

Ockhams razor states “Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.”