What did you think of the idea of different phases of space-time (not novel AFAIK), for example our current universe being in a phase that condensed out of a higher energy phase, and at some point before heat-death, parts of the universe may condense into a lower energy phase. In terms of defining these "phases", they may have radically different particles, forces and laws.
Pure speculation?
RE: Scotino dark matter and the unification of the fundamental forces