If you read Paul Davies book Superstrings his interviews with Steven Weinberg and Michael Greene reveal that time ( and space) are just convenient mathematical parameters with which to define the topological properties of strings. They blend together with other seemingly equally important 'dimensions' with which the various topologies are classifiable that lead to the events we recognize as interactions between recognizable particles and fields. Other physicists such as the late Richard Feynman believe/believed that if you theory does not establish a firm, unassailable role for the four 'big' dimensions of spacetime that nature seems to favor in the world at large, your theory is not meeting a very basic experimental confirmation. Feynman was never impressed by string theory and the seeming 'democracy' of 10 dimensional exotic spacetimes.