Saving a Newtonian intuition

Here is a Newtonian intuition:

1. Space and time themselves are unaffected by the activities of spatiotemporal beings.

General Relativity seems to upend (1). If I move my hand, that changes the geometry of spacetime in the vicinity of my hand, since gravity is explained by the geometry of spacetime and my hand has gravity.

It’s occurred to me this morning that a branching spacetime framework can restore the Newtonian intuition of the invariance of space. Suppose we think of ourselves as inhabiting a branching spacetime, with the laws of nature being such as to require all the substances to travel together (cf. the traveling forms interpretation of quantum mechanics). Then we can take this branching spacetime to have a fixed geometry, but when I move my hand, I bring it about that we all (i.e., all spatiotemporal substances now existing) move up to a branch with one geometry rather than up to a branch with a different geometry.

On this picture, the branching spacetime we inhabit is largely empty, but one lonely red line is filled with substances. Instead of us shaping spacetime, we travel in it.

I don’t know if (1) is worth saving, though.