Quark confinement is a consequence of the colour force carriers being colour charged. If photons had electric charge then electromagnetism would also grow in proportion to distance. One shudders at Carter's probable judgement of virtual particles or vacuum energy. His actual explanation of virtual particles is downright idiotic. Far from 'holes in space' being some kind of important insight, holes in negative electron energy levels have been known as positrons for a long time.
Holes have the opposite properties of the medium's components.
Antimatter instead of matter. The notion that you get virtual particles out of them is magical thinking pure and simple. The process Carter uses, that of looking for and correcting for systemic errors made by most scientists, is a fruitful one. Examples include Many-Worlds, Information physics and Inflation theory. Widespread propaganda and indoctrination patterns can easily be demonstrated in physics education.