# ..............big Bang! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957 "2008-06-23T19:00:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/21 "2008-06-24T08:16:13Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] [Braaaaaanes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brane_cosmology). -FrL- [/QUOTE] Only as long as string theory holds and luckily this tangled web seems to be coming apart. See [this book](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_With_Physics) for a more detailed explanation. Smolin seems to be heading towards a modified version of relativity ([see this paper if you’re interested in the maths and physics](http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v70/i6/e065020) ) which as others have said would indicate that there was nothing before the universe as there was no spacetime for anything to exist in. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/22 "2008-06-24T08:25:49Z")
_With thanks to Terry Pratchett…_ **1 … 2 … 1 . 2 . 3 . 4** 😉 Si ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/23 "2008-06-24T09:07:01Z")
[QUOTE=notlikely] I have never liked answers like that. Obviously time does exist whether you like it or not and whether you’re there to experience. It’s just we all feel time in a different way. [/QUOTE] Time doesn’t just exist regardless - it is dependent on movement in space. If you have no space, matter or energy, or had an entirely static universe without movement or decay, time would not exist. ---
**Author:** ![CrowJane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@CrowJane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrowJane)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/24 "2008-06-24T11:42:25Z")
[QUOTE=Staggerlee] Time doesn’t just exist regardless - it is dependent on movement in space. If you have no space, matter or energy, or had an entirely static universe without movement or decay, time would not exist. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but What Time is Love? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/25 "2008-06-24T12:40:13Z")
The reason why people ask “What happened before the Big Bang” is because what they are actually seeking is some sort of Ultimate Explanation of existence: how existence itself is possible, and why this particular reality exists instead of any other. The Big Bang doesn’t provide this explanation. Nor does the brane hypothesis, or hypothesizing an infinite set of universes. Nor does any religion I’m aware of (they just pass the buck to God “just existing”). It sucks, but this ultimate philosophical question is unanswerable now, and may always be. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/26 "2008-06-24T12:54:04Z")
[QUOTE=CrowJane] Yeah, but What Time is Love? [/QUOTE] Any time you like. Or in an ‘entirely static universe without movement or decay’; never. Or perhaps forever. Your question is inappropriate for this forum. I have reported your post. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/27 "2008-06-24T13:52:22Z")
You have _got_ to be kidding me. Is there a new rule which says “The stick up your ass must be this big \<-------------\> to post here?” I must have missed it. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/28 "2008-06-24T13:58:23Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.] You have _got_ to be kidding me. Is there a new rule which says “The stick up your ass must be this big \<-------------\> to post here?” I must have missed it. [/QUOTE] In an entirely static universe, insertion of said stick would present an intractable problem. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/29 "2008-06-24T15:05:04Z")
[QUOTE=si\_blakely] _With thanks to Terry Pratchett…_ **1 .. 2 .. 1 . 2 . 3 . 4** 😉 Si [/QUOTE] Don’t worry guys, I’ve reported this post, so we’ve got this thread covered. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/30 "2008-06-25T11:09:09Z")
At the risk of resurrecting this… Hertog, Hawkins and Hartle have just published a paper [(summary here at pysorg)](http://www.physorg.com/news133515283.html) on the No-Boundary Wave Function. Their calculations encompass both a Big-Bang (no pre-existant universe) and a Bounce (a pre-existant universe collapses from a large phase to a small phase and then expands again into the current universe). > [@](#): > > Hartle and his colleagues examined models of the universe that were homogenous, isotropic and closed. A cosmological constant was assumed, as was a scalar field with quadratic potential. They looked at entire classical histories, examining the ideas of a singularity, such as a Big Bang, or considering a bounce with a finite radius. The point was to get a picture of which scenarios are most likely to produce a universe that is similar to what we see currently. > “Both things, a Big Bang or a bounce, are possible,” Hartle says. “However, we found a significant probability that the early universe might have bounced.” So maybe there was something “before”. Si ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957/31 "2008-06-25T12:13:18Z")
[QUOTE=si\_blakely] At the risk of resurrecting this… Hertog, Hawkins and Hartle have just published a paper [(summary here at pysorg)](http://www.physorg.com/news133515283.html) on the No-Boundary Wave Function. Their calculations encompass both a Big-Bang (no pre-existant universe) and a Bounce (a pre-existant universe collapses from a large phase to a small phase and then expands again into the current universe). So maybe there was something “before”. Si [/QUOTE] I originally thought that might be unlikely until I looked at the amount of [papers written on the subject on arXiv alone.](http://arxiv.org/find) . There are litterally hundreds more that I can’t access in online journals. Something to think about at least. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-bang/453957.md?page=1)