Publisher's Synopsis
This groundbreaking vision of the early universe challenges conventional theory-but it can't be easily dismissed because it makes a verifiable prediction about the outcome of a double-slit experiment that could resolve deep cosmological mysteries and redefine the foundations of quantum theory. Given what's at stake, the experiment's execution is inevitable. But what recent breakthrough justifies such a profound shift in our understanding of the universe's origins? The answer lies in the work of Stephen Hawking.
Hawking's final conclusion, as detailed by his collaborator Thomas Hertog in On the Origin of Time, challenges one of the deepest assumptions of modern physics: that the laws of physics are fundamental. Instead, he argued, they are emergent-they did not preexist the universe but arose as it evolved. This insight exposes a critical flaw in the Big Bang Theory (BBT), as formulated by Lemaître, Gamow, and others a century ago.
If the laws of physics, including gravity, had not yet emerged at the universe's birth, then applying Einstein's equations to that instant may be fundamentally misguided. General Relativity certainly shaped the early universe, but it may not have governed the moment of its creation. This suggests that some prior, unknown evolution occurred before the emergence of the physical laws we recognize today.
If this is true, then our current cosmological models need a dramatic revision. The BBT may have started on the wrong footing, basing its earliest assumptions on an incomplete framework. But what happens when we abandon these flawed premises and reconstruct the universe's birth using the correct initial conditions? The results are astonishing: a self-consistent, natural evolution that not only reshapes our understanding of the early cosmos but also offers a revolutionary perspective on quantum reality itself.
