[Essay] | What Came Before the Big Bang?, by Alan Lightman | Harper's Magazine

The physics and metaphysics of the creation of the universe

January 2016 Issue [Essay] What Came Before the Big Bang? Adjust Share The physics and metaphysics of the creation of the universe by Alan Lightman , O n Wednesday, February 11, 1931, Albert Einstein met for more than an hour with a small group of American scientists in the cozy library of the Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California. The subject was cosmology, and Einstein was poised to make one of the more momentous statements in the history of science. With his theories of relativity and gravity long confirmed and his Nobel Prize ten years old, he was by far the most famous scien

saved by

• Lucas Gelfond

related reading

• The Accidental Universe, by Alan Lightmanharpers.org
• The Infinity of the Small, by Alan Lightmanharpers.org
• Chapter 16 "A UNIVERSE IN YOUR BACKYARD" | Edge.orgedge.org
• [1802.02231] Why Is There Something, Rather Than Nothing?arxiv.org
• Boltzmann brain - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• The Beginning of Infinity, Part 1nav.al
• Derek Parfit · Why anything? Why this?lrb.co.uk
• Cosmos: working notes, 1michaelnotebook.com
• Cosmogony - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• Arrow of time - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• Finally We May Have a Path to the Fundamental Theory of Physics… and It’s Beautiful-Stephen Wolfram Writingswritings.stephenwolfram.com
• Here’s Why We Might Live in a Multiverse | Scientific Americanscientificamerican.com