The universe is 13.8 billion years old. That’s around three times the age of the Earth, and
many millions of times older than humankind. And yet, thanks to the wonders of modern science we
can trace the story all the way back to almost the very beginning. To the first ever moments. Going
back even further still, however, is incredibly difficult… although, perhaps not impossible.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question;
what was there before the big bang?
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The big bang theory is the most famous and widely accepted model for how the universe
came into being. It posits that in the beginning, around 13.8 billion years ago,
there was an infinitely dense singularity that burst forth to furnish reality with literally
everything that’s inside it. The big things like planets and stars didn’t just emerge fully formed,
though… they’re the product of millions of years’ worth of cosmic evolution. It isn’t
really something that can be boiled down into just a simple ingredients list… but,
for the sake of trying, if you were somehow present throughout the lifetime of the universe,
you’d have seen basic elementary particles fuse into different more complex particles; atoms form
into basic molecules; molecules combine into matter; massive swirls of gas and dust combine
into rock and ice… and then, eventually, stars, planets, moons, and asteroids populating galaxies.
This all then happened across an expanding plane - what we know as space - and today
that expansion is accelerating. All of which means that there are a number of suggestions as to how
the universe could one day end… with the Big Rip and Heat Death (or, the Big Freeze) being among
the leading candidates if the universe just never stops spreading out. Nevertheless, the big bang
theory is useful for the very earliest moments, too, right up until what’s known as the Planck
epoch - the tiniest, tiniest fraction of time at the very beginning of the very first moment.
But, of course, the big bang theory isn’t without its problems. And perhaps the biggest problem,
or at least the hardest to account for, is what came before the singularity that
started it all? Physics may very well explain that one single point could feasibly carry
within its infinite mass literally everything there ever was… that (more or less) checks out
fine. But how did that single point come to be? And, while we’re at it,
if that single point was (back then) surrounded by nothing… then was it also surrounded by something?
Is nothing something, or is it… nothing? It’s all very confusing. Except, for some,
it isn’t… and there are actually multiple theories as to what there was before the big bang.
Perhaps one of the simplest requires us to first make a pretty seismic reinterpretation of what we
see a universe to be. Going by its “uni” prefix alone, the traditional idea is that the universe
is one thing and everything, all at once. We don’t, for example, live in a triniverse - some
kind of confirmed three-tier reality, where the triple nature is key to how it works. Instead,
the universe, in our minds, is the entirety of reality. Or, is it? In recent decades,
science has proven that you don’t need to turn to science fiction, divine inspiration,
or plain speculation to make a multiverse work. Instead, we have brane cosmology,
an ever-growing field which now offers up multiple variations of a general theme;
that our universe exists as a membrane, suspended in a higher dimensional space, which is populated
by at least one other, comparable membrane. In most models, then, the big bang was actually an
event that happened when our membrane collided with another, generating incredible energy which
triggered the beginning of everything. Meanwhile, in some other understandings,
there are countless branes in this wider space - perhaps an infinite number - arguably meaning that
another big bang could be happening, somewhere out there, right now. And again, right now. And so on.
But still, those less enamored by brane cosmology might claim that,
really, all that it does is kick the cosmic can just a little further down the road. The
overriding question - what came before? - is still unanswered. Because, even if this is all just one
membrane amongst many, then what’s hosting all of those membranes? And how did that come to be?
For this reason, variously self-fulfilling models for the universe have become popular
in more recent times. For decades, there has been talk of the Big Bounce Theory wherein, broadly,
it’s predicted that universal expansion will one day slow and reverse, compacting the universe
all the way back down into the singularity again… before another big bang will produce another
universe. However, that rough idea has been honed by contemporary scientists, into numerous,
more intricate variations. For example, a model known as Conformal Cyclic Cosmology - proposed by
the British mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose - seemingly suggests that a fresh big bang
could perhaps happen again, but only once all (or almost all) matter has been spent and removed from
the universe itself, which includes the eventual decay and disappearance of even black holes. At
that stage, it could be that the right conditions are set, once again, for another big bang,
and for the cycle to begin anew. So, if correct, it could again mean that before the big bang
there was… another universe. And before that, another. And before then, another. All essentially
sub-divided by big bangs, multiple. In this case, while we might view the big bang as having been
some spectacular, unusual and unlikely event… it could actually be that big bangs are normal,
expected, and wholly uninteresting. Within the theory, advocates speak of cosmic aeons;
we’re in one now, but there have likely been many before, and will be many after this one finishes.
In cyclic or big bounce theories, but also in general, scientific thought is today trending
toward a slight shift in the view we should take when contemplating before the big bang. For years,
the big bang has been painted as the absolute starting point, but perhaps
we shouldn’t see it that way. It apparently is the absolute beginning of the universe,
yes, but is that the same as it being the start of reality itself? For example, there’s ongoing
debate about the nature (or place) of time in all of this. Did time start at the big bang,
or was it there before? If it was there before - and it’s very difficult to argue
otherwise - then the big bang can’t be the start of everything. And so,
we’ll finish on what, bizarrely, is arguably the most grounded possibility for what came before -
eternal inflation theory. In this long-debated model, there is but a single plane to reality
as a whole (no extra branes required) but there can still be multiple universes,
appearing as bubbles across that ever-lengthening base expanse. In this version of events, it could
be that there are boundaries to our universe - although it’s thought that they’d still be far,
far beyond the observable reaches that we know, and can ever know. But, beyond everything that we
are, there could also be other universes, again sparked by their own big bang-like events.
Unlike in some other models, these other realms now aren’t directly connected to us… and could
indeed be fundamentally different… but, if the eternal part of eternal inflation is right,
then there are endless examples of them. Countless other universes. We’re here in this one, because
this is the one that has provided the perfect conditions for us to emerge… but many (or most) of
the others maybe wouldn’t spawn life. They might perhaps spawn something other than life, though;
some wholly unknowable phenomena from our point of view. And, if these bubbles were at least
still linked by the passage of time, then we have yet another possibility for what came
before the big bang; an infinite stream of other universes, leading all the way up to this one.
Ultimately, this is a question that science still does not know the answer to. And there’s some
argument that it might never know the answer, as well, should that knowledge require some kind of
non-human, higher dimension perspective. However, for now, we do have options. It could be literal
nothingness out of which came something; the collision of branes in a higher dimensional space;
a rhythmic expand-and-contract of all things; a never-ending cycle of returning prime conditions;
or the latest chapter in a long, long list of universe creations.
So, was it really the beginning of everything? Or merely one moment among many, stretching further
back (and forward) than we could ever hope to see? Because that’s what there was before the big bang.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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