#58 Afshordi and Halper | What Happened Before The Big Bang?

Astrophysicist Niayesh Afshordi and science communicator Phil Halper return to the channel to discuss their new book, Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins. We discuss inflationary theory, the BGV theorem, how space and time might not exist at the fundamental level of reality, and so much else besides. This was one of my favorite interviews so far.Make sure to check out Phil and Niayesh's book, and follow Phil on YouTube.To support the channel, do please oh please consider donating via⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PayPal⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy Me a Coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Feel free to follow me on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.EPISODE CHAPTERS00:00:13 Does the Big Bang theory feature a bang?00:07:53 What is an FLRW spacetime? What is the Lambda-CDM model?00:18:39 Is a singularity unscientific?00:25:05 Singularity theorem #1: Hawking-Penrose00:33:04 Singularity theorem #2: Borde-Guth-Vilenkin00:39:23 What is "classical" spacetime?00:52:40 Singularity theorem #3: Generalized second law of thermodynamics00:57:54 The quantum eternity theorem01:01:10 String-theoretic models of the universe01:05:56 A fundamental limit to what we can know?01:09:10 Is a cosmic beginning scientifically unsatisfying?01:15:17 Teaching science as a story01:19:35 Embrace uncertainty