Posted: Sep 30, 2010 4:02 am
Partly because he was dealing with his own work and not dealing with wilfully malfeasant equivocation between the two meanings of the universe? Right now there are models with pre-big bang cosmic expansions, and Hawking's no-boundary proposal is an alternative, with no pre-big bang physics, but both of these are talking about our local cosmic expansion, while the term the Universe means all there in.
Hawking's no boundary proposal is the astrophysical equivalent of asking what is North of the North Pole?
Hawking's no boundary proposal is the astrophysical equivalent of asking what is North of the North Pole?