Every time you flip a light switch, or check the time, or feel the sodium ions

wiggling in your brain, don't think about that one too much. You're assuming something

fundamental. You're assuming that the universe is a finished product. It's a completed work. You think the

Bing Bang happened, the forces of nature settled into their seats, and we've been cruising on a smooth,

predictable ride ever since. It's just done. No, the universe isn't perfect. That's not what I'm getting

at. In fact, its total lack of perfection is exactly why we're here.

Long ago, like in the earliest moments of the Big Bang, things were a lot more even,

more uniform and just kind of okay.

Then flaws appeared, and those flaws grew to become stars and galaxies, you and me,

all the good stuff that makes this universe

such a fun place to be in. We have a beautiful model of how that process unfolded. That model

tells us that tiny random ripples in the quantum fields that soak all of space and time grew

up during inflation to become not so tiny random ripples in the quantum fields that

so-called space and time.

It's an elegant theory.

It works.

It matches observations.

And it's the standard picture.

Okay, the universe is a little bit less than perfect, but those tiny little imperfections

grew to become the largest things in the universe.

But I'm not interested in the standard story.

I'm interested in where that story breaks down.

...