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So Stephen, everyone wants to know. What was around before the Big Bang?
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Nothing was surround before the big Big Bang.
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According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, space and time together form a space-time continuum,
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or manifold which has not flat but curved by the matter and energy in it.
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I adopt a Euclidian approach to quantum gravity
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to describe the beginning of the universe.
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In this, ordinary real time is replaced by imaginary time,
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which behaves like a fourth direction of space.
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In the Euclidean approach, the history of the universe in imaginary time
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is a four-dimensional, curved surface
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like the surface of the Earth, but with two more dimensions.
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Jim Hartle and I proposed a "no-boundary" condition.
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The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary.
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In order terms, the Euclidean space time is a closed surface without end,
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like the surface of the Earth.
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One can regard imaginary in real time as beginning at the South Pole,
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which is thesmooth point of space-time where the normal laws of physics hold.
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There is nothing south of the South Pole, so there was nothing around before the Big Bang