“In the context of general relativity, space almost is a substance.”

It’s hard to build models of inflation that don’t lead to a multiverse. It’s not impossible, so I think there’s still certainly research that needs to be done.

Everything can be created from nothing.

Space is certainly something more complicated than the average person would probably realize.

Why it banged, or what happened before it banged.

Despite its name, the big bang theory is not really a theory of a bang at all.

It is fair to say that the universe is the ultimate free lunch.

It is really only a theory of the aftermath of a bang.

But most models of inflation do lead to a multiverse.

It can bend and twist and stretch, and probably the best way to think about space is to just kind of imagine a big piece of rubber that you can pull and twist and bend.

The Big Bang theory says nothing about what banged.

The recent developments in cosmology strongly suggest that the universe may be the ultimate free lunch.

Space is not just an empty background in which things happen.

The question of the origin of the matter in the universe is no longer thought to be beyond the range of science.

And evidence for inflation will be pushing us in the direction of taking [the idea of a] multiverse seriously.

It’s actually safe to create a universe in your basement.