What was there before the big bang??

popinfresh

You know the way that for every action there is a equal and opposite reaction, well that kind of puts across the idea of infinity. ie- if you throw a ball up into the air, the chain reaction will go on forever. and visa versa the energy you used to throw the ball came from other sources. So from this assumtion we can say that everything which we consider to be our universe is the way it is because of actions that happened in the past. In a sense every action is a reaction, and that cycle is seemingly infinate. But here's the tricky part, the big bang was an action, and it was a reaction (I'm awear that that's starting to sound a bit waffely). My question is what action provoked the big bang. Unless all energy was suddenly created at the big bang. Was the big band the first action in this cycle which led us to our universe, or was the big bang merely part of this cycle? If the big bang was part of a cycle, then what was there before the big bang. Does reality stretch further than our perception of space and energy being everything that exists. Is the universe only part of a much larger order????(I'm sure some1 who knows their sh1t is about to b1tch-slap my ideas into place )

Gordon

Surely it's all just hypothesis but I'll lay my theory on the ground -
The Big Shrink.

(not a fat psychoanalyst)

Sparks

It's a poorly-phrased question. "Before" requires time for it to have any meaning. And time didn't exist before the big bang, as I understand it.

popinfresh

Yeah, which is why i attempted (poorly it seems) to ask it in the terms of a action: reaction point of view. Everything happens because of something caused it to happen, so what made the big bang happen, and is there any way of even comprehending this and hence comprehending if reality surpasses our perception of reality..

Sparks

Thing is popin, that even causality doesn't hold in a singularity. So the action-reaction viewpoint isn't any use either.

[deep booming overvoice]
There are some things that Man was not meant to know...
[/deep booming overvoice]

Cal

It's obvious.

There was nothing there before the big bang.

After a very very long period of nothingness the reaction is a big bang.

Cal

mike65

Heck I thought everyone knew the answer to this!

Before the Big Bang was another universe which expanded out of the previous big bang and then collapsed back into itself
causing a er big bang....and so on :cool:

Mike.

Capt'n Midnight

Mr Hawkings suggests that in order for the equations to work out you need to use complex time (not just negative)

Not sure on the exact parts of it but I suspect that you are looking at time as something that can only exist relative to other dimensions or at least energy.

And the current view on Hubbles constant etc. suggests there was no previous gnab gib B4 hand.

As far as can be told there was a small amount of energy B4 and a quantum fluctuation - for a short duration so as to not upset the over all average low energy value - allowed our universe to spring into existance.