Did Asimov get the origin of the universe right?

May 12, 2006 2:13 PM

Today's big science news story about a theoretically infinite number of big bangs immediately triggered memories of a non-fiction book or essay by Isaac Asimov that proposed the same theory of the universe. Am I recollecting Asimov's conjecture correctly, which if I remember correctly he proposed almost as a flight of poetic fancy. Does anyone remember what book this was in?
posted by Kattullus to science & nature (3 comments total)

The Last Question, but that's a story.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:39 PM on May 12, 2006

A Choice of Catastrophes?
posted by Guy Smiley at 3:51 PM on May 12, 2006

That's hardly a unique idea to Asimov... many have suggested it, many myths and religions essentially declare that this is not our first time through as a universe. Hell, I had that idea when I was 11, and I called it the "burrito" universe, that folded over on itself like when they make a burrito- time kept looping around, ending and starting in cataclysm. I also recall a cover of Discover from the early 90's that showed the idea of a large smooth plane riddled with little bubbles... each of which was an entire universe.

There's nothing limiting the possibility of many universes, or that this is the Nth repeat of the universe, etc. It's not a novel concept, just one that would pretty much be impossible to truly prove. However, one could argue that semantically the term "universe" is like the term "god" supposed to be all-encompassing, and thus if it turned out we had many big bangs or multiple universes, these would just be facets of the true "universe".
posted by hincandenza at 10:35 AM on May 13, 2006