Just because it may have taken an infinite amount of time to get here, does not mean that we are not here. Actually science cannot perdict with tested certainty what happened in the distant past. However, there are many cosmologies that do predict the distant past. The simplest one of all, the Big Bang cosmology predicts that time began with the big bang. But this cosmology is based on classical physics. The cosmologies based on quantum physics mostly predict infinite time and a series of universes giving birth to other universes. Those based on string theory also suggest that time in infinite, without really saying so. They just allow for a smooth transition from before the big bang to after it.

However, within our own universe there are places where time as we know it ceases to exist. One example is inside the event horizon of a black hole where time becomes the radial spatial coordinate of the black hole. Perhaps this also happens when a new universe is created, so that we can say that there is a beginning of time as we know it. But clearly something existed before the creation of a new universe. So in the broad sense time is infinite. It just changes phase, so to speak, from time to time.

• I disagree - highvoltage - June 29, 2001 - 05:55 UTC
  • Mistaken - yanniru - July 3, 2001 - 13:23 UTC