The Pre-universe Scene

The following passages are from the book The Origin of Existence, which I enjoyed a great deal. It illustrates vividly what is like even before the universe taking its shape using beautiful language. Use your imagination and begin the journey with me!

"Long before Earth drifted lazily through its solar orbit, long before the galaxy slowly condensed out of the cosmic background, things were different. Time was an imaginary concept. Space was not so well defined either. Even the universe itself did not really exist. Not yet.

In the dim ages of this forgotten past, space had more dimensions than the three we have today. In stark contrast to our present day poverty, the spatial dimensions numbered nine or ten or elven, depending on the moment and on the view. These extra dimensions were complicated, all tied up in intricate knots. Quantum mechanics ruled its high-energy domain along with gravity, and so the knots fluctuated. The knots collapsed. The knots united. And then they tied themselves up again in myriad different configurations. In what would have surely been Euclid's worst nightmare, the geometry of space and time varied from moment to moment.

Beneath the fluctuations of this probabilistic foam, hidden order and elegant symmetry were subtly running the show. Although chaotic and complicated, space and time obeyed a well-defined set of physical laws. These very laws would later rule the universe, albeit in a vastly different regime and only after it was created. These laws ultimately responsible for making and governing the universe - also transcend the universe."
译文：
远在地球懒洋洋地漂浮在太阳轨道上之前，远在星系缓慢地从宇宙背景中凝聚而成之前，一切都与现在大不一样。时间只是一个想象中的概念，空间也还未成型，就连宇宙本身也并不真正存在。嗯，还没有呢。
在这被遗忘的不为人知的岁月里，空间远不止我们今天所见的三维。取决于观看的时间和视野，空间可达九维，十维，甚至十一维，与今日的贫瘠形成鲜明的对比。这些多出的空间错综复杂的集结在一起。量子力学和引力支配着多维空间的高能范畴，连接点因此而不断波动。结点散开了，又连在一处，然后又以无数种不同的方式集结起来。空间和时间的几何（属性）瞬息万变，这毫无置疑该是欧几里德最糟的噩梦。
然而在量子泡沫的波动之下，隐藏的次序和精致的对称巧妙地操纵着一切。尽管表现得杂乱无章，毫无头绪，时间和空间却遵循着明确的物理定律。正是这些定律之后将主宰宇宙，虽然仅在宇宙形成后以完全不同的方式进行的。这些定律最终决定了宇宙的形成，掌管着整个宇宙，并凌驾于宇宙之上。