Hawking and Hartle said the universe doesn't have a boundary, much like Earth's rounded surface lacks an edge. Hawking likened his no-boundary proposal (aka Ste

Hawking and Hartle said the universe doesn't have a boundary, much like Earth's rounded surface lacks an edge. Hawking likened his no-boundary proposal (aka Stephen-hawking-Hartle state) for the universe to traveling southward until you reach the South Pole. When you reach the South Pole, the term "south" loses its meaning. The same idea is applied to time before the Big Bang -- once you trace back the universe to its beginning, the concept of time (as we define it, at least) becomes obsolete. https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientists/physicists/stephen-hawking3.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/famous-scientis...