text: “Our universe is one of many. At only 13.77 billion years old is it relatively young and small compared to most. The speed that time moves in each universe is mostly dependent on its size, but it is difficult to measure the rate at which time is moving in a universe with wildly differing dimensions and contents. Our universe has what I refer to as a pulmonary structure. This is because it’s when it reaches a certain size, it will start contracting until it becomes so dense that all its matter forms into a singularity which will subsequently ‘explode’ creating a new big bang. Of course, there actually is no explosion or bang, just a rapid and forceful expansion that kicks off a new lifecycle for the universe. The universe always contains the same matter, but after each big bang it become completely re-organised, leaving no trace of the structure of the previous universe. Comparing it to a lung expanding and deflating is a very simple and not entirely accurate analogy, but to be frank it’s the best analogy I could be bothered to come up with and it gives some understanding of the process. Our universe goes through this process to keep itself active, essentially to keep itself alive. Think of each universe as a living organism, which to stay alive, needs the matter within the universe to contain energy. The size a universe can grow to without ‘dying’ is proportional to how much matter is within it. A universe containing a lot of matter can grow to a great size, whereas a universe that does not contain as much matter will not be able to grow for very long before it ‘dies’. The death of a universe occurs when it expands to such a massive size that the matter and energy it contains is too far apart. The matter is this universe becomes devoid of energy and unable to go through any kind of reaction, causing it to be essentially ‘frozen’. This is known as a heat death” The man paused his monologue, glancing at the waiter who was walking past the table. “Hold on, why are you telling me this?”, I tried to interrupt him. “It’s important. Now don’t fucking interrupt me.” He resumed. “Now, a universe cannot stop expanding or collapsing unless it dies. Imagine a balloon with a hole that cannot be tied. The balloon can be blown up, or the air can be released, letting it deflate. If the balloon is blown up too much it will burst and cease to have function. Of course this analogy is clunky at best as a balloon can be left deflated, but a universe is unable to remain as a singularity. It must start expanding again. Now this means a universe will forever be in motion up until the point of its death.” The man stopped talking and stared at me, waiting for a response. The menu on the table in front of him remained unopened. “Okay, that’s all very good but my question still stands. Why are you telling me this?” “A lady came to me... in a dream. She explained all of this to me and if I don’t tell you right now, I’m going to forget it. It’s too important.” He said all of this with an air of profound seriousness. I sighed, “So you think that you know the explanation for all of existence because you had a dream about it?” He looked a little offended. “Well it could be wrong, but there’s a small chance I’m right so I reckon that’s worth holding on to. After all, many people garner explanations for existence that come from much more questionable places. I don’t see my dreams being less reliable that some old book written back before the wheelbarrow had even been invented”. He seemed almost proud that he had managed to inject a fairly mundane piece of trivia into his argument. “I suppose you have a point there. You should probably find some other way to remember it though cause there’s no way I’m going to memorise all that.” I tried to wrap up the conversation, hoping he might finally order something. He furrowed his brow and then replied, “Yes, you’re right. I’ll write it down. Maybe I’ll just write down our conversation, that might help me get it right.