There are versions of the inflationary theory in which inflation is not eternal. By fiddling with details such as the number of inflaton fields and their potential energy curves, clever theorists can arrange things so that the inflaton would, in due course, be knocked off its perch everywhere. But these proposals are the exception rather than the rule. Garden-variety inflationary models yield a gargantuan number of bubble universes carved into an eternally expanding spatial expanse. And so, if the inflationary theory is on the mark, and if, as many theoretical investigations conclude, its
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