“The realization that time can behave like another direction of space means one can get rid of the problem of time having a beginning, in a similar way in which we got rid of the edge of the world.

Suppose the beginning of the universe was like the South Pole of the earth, with degrees of latitude playing the role of time.

As one moves north, the circles of constant latitude, representing the size of the universe, would expand. The universe would start as a point at the South Pole, but the South Pole is much like any other point.

To ask what happened before the beginning of the universe would become a meaningless question, because there is nothing south of the South Pole.”