The Media, Of Course, Loves To Make

What Differentiates Human From Lower-animal Consciousness Is Time. You Can't Explain The Concept Of "tomorrow" To Your Dog. Our Consciousness Is Dominated By Time - We're Constantly Running Simulations Of The Future. Our Brain Is A Prediction Machine. The Hallmark Of Intelligence, Indeed Of Genius, Is The Number And Complexity Of The Feedback Loops We Use In Predicting The Future.

Modern Thinking Is That Time Did Not Start With The Big Bang, And That There Was A Multiverse Even Before The Big Bang. In The Inflation Theory, And In String Theory, There Were Universes Before Our Big Bang, And That Big Bangs Are Happening All The Time. Universes Are Formed When Bubbles Collide Or Fission Into Smaller Bubles.

A Related Aspect Of Intelligent Consciousness Is Delay Of Gratification: The Wisdom To Accurately Predict Whether Delay Rather Than Acting On Impulse Will Yield Greater Benefit.

I Believe We Exist In A Multiverse Of Universes.

I'm A Physicist, And We Have Something Called Moore's Law, Which Says Computer Power Doubles Every 18 Months. So Every Christmas, We More Or Less Assume That Our Toys And Appliances Are More Or Less Twice As Powerful As The Previous Christmas.