3.9.17 Cosmic Inflation
The theory of cosmic inflation solved various problems in cosmology, but it also leads to eternal inflation. It is not exactly known how inflation could have started and whether the theory is correct, and what are the details of this inflation epoch. What is the hypothetical inflaton field which gave rise to inflation? If inflation happened at one point, is it self-sustaining through inflation of quantum-mechanical fluctuations, and thus ongoing in some extremely distant place?
The Duality of Time is in many respects similar to, but more realistic than, cosmic inflation, because it does not lead to any hypothetical multiverse as a result of eternal inflation. The perpetual re-creation of space and matter is like instantaneous inflation which happens on the metaphysical level before matter is composed in the outer time. As we shall see in section 9.18 below, this will also solve the horizon and flatness problems, which form the main motivations behind the inflationary scenario, as well as the magnetic monopole problem that we discussed in section 9.8.