> > (-: I think you're right on both counts. That sounds similar to an Anderson novella called "Tau Zero", and Pohl wrote a series about some aliens called the Heechee, who stepped outside of Time briefly in order to re-explode the monoblock (i.e., redo the Big Bang event)

Heh. The Big Bang Monoblock reminds me of what my young cousins have done in attempting to mash Duplo (those very large Lego building-blocks for small children).


> As another irrelevant aside, I think "re-explode the monoblock" is right up there with THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE as a hilariously cool phrase.

Yep. Brain Food physics for the Beginning, and also for the End -- it's only appropriate that we have RinkWorks to encompass the interminable duration betwixt the two.