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Imagine a point particle: it’s supposed to be zero-dimensional. Let’s represent it as a dot on a piece of paper. I realise that if you look with a magnifying glass, it does have dimensions but let’s not! Now then, experimental physics has shown us that a point particle doesn’t “live” in one place, or any place for that matter, but rather inhabits all possible places until it’s actually observed. To be able to do that, a point particle has to have some other properties.

First, let’s extend the point particle upwards, off the surface of the piece of paper. It now has one dimension. Let’s not make it too long, it can be the Planck Length upwards from the paper. That’ll do for now. (The creation of other point particles will extend the dimension for us).

Next thing is it can start to wiggle a bit. It’s not stuck on the paper any more. Then, let’s smear it sideways - it now becomes a two-dimensional sheet. It’s become a brane. Let’s now smear the brane in a direction perpendicular to the way it’s standing - it becomes three-dimensional, i.e. a three-brane. Let’s now move the three brane away from the point that everything started. Let’s call that direction time.

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Finally, in answer to the question, what caused the vibrations to start in the first place? Probably a random fluctuation in hyperspace which caused what we know as the Big Bang, although it’s also likely that it was the collision of two branes in hyperspace, due to gravitational oscillatory motion. It could also be due to a catastrophic phase transition in a previous Universe. It might have been started by someone in a lab in another universe. Possibly, a previous universe stretched flat and forgot how big it was, in which case it became small again and started to expand. Or, the observable universe became a bubble universe which expanded so far that the observable universe became a bubble universe etc etc…

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