In the course of this process, an almost infinite number of separate bubble universes were created, ours being just one. According to Linde and others, all the so-called fundamental constants of physics randomly took on different values in different bubble universes. That would include the gravitational constant, the cosmological constant, the strong and weak forces, etc. In quantum theory, meanwhile, elementary particles do turn out to be largely relational. An interesting side question is why physicists have become partial to inflation and the many universe theory.
All cosmologists now agree that our universe has a history, an unfolding.
So, contrary to what Sokal says orally, it is highly appropriate for him to have written that physicists themselves at the moment are offering us a less absolute position in the scheme of things. If Copernicus decentered us by demonstrating that the earth revolves around the sun, if we were further decentered by discovering the earth's marginal place in the galaxy, then inflation further decenters our position by locating us now in a marginal universe. Postmodernists may well take comfort in this and find it liberating. I, myself, find the many universe theory a ghastly prospect, and take my own comfort in the theoretical and empirical difficulties it has been encountering. Aside from such weaknesses, I was very amused by Sokal's stunt.