This article now addresses the cosmic microwave background (addressing clumpiness and temperature concerns preventing its dissociation from the big bang). Cosmic inflation is the exponential expansion of space in the early universe. The inflationary epoch lasted from 10^−36 seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10^−33 and 10^−32 seconds. Following the inflationary period, the universe continues to expand, but at a less accelerated rate. The inflationary hypothesis was developed in the 1980s by physicists Alan Guth and Andrei Linde. It says that, when viewed at scales of billions of light years, the universe is unified to near-uniform temperature and curvature by the whole cosmos having once been small enough for everything to be in contact, then undergoing extremely rapid expansion from a big bang during a period called inflation. If the Big Bang never happened, would the theory of inflation be needed for any reason? Personally, I don't believe the Big Bang happened – and this is why the world doesn’t need any Big Bang(s) or inflation.