The Multiverse Has 11 Dimensions. The idea of our universe being a bubble floating in 11-d space (NB we are “trapped” on the surface of the expanding bubble) and occasionally bumping into others or splitting does help with the big bang problem. If the big bang is a standard event in 11-d space but looks odd for us in 3-d (singularities and the like) then that’s fine. It does push the “but why is it here at all” question back to the multiverse, rather than our universe, though.

Secondly, the idea of the cosmic music as the vibration of all of these bubbles and particles in the strings and membranes is rather lovely.