Aei Thallon: You resist the word “collapse.” Why?
Fischer: Because it flatters us. It implies a moment, a before and an after, a photograph. Most of what actually ends does so on a timescale no one lives long enough to photograph.
Aei Thallon: So how would you know you were inside one?
Fischer: You wouldn’t, reliably. That is the uncomfortable part. You would notice that the ordinary repairs stopped working, and that no one could quite say when they had stopped.