  The "bubble universes" of Coleman and De Luccia play a crucial role in string
cosmology. Since our own Universe is supposed to be of this kind, bubble
cosmology should supply definite answers to the long-standing questions
regarding cosmological initial conditions. In particular, it must explain how
an initial singularity is avoided, and also how the initial conditions for
Inflation were established. We argue that the simplest non-anthropic approach
to these problems involves a requirement that the spatial sections defined by
distinguished bubble observers should not be allowed to have arbitrarily small
volumes. Casimir energy is a popular candidate for a quantum effect which can
ensure this, but [because it violates energy conditions] there is a danger that
it could lead to non-perturbative instabilities in string theory. We make a
simple proposal for the initial conditions of a bubble universe, and show that
our proposal ensures that the system is non-perturbatively stable. Thus,
low-entropy conditions can be established at the beginning of a bubble universe
without violating the Second Law of thermodynamics and without leading to
instability in string theory. These conditions are inherited from the ambient
spacetime.
