  The leading account of several salient observable features of our universe
today is provided by the theory of cosmic inflation. But an important and thus
far intractable question is whether inflation is generic, or whether it is
finely tuned---requiring very precisely specified initial conditions. In this
paper I argue that a recent, model-independent characterization of inflation,
known as the 'effective field theory (EFT) of inflation', promises to address
this question in a thoroughly modern and significantly more comprehensive way
than in the existing literature.
  To motivate and provide context for this claim, I distill three core problems
with the theory of inflation, which I dub the permissiveness problem, the
initial conditions problem, and the multiverse problem. I argue that the
initial conditions problem lies within the scope of EFTs of inflation as they
are currently conceived, whereas the other two problems remain largely
intractable: their solution must await a more complete description of the very
early universe. I highlight recent work that addresses the initial conditions
problem within the context of a dynamical systems analysis of a specific
(state-of-the-art) EFT of inflation, and conclude with a roadmap for how such
work might be extended to realize the promise claimed above.
