(1983), and Vilenkin (1983) who, while formulating the problem in Euclidean path integral terms, opened the question on the boundary conditions of the universe.

These three directions in cosmology initiated by Misner and his collaborators in the early seventies –chaotic cosmology, dissipative processes and minisuperspace quantum cosmology– have developed in major proportions in the past two decades. A lot of current research work in these areas still carry the clear imprint of his influence. The present authors have had the good fortune to be influenced by his way of thinking. We want to trace out some major developments since Misner wrote these seminal papers and describe the current issues in these areas, with more emphasis on their interconnections from early universe quantum processes to quantum cosmology.

Particle Creation as a Quantum Dissipative Process
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Misner (1968) and Matzner and Misner (1972) showed that neutrino viscosity in the lepton era ($ \approx 1 sec$ from the Big Bang) is in general not strong enough to dissipate away the shear in the Bianchi universes. It was Zel’dovich (1970) who first suggested that vacuum particle creation from the changing gravitational field in anisotropic spacetimes may act as a powerful dissipative source. This created 