Book description
Infinity is surely the strangest idea that humans have ever had.
Where did it come from and what is it telling us about our Universe?
Can there actually be infinities? Can you do an infinite number of
things in a finite amount of time? Is the Universe infinite?
Infinity is also the place where things happen that don't. What is
it like to live in a Universe where nothing is original, where you can
live forever, where anything that can be done, is done, over
and over again?
These are some of the deep questions that the idea of the infinite
pushes us to ask. Throughout history, the infinite has been a
dangerous concept. Many have lost their lives, their careers, or their
freedom for talking about it. The Infinite Book will take you
on a tour of these dangerous questions and the strange answers that
scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and theologians have come up
with to deal with its threats to our sanity.
John D. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of
the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge University, Fellow of
Clare Hall, Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the current
Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London. His principal
area of scientific research is cosmology, and he is the author of many
highly acclaimed books about the nature and significance of modern
developments in physics, astronomy, and mathematics, including
The
Origin of the Universe,
The Universe that Discovered Itself
;
The Book of Nothing,
The Constants of Nature,
The Infinite Book: a Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
,
The Artful Universe Expanded,
New Theories of Everything,
Cosmic Imagery
and, most recently,
The Book of Universes
.
