Desktop Diary

This video from Sciencefriday.com displays the habitat of Dr. Brian Greene, author of The Hidden Reality. He is a new hero of mine.

The concept of infinity has always frightened me a little. The thought of numbers so big they are impossible to ever count has caused me to look at my limitations as a human on numerous occasions. One time after I had my appendix removed, I remember lying in the hospital bed crying for my mother because I had had a bad morphine dream. The dream was of the upper half of my body being smothered by a planet that was growing infinitely out of control. My legs were sticking out the bottom with an orb of infinite size squeezing the life from my upper half. It was horrifying.

Anyway. Brian Greene does a wonderful job in his book of laying out the concept of an infinite universe. He almost makes infinity seem comforting in a way. If the universe is indeed infinite, then there should be an infinite number of configurations of particles and that said, there is another person on another earth in another solar system out there who is exactly like me, who is dropping his first post on John Paine's Ghost. That makes the universe seem less lonely.

With a strong recommendation snag a copy.