Infinity: Does it exist? Mathematically, naturally: in theory you can always continue counting – forever. You can always add one to any number, indefinitely, or multiply it by any number. To express large numbers, we can say ten raised to the power of nine for one billion (one followed by nine zeros); ten raised to the power of one hundred is called a googol (one followed by one hundred zeros), and ten raised to the power of a googol is called a googolplex (a number so large it cannot be written down). But a recent BBC Horizon installment goes beyond the possibility of numerical infinity. Its actual existence, its reality beyond mathematics. A mind boggling matter. Is infinity an invention of the human mind? Abstract nonsense, if you will. Philosophically, infinity is close to divinity. God cannot be finite, cannot be proven to exist. It’s a matter of faith. You have to believe in divinity. But does it enhance your life to believe infinity is real?
If infinity is possible, then anything is possible – even as unlikely as a monkey typing the complete works of Shakespeare. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” (Romeo & Juliette II:2, 133-135) How unlikely is it? It’s one in 10 with nine million zeros!
Is the universe infinite, and if so, are there an infinite number of parallel universes, too? Is time eternal? Is it cosmologically possible for the universe to be infinite and eternal? Or, to put it differently, if space and time were finite, what’s beyond? If the universe is infinite, there would be an infinite number of planets like earth, with an infinite number of individuals just like you and me. How insignificant does that make us? And the nearest exact copy of us is only two to the power of ten to the power of 118 meters away... Naturally, when speaking about the cosmos, we end up talking about the Big Bang, about the inflation theory of the universe, and before we know it, we hear about the logical conclusion that there are infinitely many infinite universes, infinitely expanding... I hope that, like me, you feel that this isn’t making any intuitive sense. It’s baffling, but infinitely fascinating!
If infinity is possible, then anything is possible – even as unlikely as a monkey typing the complete works of Shakespeare. “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep; the more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.” (Romeo & Juliette II:2, 133-135) How unlikely is it? It’s one in 10 with nine million zeros!
Is the universe infinite, and if so, are there an infinite number of parallel universes, too? Is time eternal? Is it cosmologically possible for the universe to be infinite and eternal? Or, to put it differently, if space and time were finite, what’s beyond? If the universe is infinite, there would be an infinite number of planets like earth, with an infinite number of individuals just like you and me. How insignificant does that make us? And the nearest exact copy of us is only two to the power of ten to the power of 118 meters away... Naturally, when speaking about the cosmos, we end up talking about the Big Bang, about the inflation theory of the universe, and before we know it, we hear about the logical conclusion that there are infinitely many infinite universes, infinitely expanding... I hope that, like me, you feel that this isn’t making any intuitive sense. It’s baffling, but infinitely fascinating! 
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