Review
"Highly engaging. . . . [Barrow] brings his charm and wit to bear. . . . [He] introduces novel twists and turns, and presents [the] material in refreshing ways."-"Nature"
"Eloquent. . . . Succinct. . . . Barrow [has the] remarkable ability to provide clear, concise, engaging and distinctly finite explanations-even when describing some fairly advanced concepts. . . . [An] engaging read."-"San Francisco Chronicle"
"Clever and insightful. . . . [A] lively history of infinity through the ages."-"Entertainment Weekly"
"Entertaining. . . . Remarkably lucid and not the least mind-boggling. . . . His clear, engaging style manages to illuminate abstruse matters.... This is a useful guide to an endlessly fascinating subject." -"American Scientist"

"From the Trade Paperback edition."

Product Description
Infinity is surely the strangest idea that humans have ever thought. Where did it come from and what is it telling us about our Universe? Can there actually be infinities? Or is infinity just a label for something that is never reached, no matter how long you go on counting? Are infinities like numbers, with some bigger than others, and one infinity at the top, bigger than all the rest? Can you do an infinite number of things in a finite amount of time? Is the universe infinite? Is it infinitely old and will it continue to exist forever? Is matter infinitely divisible into ever-smaller pieces? But infinity is also the place where things happen that don't. All manner of strange paradoxes and fantasies characterise an infinite universe. If our Universe is infinite then an infinite number of exact copies of you are at this very moment reading an identical sentence on an identical planet somewhere else in the Universe. So 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 idea. 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.

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1.0 out of 5 stars A bishop in a labcoat..., 11 April 2008

By	Daniel (UK) - See all my reviews

I'm not in the business of writing scathing reviews of things just to pass the time, but this is by a wide margin the most flawed and frustrating book I have ever read in my life. The reviews on its cover would have you believe that "popular science doesn't get much better than this" (independent) , but as a mathematician and philosopher myself the only conclusion I can draw is that, in fact, underhanded theological sophists have found a new holy book. I was expecting at least a history of the intensely interesting mathematical study of infinity: But, as far as real mathematicians go, Barrow brings out the worst in the few great thinkers that are given any credence at all. Take the example of the brilliant mathematician Georg Cantor - his elegant ideas of countable and uncountable infinities and associated group and set theoretic proofs and paradoxes are subverted in favour of his later (and completely flawed) work setting out to prove the existence of god. Which he wrote whilst in a mental asylum. Add a smattering of deliberately vague theological jargon (enter st Augustine), and reference everything to people's ideas about god (as if opinion has the least thing to do with mathematics) and this is the most outright offensive book I've ever read. I feel like I've found an astrology book in the astronomy section. This is truly the Banksy of popular science - it looks breathtakingly clever to idiots, and idiots we will become if this is what passes for a science book these days. Dear oh dear. Avoid at all costs unless your religious wall with reality could do with a few more bricks.

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