Googolplexes, infinity and beyond...

I've had to come upstairs to bed to rest my head. I'd just enjoyed an episode of America's Next Top Model (don't judge me!) and then to instil a sense of balance into my viewing, I started watching the Horizon documentary which explored the troubling concept of infinity. I lasted ten minutes and then fled from the television, chased away by the mindblowing horror of a googolplex. My head is seriously woolly from being at a critical appraisal course all day - I am dazed by confidence intervals, P-values and absolute risk ratios and the googolplex has sent me over the edge. How can a number be too big to be written out because there isn't enough space in the universe?? *cries*


It took me back to an earlier time. My little sister used to drive me crazy when we were small, asking me 'why does the universe never end?', usually when we were supposed to be going to sleep and she had tired of lighting up the bedroom for the googolplexth time with her annoying GloWorm. The only way to get her to stop was to leap upon her and thump her hard until she begged for mercy. Once we had grown up to be mature and reasonable sisters, the taxing questions stopped and I stopped thumping her.

Sadly, it appears that the fascination for this type of question has passed onto her nephew, as O is also fond of the infinity-based question and is always trying to ascertain what the largest ever number is and what is beyond the edge of the universe and how can the universe never end and how long would it take to fly to Jupiter....and on and on and on...

I try my best to answer, but can feel the edges of my brain frying as I too wrestle with these big questions. I wonder, would it be too cruel to subject his five year old brain to the concept of the googolplex or should I blow his mind with the power of this savage number? Perhaps it would give me breathing space. Alternatively, I could just send him round to Auntie K's house with his list of questions and exact a sweet revenge...