"If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." - Isaac Newton; On Infinity

Grand Unified Theory refers to a 'theory of everything', an equation which can describe our entire universe. It sounds like a lot of fancy maths but it's surprisingly intuitive - anyone whose taken a physics course should be able to understand at the very least what it hints at; imagine a basic equation of displacement, which describes distance traveled as the rate or speed of motion multiplied by the length of time traveled. It's pretty straightforward way of relating three factors (rate, speed, and displacement). Off of that single equation, we can explore other laws of motion - the rate at which velocity changes is described as acceleration, the acceleration of an object can be related to the force that it carries and that force can be related to some amount of energy. Our world is governed by these equations, physical laws that form the 'rules' of our universe. Grand Unified Theory is simply a super big equation that encompasses everything, two sides of an '=' sign that explain everything from inertia, to subatomic forces, to electric and magnetic fields, to black holes and string theory. It's pretty cool when you think about it.

'Infinity' explores the same idea, at least on a thematic level. Throughout the entire novel, Abdul Karim studies the world around him through mathematics, but not through the math that we tend to think of. His world of mathematics is much more than just interactions between numbers, but a theoretical plane of natural laws and logic; his idea of infinity, a transcendental, omniscient concept that exists at all levels of reality - both physical and theoretical - is a medium through which he reconciles these two worlds.

"He learns that the distribution of energy level spacings of excited uranium nuclei seem to match the distribution of spacings between prime numbers."

Our world is rife with examples of these mysterious 'coincidences'; the fibonacci sequence is a more commonly understood one. In essence, 'Infinity' presents mathematics and mathematical logic as an emergent property of our physical world - in other words, everything can be explained through the equations and concepts that he explores (this is where Grand Unified Theory comes in). It's an interesting lens which almost has a reductive function - if everything can be explained through mathematical concepts, then what of the idea of humanity, or more precisely, of human nature? Our cultures, emotions, and ideas, can they all be explained by something as mundane as a physics equation? A squiggly side ways '8' figure? Deep stuff.

Anyhow, you'll notice that this blog post doesn't explore the story as a literary piece as much a science-y one - this is intentional, and I think it speaks to the 'science fiction' aspect of this class; 'Infinity' spoke to me much more as an exploration of theoretical physics and maths than it did a literary piece, which was awesome!