Mathematicians Discover a Strange New Infinity

Mathematicians have just discovered a new infinity, one that doesn’t follow any of the rules of mathematics. It’s so strange, it could change how we understand logic, numbers, and even the universe itself. In this video, University of Oxford physicist Abi James (@popculturescientist) takes us on a tour of the infinity ladder, a rung-by-rung guide to the largest numbers possible. And even finds those mathematicians who want to destroy infinity altogether. – Learn more ➤ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2489813-why-mathematicians-want-to-destroy-infinity-and-may-succeed/ Subscribe ➤ https://bit.ly/NSYTSUBS Get more from New Scientist: Official website: https://bit.ly/NSYTHP Facebook: https://bit.ly/NSYTFB Twitter: https://bit.ly/NSYTTW Instagram: https://bit.ly/NSYTINSTA LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/NSYTLIN About New Scientist: New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human. New Scientist https://www.newscientist.com/ 00:00 Introduction 01:38 Hilbert's infinite hotel 06:17 What is infinity? 08:29 The infinity ladder 11:57 Exacting and ultra-exacting cardinals 13:13 Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory 15:33 The Hereditarily Ordinal Definable (HOD) conjecture 16:46 The ultrafinitists. 19:59 Is the universe finite?