> The Consolation of Haldane depends, though, on what kind of universe we live in, and maybe on such arcana as whether there's enough matter eventually to reverse the expansion of the universe, and the character of vacuum fluctuations. Those with a deep longing for life after death might, it seems, devote themselves to cosmology, quantum gravity, elementary particle physics, and, especially, transfinite arithmetic.
-- Carl Sagan, Demon Haunted World
Sagan does not agree with Haldane, but I think "why not?"
I don't understand this. I looked up Haldane and found several scientist by that name but could figure out which one this refers to. Search for "Consolation of Haldane" returns nothing. I looked up transfinite arithmetic but it was way beyond my understanding.
Is there a nutshell explanation of this available without reading Sagan's book and learning advanced set theory?
It sounds interesting, but I really have no ideas what it is.
