Heaven squared

Two weeks ago, I reminded you that as we hit the home stretch for Tales of the Vuduri, I won't have time to truly flesh out all the Big Ideas I had for the novel The Milk Run. Instead, I am presenting some capsule summaries of the motivation behind a subset of those ideas. Today I wanted to cover the topic of infinity. When you consider the cosmos, and if you believe in the Big Bang, you have to ask what came before and what comes after the universe dies? How can there be exactly one time for the existence of matter? Why would it spontaneously appear?

Or assume that our universe is just an incredible computer simulation of a super-advanced civilization with technology beyond comprehension. Doesn't that imply that they then must be a computer simulation of a yet more super-advanced civilization and so on. Some day we'll create our own computer simulation of the universe so the stack gets deeper. The point is, everything must go to infinity in time and in space. To postulate exactly one of anything makes no sense. Everything has to be eternal. Our universe has to be just one of many, like an atom, and there are universes built of universes and universes built of those universes. Eternity. Infinity. Our minds are simply too limited to comprehend. Consider Rome's explanation to OMCOM at the end of The Milk Run:

     “Aason told me that our universe is not all that there is,” Rome said knowingly, “Just as we are made of particles too small to see, so too, our universe, everything we perceive, is but a particle of something greater, a hyper-universe, Aason didn’t really have a name for it. Whatever it is, it encompasses all that we are and an infinity more. OMCOM, surely you could have deduced this. The place you call Heaven is just one of an uncountable number that sit somewhere in between all of these other universes. It’s not infinity times two. It isn’t even infinity squared. It is infinity to the infinite power.”
     “Then, then,” OMCOM actually stammered appearing to be momentarily confused by the influx of information. “I can never know all of it. I am doomed to fail.”
     “You won’t fail,” Rome said kindly. “You can know our entire universe if you let it die. After every atom has stopped its motion, there will be no more information to be had. You will have all of eternity to do your job secure in the knowledge that there will be a finite end to the data you must compile. To reach beyond that would be impossible for anyone or anything.”
     OMCOM started to speak and then stopped. He looked off into the distance. After a moment, he turned back to Rome.
     “The gods never told me any of this,” OMCOM said quietly. “Who created this hyper-universe? This infinity of infinities?”
     “It was created by God with a capital G,” Rome replied.
     “You are talking about Species Zero Prime?” OMCOM inquired. “You are saying it is responsible for all things?”
     “Wait! What?” Rei coughed, trying to speak, “God is just a species? Species Zero Prime?” He stopped as his mind tried to grasp the gravity of his own words.
     “No,” Rome answered patiently. “Species Zero Prime only extends to our universe. The one true God is beyond all things. God is not a species. He is not the end result of evolution. He has no beginning. He has no end. He is responsible for all of creation and the manifestations of His glory are reflected in our universe and the next and the next and the next.”
     By now, Rei had recovered enough to speak again. “I didn’t think the Vuduri even believed in God,” he stated.
     “This is not belief,” Rome said, her eyes glistening. “This information was passed on to Aason by his brief contact with a power beyond knowing.”
     Rei rubbed his chin. “Yeah,” he said. “From an engineering perspective, it’s the only thing that makes sense. Like looking at mirror within a mirror except this is an infinity of infinities.”

So there you have it. There is no beginning, there is no end. Our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes, like Russian stacking dolls. So we don't have to worry about what comes after the end or what came before the beginning. There are simply no answers to those questions because they are based upon faulty reasoning.