Is There a Copy of You?

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The probability of finding a Sean is very low, but actually the difference between the number of possibilities and a Google Plex is so large that your chances of overwhelming those probabilities become. So you estimate the typical distance to your doppelganger. And it's, I think the number I have is 10 to the 10 to the 68 meters is roughly the distance you might estimate. Would it be weird for me to say that doesn't seem that far? I would have guessed it was larger.

It’s a big universe we live in, so it comes as no surprise that big numbers are needed to describe it. There are roughly 10^22 stars in the observable universe, and about 10^88 particles altogether. But these numbers are nothing compared to some of the truly ginormous quantities that mathematicians have found to talk about, with inscrutable names like Graham’s Number and TREE(3). Could such immense numbers have any meaningful relationship with the physical world? In his recent book Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, theoretical physicist Antonio Padilla explores both our actual universe and the abstract world of immense numbers, and finds surprising connections between them.

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Antonio (Tony) Padilla received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Durham. He is currently a Royal Society Research Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham. He is a frequent contributor to the YouTube series Sixty Symbols and Numberphile.

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