The Grand Hotel Infini is closed tonight

Corrado Nai

The Grand Hotel Infini is closed tonight
Yes, sir. I’m the manager, a bit weary,
David Hilbert. Occupancy is finite.
Any night but the sixth of January
You could actually count infinite guests
But tonight, we mourn our late dignitary
Georg Cantor, he who bore transfinite sets
And saw after aleph zero

The Science

This poem pays tribute to Georg Cantor (1845-1918), who developed the concept of infinity in mathematics but faced harsh criticism from his colleagues. An exception was influential mathematician and philosopher David Hilbert (1862-1943), who invented the paradox of the Grand Hotel to illustrate and build upon Cantor’s work. Cantor’s theory of transfinite sets explains, counterintuitively, that some infinites are “countable” and smaller than other infinites. He called the “smallest infinite” aleph zero. Amidst pushbacks from his peers, Cantor experienced mental breakdowns and died a lonely death on 6 January 1918.

The Poet

Corrado Nai likes to tell stories of science underdogs. He’s a science writer with a PhD in microbiology and has written for New Scientist, Smithsonian Magazine, Asimov Press, Small Things Considered, and many more. He’s currently writing and producing a graphic novel about the introduction of agar to science and medicine by unsung pioneer Fanny Angelina Hesse (1850-1934), which can be followed and supported through Patreon at www.patreon.com/corradonai.

Next poem: The Telescope by Keith Melton