Infinity: How it tore the math community apart and drove one man insane

In a world of finite math, surrounded by mathematicians who were finite thinkers, one man dared to dream big, infinitely big. In response to his brave ideas, legendary figures such as Poincaré and Kronecker condemned his work was a "grave disease that was infecting the minds of young mathematicians" and mocked him as a "charlatan" and a "corrupter of youth." (I'm not making this up. This really happened.)

While the mathers of the day were not yet ready for it and as he wrestled to maintain his sanity, the Catholic Church was embracing science and philosophy in—and I couldn't make this up—their fight against materialism and atheism. At a time when mathers didn't want to discuss his ideas, the Church feverishly debated his take on infinity as a potential threat to the uniqueness of God.

In my capstone talk at the University of Georgia, we follow history and counter some of the legacy of Georg Cantor from infinity to faith to madness.