Focus on Infinity

“Why is there something, rather than nothing?” wonders the Jesuit astronomer George Coyne, in the realization that science provides no explanation for the mystery of the existence of the universe. “As a human being, I’m made to seek meaning beyond the knowledge.” Focus on Infinity is a film essay that tackles weighty metaphysical questions without collapsing under the burden of them. Embedded in a sonorous soundscape, the serene imagery carries us off to various locations around the world where the gaze is turned towards an astronomic park in Chile, footprints of dinosaurs in Arizona, the conspiracy-laden air base Area 51 in Nevada, an astronomy center in Armenia and the observatory at Kremsmünster Abbey. Lyrical cinematography is punctuated by the thoughts of scientists such as the celebrated physicists Steven Weinberg and Lisa Randall, who explore questions such as “Is the universe mathematic?” and “Why is there an accelerating expansion of the universe?” And the conclusion they come to is that although we may be finding out more and more about the how – from atom to cosmos – there will never be an answer to the why. The last 10,000 years have seen an exponential growth in human knowledge, but in the same period of time there has been barely any development in our brains as we attempt to decipher the underlying connections.