by Elton Gahr

Created on: October 07, 2009

Infinity is something that the human mind can not really comprehend. The idea of infinite dimensions is even more difficult. If they really do exist then there are infinite versions of yourself, but that word is simply too impossible to understand because you can cut the infinite pie as many times as you want and it is still infinite.

"Like Minds" by Robert Reed is the story of a young man, or an infinite group of young men who are all the same man and a place where they can go to exchange ideas and thoughts.

This place is very simple. It is a sort of connection between the worlds. If you bring three things about your life then you can ask to see three things about some other life. And the choice is up to you what three things that is because the choices are infinite.

This is where we begin to see some of the power of infinity, as the author explains things like, your parents don't have to be your parents. In an infinite number of worlds your genetic makeup could have been the result of an infinite number of people. The odds are absurdly high but so long as they are not zero in infinity it will happen.

In addition to this you can get records of yourself in any number of other times or strange situations. There are worlds where the character is considered a god, others where he is the last man on earth, or the first, where aliens rule the world and he was created as an experiment or where cloning is so common that there are thousands of versions of him.

Most of the exchanges turn out to be of the more voyeuristic type. Men looking at fantasy lives that they wish they had or are glad they do not have.

There is considerably more to the story of "Like Minds" than simply the idea of infinity, but it is at the heart of this story. A young man who is searching through other lives, and though he doesn't know that he is looking for something it becomes more clear with each exchange that he is. He knows that what he gives the man isn't all that important, but he also knows that the things the machine gives him isn't random. With infinite choices the computer is trying to lead him to something and what that is is a very interesting idea and makes this story worth reading.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.