it was the sort of question that kept him awake at night as a child , years rolling back and doubling numbers in his head128 , 256 , 512 , 1014 , 2028years themselves , past and future , one at least he hoped to see , others he could imagine4056 , and the earth is no more , cut open and stretched flat so as to afford two sides , new continents underneath with names like atlantis and hades , lands created by man and machine , a whole other world where happened strange things to gravity colours swarmed behind his eyelids , myriad tiny dots composing a blackness not total , photons trapped and rebounding .