There has been surreal art, surreal films, surreal literature, and even surreal video games. But surreal mathematics? Surely not.
If there is one subject we can depend upon for set rules, proven formulae and an established order of things, it is maths.
Not so, say proponents of the surreal number theory, such as Professor Martin David Kruskal of Rutgers University in the United States.
Professor Kruskal, a National Medallist of Science and renowned mathematician, recently addressed a group of around 100 students and academics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on the topic, 'Surreal Numbers: Bigger, Better, Bolder, yet more Basic'.
Surreal numbers are an entirely new number system that comprises all the natural numbers, negative numbers, fractions, rational numbers, irrational numbers and real numbers.
Yet the surreal number system extends even further. It includes many different sizes of infinities as well as infinitesimals, minuscule numbers that are tinier than the smallest fraction.
The system was invented by John Conway, a mathematician noted for his research in the field of game theory. He was trying to understand the immensely complex Japanese board game, Go, played with stones on a grid, when he discovered that the game was essentially made up of several smaller games.