Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

Post by libraryofbabel » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 5:11 PM UTC

Izikiel43 wrote: post #27

lapetitejort wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the story, each book has: * 410 pages * 40 lines per page * 80 characters per line * Not included: The characters on the front cover, maybe 15 on average? There are 25 symbols. So there are 25^(410*40*80) possible books, which comes out to ~10^1834097 books. Sufficed to say, the library could hold numerous universes.

That's most likely an upper limit, as random character strings are not necessarily language.

Post by libraryofbabel » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

Post by ColinWright » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

fmlp wrote: post #19

ballenf wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Riemann's hypothesis, if true, is proven in an infinite number of ways in the library. But the library also contains an infinite number of flawed attempted proofs.

And JLB would add: and an infinite number of refutations of each of that proofs.

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 5:36 PM UTC

fmlp wrote: post #18

macando wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I emerged into a kind of small plaza — a courtyard might better describe it. It was surrounded by a single building, of irregular angles and varying heights. It was to this heterogeneous building that the many cupolas and columns belonged. More than any other feature of that incredible monument, I was arrested by the great antiquity of its construction. I felt that it had existed before humankind, before the world it…

Emergí a una suerte de plazoleta; mejor dicho, de patio. Lo rodeaba un solo edificio de forma irregular y altura variable; a ese edificio heterogéneo pertenecían las diversas cúpulas y columnas. Antes que ningún otro rasgo de ese monumento increíble, me suspendió lo antiquísimo de su fábrica. Sentí que era anterior a los hombres, anterior a la tierra. Esa notoria antigüedad (aunque terrible de algún modo para los ojo…

Post by jl6 » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

willsoon wrote: post #25

dpflan wrote: post #24

Many great stories to chose from: I found the Lottery of Babylon to be a great story on randomness in life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_in_Babylon

Like many other Borges' stories they reach a point where it is no other thing but a different way to tell about the world. The Lottery finds that deliver money it's not enough, it will deliver joy, pain, enlightenment, suffering, tragedy and hapiness too. So one bought a ticket not just to gain some gold, but to play.