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Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

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Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#61

Post by macando »

GabrieleR wrote: post #51
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…

I have tattooed the alefh itself - not the mitical point, but the Hebrew letter - becouse of that. Borges brought me to life throughout my adolescence. Much appreciation from Italy too, the argentino-ispancio translations to Italian suits Borges' writings sinuously.

I learned about Borges and Aleph from a comic. If you're Italian, you'll know.

https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads....

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#63

Post by gus_massa »

perihelions wrote: post #57
JoeDaDude wrote: post #12

It's been said that the maze-like library in "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco was inspired by the Library of Babel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose#:~:text=T... .

What's this syntax from? Is there a browser that implements it as a content-relative anchor? It looks convenient. #:~:text=

It's call "Text Fragments", and it was introduced to Chrome more than one year ago. https://github.com/WICG/scroll-to-text-fragment

I think it works in Chrome and Edge, but not in Firefox.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#64

Post by KingFelix »

jl6 wrote: post #39
willsoon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Lottery in Babylon is the same essential idea as the Library of Babel. The Lottery becomes so sophisticated, it becomes indistinguishable from the “random” events of reality, and therefore is there really any lottery at all?

He spoke on these topics a lot, similar to how Philip K Dick asks whats real anyway, using memories etc.

Borges has another story about a map that becomes indistinguishable to reality.

On Exactitude in Science (I believe its this one)

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#65

Post by mcguire »

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.

On the contrary, a random character string is meaningful in some conceivable language.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#66

Post by hangtwenty »

perihelions wrote: post #57
JoeDaDude wrote: post #12

It's been said that the maze-like library in "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco was inspired by the Library of Babel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose#:~:text=T... .

What's this syntax from? Is there a browser that implements it as a content-relative anchor? It looks convenient. #:~:text=

In a Chrome browser on desktop, you can right click and "Copy Link to Highlighted Text". That's the context (hah, pun) where I know it from. It's really useful!

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#67

Post by scarmig »

mcguire wrote: post #65
Izikiel43 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

On the contrary, a random character string is meaningful in some conceivable language.

All you need is a reference to the book that describes the grammar of that language.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#68

Post by a1369209993 »

jl6 wrote: post #38
jimothyhalpert7 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could also just find a book that tells you another way of getting out, no?

How would you tell the difference between that book and a similar book with a plausible but flawed escape plan? To paraphrase The Incredibles: when every book is there, no book is there.

How would you tell the difference between a book that has your life story in it and a similar book with inaccuracies in all the details you don't remember?

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#69

Post by BLKNSLVR »

KingFelix wrote: post #64
jl6 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Lottery in Babylon is the same essential idea as the Library of Babel. The Lottery becomes so sophisticated, it becomes indistinguishable from the “random” events of reality, and therefore is there really any lottery at all?

He spoke on these topics a lot, similar to how Philip K Dick asks whats real anyway, using memories etc. Borges has another story about a map that becomes indistinguishable to reality. On Exactitude in Science (I believe its this one)

The map that exactly covers the territory it is mapping. I love what that little snippet of story does to my understanding of the 'world in general' (my personal mental map).

... In that empire, the art of Cartography reached such perfection that the map of a single province occupied the whole of a city, and the map of th empire took up an entire province. With time, those exaggerated maps no longer satisfied, and the Colleges of Cartographers came up with a map of the empire that had the size of the empire itself, and coincided with it point by point. Less addicted to the study of Cartography, succeeding generations understood that this extended map was useless, and without compassion, they abandoned it to the inclemencies of the sun and of the winters. In the deserts of the west, there remain tattered fragments of the map, inhabited by animals and beggars; in the whole country there are no other relics of the geographical disciplines.

The universe could well be a simulation ... of its exact self.

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