Borges: Library of Babel/summary and analysis

This is one of the greatest stories from one of the greatest writers!!
Kind of you to mention our video on it 🙏
I’m certain I should rate this story out of six. I Gettier most of your jokes.

maybe stop hitting the desk as you do your video. thump thump thump

You rock man

It's Like Kabalah

Library of Babel is nothing more or less than a encryption algorithm with indexing perceived in revers.

Lots to think about, but I haven't read this book. I'll have to read it and come back and watch your video again. The books are in order and then repeat, again in order, but who's order? Borges' order? Is this an author whose mind I want to be in? Great review. It sounds as though the book is thought provoking.

My brain is fried, also I am going to watch your videos every time I feel sad because they're the best :D

babel-icious

So... it all comes back down to human beings being insecure. We want to be able to think we can know it all and control it all in order to create a false purpose for our existence. Leastways, that's how I see it. I really don't do well with thought experiments, I already spend too much time thinking about non-complex things. Therefore, thank you, friend, for taking up the task!

I miss all the little animated ducks in your first videos and the claymation😀

What I don’t understand the most about this story is how in god’s name did Borges think of it. Absolutely mind blowing!

This reminds me of one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes😁

🧠😍

I honestly can't decide if I find it more baffling that someone could come up with this or that you can actually understand it. Don't get me wrong the 5% of this that I can comprehend sounds interesting but I just don't think my brain is wired to wrap itself around a concept like this. Sometimes I wonder how different our two realities are due to the way we think about the world. It's probably a much simpler place to me haha.

Very nice 👍

Wow, what a fascinating story. I have never heard of Borges but I will definitely be picking up the Library of Babel up soon! Even if it may take me a long time to understand, lol.

if the whole world were a library what an amzing thing that would be, we would all be smart,,,, that is how i assume.

I guess you’d have to draw the line somewhere or the parameters would be too great, but only only 25? No special characters? The psychic damage done by WingDings would annihilate Borges lol 😋

Great analysis of the story, Pae.
Happy to see you back.

Hi, I enjoyed your exploration of this short story - I find this story invites speculation about knowledge, meaning and our perception of them even without philosophical background, so it was nice to gain more insight into concrete ideas and theories the author had in mind. Thank you🙂
Marginally related, I think you might enjoy Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Truth by Terry Pratchett - they differ in approach (much 'lighter') but deal with similar topics and themes.

Fabulous, as always. Glad you are back among us. The futile search for meaning... yes...

So freaking good! I cannot wait for the next video. This is one of my all time favorite short stories. Its funny, because next weeks book review on my channel is on A Short Stay In Hell which is this story come to life as one mans personal hell. Your insight here was fantastic!

I just read the story and oh there is so much to say here, but I won’t blow up the comments to much 😂 However, every study session may start lasting until sunrise at this rate. Just like the staircase, it never ends hahaha 😵‍💫🤣 and oh jeez! Justified truth, I remember talking about this! Hahaha the coins 😂

Okay, so I’ll speak to one point that I thought about. The duplication in the mirror, maybe it is representative of what he’s trying to say about the hexagons being the same. The hexagons all look identical, but open each book and they are not. We look identical in the mirror, but we are not what is in the mirror. So even though it looks like there could be a definite understanding of the library found, there cannot be because of it’s infinity that lies beyond what is seen at first glance, or maybe in the moment. My thinking is, if the library is infinite, that can be the only truth, the characters and words and symbols translated are only discoveries. Then the process of these discoveries is knowing the truth, knowing being an action and truth being infinity. (This is getting too long and if I don’t stop here I won’t haha. I am relating it to chapter 2 for another example to study. 😂)

Also, “It is incomprehensible.” Immediately made me think of historicity and there is also so much to say there. I think even if we could translate the texts, could we really be historically accurate unless we were there in the moment to see the letters and symbols being written? 🙃 Okay I’m done here, but not really hahaha

Amazing. “The concept of mind” sounds very interesting. And definitely a book that was written with you in mind as the perfect reader! 😅👋🏼

You’re so awesome Pae, and your videos are a delightful mixture of insight and wit that is beyond rare. The way you said “universe” toward the start made me burst out laughing, as I laughed again with “Well, that answers that.” The line “Outside filling a spot” was also golden—I just love you. I’m going to be quoting your line that “We have to know a lot to know anything”—that perfectly captures “a major epistemological problem” (thanks also for the kind shoutout to The Conflict of Mind—that means a lot). “Temporarily Justified Knowledge” is also a great phrase. I’ll certainly be sharing this: I love Borges and you did him justice! Applause all around! (And can I trade you ten coins for a sheep in a field that's actually a robot dressed like a sheep, which is actually a person dressed like a robot dressed like a sheep...You can just have the coins...)

I like the A! mug. This discussion reminded me how I'd love to travel back in time to read some of the lost ancient texts, but I wouldn't be able to actually read them because of the language barrier. I suppose I could pay someone to translate it for me, if I could steal something and bring it back to the current time, but then the text wouldn't have been available (to be used or destroyed) in the original timeline and, with MCU time travel logic, I'd end up going forward into an alternate timeline reality in which the Butterfly Effect might have caused all kinds of shenanigans... besides, why should I trust some random translator? What if, by sheer cosmic coincidence, the translator I pick is part of a secret society hellbent on keeping the ancient secrets from being revealed to the rest of the world? Now I'm just "Babel"-ing...

An infinite library would be heaven! 🙂 This makes me want to revisit Borges. I read somewhere Borges was influenced by Schopenhauer, referring to him as one who "perhaps deciphered the universe," which I guess is either interesting or depressing, depending on one's POV. 😀

Wow, this was so interesting! I loved how you applied the certainty quote and consensus bias to your analysis of this book. When you were describing consensus bias, I immediately had the image of everyone speeding in traffic because there seems to be an unsaid consensus that speed limit signs are suggestions 😆. The circular-order-loop-point boggles my mind. This book sounds too smart for me, and I loved hearing your thoughts on it! 😁

Gotta get you down here to California to tour the haunted Winchester House. Not as big as an infinite library but its HUGE and haunted and real.😀

I had heard of this one, but it never caught my interest ……… until now!!!!!! 😎 Great summary and exploration !

i need to read this story apparently! as always an awesome video!

Great to see you back Pae. I’ve never read this book but the library described sounds fascinating. 😊💙

Excellent review of the Library of Babel. I sort of say I DNFd it years ago, because though I read the full story, one of the translations of course, I mostly checked out for the 2nd half...more my fault than anything. Hearing your synopsis and analysis, I am going to go back to it and pay attention this time. Great video PV

When you mentioned a library universe my fantasy author brain started going in a VERY different direction from where this video went hahaha and part of it still may be running off in that direction (it's hard to stop sometimes).
I do absolutely love the blending of the fantastical, philosophical and mathematical here. I've gone and printed these writings out to break my brain a little with this evening since I have some rare time off. Seems like the right way to spend it :P thank you!

I just love reading books that fall into a labyrinth of confusion. LoL 🤣
Sorry off topic, but...
I'm digging Your lamp.
Also T Rex. Shows how My mind is working...buzzing about.
This actually sounds interesting.
Certainly there is No Certainty.
Great Video 👍😁👍

Beautiful, with lots of subtle flourishes like the quick Gettier reference for JTB! On a lighter note: I loved how, precisely when you referred to Borges's meticulous method, you showed a photo of him relaxing on an armchair in an irresponsible posture next to a cat who is equally relaxed and irresponsible.

I'm a spendidly inaccurate picturer of author's architecture descriptions (I'd pictured Prospero's Red Death chambers as less a compartmentalized grid than a pie chart with broken zigzags dividing it). So I'm glad more imaginative artists took a crack at drawing the library and pre-emptively corrected my assumptions. I'd've totally prictured a chemical symbol and reckoned it was an inside joke for biology majors.