WEBVTT - From the Vault: Library of Babel 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.440 Hey, you welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.600 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday. 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:12.800 Time to venture into the vault. But appears that this 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.440 time the vault is pretty much infinite. That's right, we 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.240 may get lost in there. This is our episode on 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:23.120 the Library of Babel. This originally aired Tuesday, August second, 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.239 and this is one of my favorite episodes we ever did. Yeah, 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.600 we get to talk about infinity, we get to talk 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.360 about Bogyes, we get to talk a little bit. Uh. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.720 I think I end up referencing, uh, the Name of 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.360 the Rose by m Berto Eco, which is timely because 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:42.680 I just found out that they are producing another adaptation 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:44.479 of the Name of the Rose. It's going to be 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.680 like an eight part TV movie with John to Truro 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:51.400 starring as William of Baskerville. Yeah. I thought you were 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.120 going to say that a grown up Christian Slater would 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.800 now be That would make perfect sense in a way, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:02.120 but not in any acting sense. I think here's my recast. Okay, 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:05.040 Burt Reynolds, that's Baskerville. What do you think he's too old? 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.960 You'd have to play brother Jr. Hey, Okay, well, anyway, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.959 this is the Library of Babel episode. Let's go straight 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:19.839 into Oh Time Ny Pyramids. Welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:34.400 Your Mind from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, Hello, 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:36.880 this is Stuff to Blow Your Mind audiologue. This is 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.360 Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. This is day 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.600 of our descent into the famed Library of Babel. We've 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:49.320 been exploring this infinite sprawl of interconnected hexagonal rooms and 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:53.160 the twenty bookshelves contained with eat each one, Joe, how 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.960 many rooms have we explored since last log entry? Oh, 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:58.040 let me find it here. Let's see. Well, we're up 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.640 to a hundred and twelve in that brings the grand 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.640 total of rooms we have explored to date up to 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.560 one thousand, five hundred and sixty one. And of course 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:10.040 that is not counting the rooms to the library that 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.080 we could tell had already been explored. So we just 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.720 skipped over with books pulled out all over the place, 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.359 or some just had empty shelves, smoke lines on the ceiling, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.240 and these ancient piles of cold black coal in the 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.679 middle of the floor we can presume from some long 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.480 ago book burnings. Yeah, that's right. The I mean that 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:31.800 the library is at least indefinite, if not infinite. So 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.960 it falls to inquisitors such as ourselves to steadily work 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.920 our way out from charted portions of the library and 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.040 into uncharted regions. And it really is a room by room, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.640 book by book procedures. Now, fortunately, most of the books 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.640 are nonsense, and you can spot that right away, because 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:53.600 I mean real nonsense, total typographical gibberish. And that's not 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:55.960 even counting the ones that have been totally or partially 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.600 burned by the purifiers. I hear footsteps sometimes in the 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.200 room was directly above us, and I keep wondering if 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.680 it's them. It could be, but you know, it could 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.040 be the bookman. I know that's superstition, Joe we I mean, 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.839 we might as well hope to find that the Crimson hexagon. Now, 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.880 come on, Robert, wouldn't you love to find the one 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.200 hexagonal room in this entire place that contains something truly 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.600 precious apart from all this gibberish, maybe even real functional 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.079 books of magic spells. Well, of course I would, but 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.040 that doesn't mean it actually exists even in the Library 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.440 of Babel. Now, remember, Robert, these rooms contain not only 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:36.760 all books, but all possible books. Those books have got 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.440 to be out there, but that doesn't mean they're actually magical. Yeah. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.560 I guess you're right, But sometimes I like to think 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.200 the Crimson Hexagon is out there. You know, maybe the 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.040 purifiers haven't found it yet because it moves. Have you 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.480 thought about that? Like in the movie Cube rooms move 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.160 around while we're asleep. Who are like the the the 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.520 Castle and Krawl? You know. I'm glad you mentioned Krull 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.560 because I found a copy of Alan Dean Foresters three 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:05.640 novelization of the screenplay of Krall. That's a real book. Yeah, 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.120 but I also found a Krull novel by Stanford Sherman, 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.800 the guy who wrote the screenplay, and he never actually 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.840 wrote a novel version, right, Oh no, not in our reality, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.279 but of course it could exist, which means the library 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:20.719 has it. And that's why I was also able to 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:22.880 find a copy of a Christmas Carol. You might want 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.960 to see this where instead of saying God bless us everyone, 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.600 tiny Tim gives an invocation of Mala Collord of destruction. 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:34.440 What about you check this out? Frank Herbert's complete seven 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:36.880 book Dune series. Yeah, not not just the six he 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:41.120 actually wrote in our reality all seven as well as 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.479 look at this, an alternate Herbert Dune trilogy that's only 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.200 three books long, but a lot more erotic. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.440 you've got to read this. Yeah, it's on my list. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.800 But hey, guess what, I've got the final two books 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.760 of the Game of Thrones series, the Song of Ice 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.120 and Fire spoiler they were on Earth all along, and 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.839 west Ros is actually in rural North Florida. But also, Robert, 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.440 I have your complete biography, including the end, and as 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.520 per our agreement, I didn't read it. Well good, well cool, 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.560 here's yours. Then you just swap thank you. Yeah, there 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:18.800 we go. We're good. Wait, wait a minute, did you 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.080 hear that? It's probably just other inquisitors or you know, 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.840 our pilgrims looking for deposits of alternate Gospels or book 0:05:25.880 --> 0:05:31.280 worshippers or the Purifiers or the Book miss none of that. 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:41.320 Let's let's keep moving. This hexagon up ahead looks pretty promised. Hey, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:42.960 welcome to stuff to blow your mind. My name is 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.200 Robert Land, and I'm Joe McCormick. In today we're going 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.440 to be talking about the Library of Babel. So the 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.680 Library of Babel is both it's a short story, but 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.960 it's also the concept at the core of this short story, 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.240 and we're really going to be focusing on the concept 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.440 and it's broader implications today, not just the story itself, 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:07.000 but the concept of the Library of Babel comes from 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.560 a short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges, 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:14.520 first published in the collection The Garden of Forking Paths 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.239 in nineteen forty one. So. Borges was a twentieth century 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:22.719 Argentine author. He lived from eighteen to nineteen eighty six, 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.320 and in his lifetime, especially later in his life, he 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.800 became famous for poetry essays, but especially short stories and 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:32.400 short stories. A lot of them are kind of like 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:35.600 this story. Yeah, I mean, like like a lot of 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.599 his tales. Uh. The Library of Babel was not really 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.080 a narrative experience. It's not very plot heavy, right, It's 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:47.040 kind of a sort of scholarly missive about a fantastic idea. 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.360 So he he choose on this fantastic idea, gets all 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.520 of these philosophic juices going, and we're just we're fortunate 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.120 enough to experience it with him. Uh. In his his stories, 0:06:58.120 --> 0:06:59.920 there there are a number of different themes that offer 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:05.000 pop up, such as knives mirrors, dreams, Oh, dreams. There's 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.880 some fabulous dream stories. Um, and and they're all pretty short. 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.320 Like That's one of the wonderful things about a collection 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.720 of Bores short fiction is you can just pick it up. 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.880 You can pretty much pick any story and just in 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.600 a few pages and just mind blowing concept is presented 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:27.200 to you. That just expands the limits of your imagination. Yeah. 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.880 You ever know those like fantasy writers who are better 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:33.960 at world building than they are at character and plot. Yeah, 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.920 I'd say Bores is like that, except he writes what 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.200 would probably be considered now literary fiction. It's you know, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:45.040 respectable intellectual fiction. Uh that that's treated without any hint 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:46.960 of a sneer by the Academy as far as I 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.360 can tell. But but it's fascinating stuff through and through. Yeah, 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:53.880 it reminds me a lot of some of the short 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.320 fiction that Philip K. Dick would later do. And now, 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.960 certainly Philip K. Dick was was capable of producing novel 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.360 after novel after novel as well. Uh, you know, he 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.400 was pretty adapted. It longer works, But some of his 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.720 short stories remind me of Borges in their ability to 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:11.840 without getting too bogged down in story or character just 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:18.480 presenting in a nugget like a really crazy mind warping idea. Yeah, 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:20.720 so we should probably start with a quote from the 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:24.280 beginning of the Library of Babel the story to give 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.000 you a sense of what is being talked about here. 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:29.320 So this is a quote from the beginning of the story, 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:35.280 with some editorial illusions for brevity. Quote. The universe, which 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:40.199 others call the library, is composed of an indefinite, perhaps 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:44.920 infinite number of hexagonal galleries. The arrangement of the galleries 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:49.080 is always the same, twenty bookshelves, five to each side, 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.400 line four of the hexagon's six sides. One of the 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:57.120 hexagon's free sides opens onto a narrow sort of vestibule, 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.360 which in turn opens onto another gallery identical to the first, 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.439 identical in fact to all. To the right and left 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.520 of the vestibule are two tiny compartments. One is for 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:14.360 sleeping upright, the other for satisfying one's physical necessities. Through 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.440 this space, too, there passes a spiral staircase which winds 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:22.160 upward and downward into the remote distance. In the vestibule, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:26.560 there is a mirror which faithfully duplicates appearances. Uh, and 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.760 he goes on to explain how the implications of having 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:31.760 a mirror in a library that may or may not 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.079 be infinite as far as the characters disclosed that they 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.719 know at first at least. Yeah, so this is the 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.400 basic setup. This is the basic HexaCon, and then that 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:45.840 hexagon is cloned out. Yeah, it's a six sided room. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.920 There are shelves of books in each room, and the 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.920 rooms seem to go on forever, and in a honeycomb 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:57.160 where no one has ever discovered the forest boundary. That 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:01.000 there are places, as we mentioned, for wanderers, librarians, etcetera, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.760 to use the bathroom and to sleep upright, it does 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.120 make me wonder if like Barnes and Noble, there is 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:10.400 a policy against bringing books into the bathroom, or if 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.960 I mean maybe that you have to maybe you just 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.160 have to pick a gibberish book. You know. The question 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.800 is who enforces the policy. Well, that's that's one of 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:20.599 the things that as Well discussed. There seems to be 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.080 a lack of a lack of laws and policy in 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.440 place in the Library of Babbel. Yeah, so in the 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.120 Library of Babel, we're going to talk about the philosophical 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.920 and scientific implications of this thought experiment. Later on in 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.400 the episode, but first we just want to kind of 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:40.720 explore what this this concept entails. And there are definitely 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.960 a lot of ironies and absurdities in Borge's story. So 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.880 I don't think he was trying to create something that 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.280 was I mean, I feel kind of absurd saying this, 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:52.080 but I don't think he was trying to create something realistic. No, 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.440 I mean, I mean, and really you run into a 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.760 lot of problems trying to even fathom it as a 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:02.000 real place because it is so vast. Because, as we 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.160 we discussed in our you know, hopefully entertaining intro here, 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:09.400 it contains not only all books, but all possible books. Right, 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.040 so let's get into the actual numbers of what this 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.240 library would entail as described in the story. So, as 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.440 Borges writes, each book in this library contains four hundred 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.800 and ten pages. Each page has forty lines, and each 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:29.280 line has approximately eighty black letters, just printed letters. And 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.280 you can actually work out the math from this. So 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.640 all the books consists of the same twenty five elements 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.360 for characters. They've got a space, a period, a comma, 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.120 and twenty two letters of the alphabet. The only variation 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.559 is in the arrangement of these twenty five characters. Now 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:48.080 you might be saying, wait a minute, that there you 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:52.079 know less than the total number of letters in our alphabet. Well, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:54.760 you know some letters are kind of redundant, are they? 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:56.800 Why do we need to see? Why? Not just a 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.760 K in an S. But no, two books in the 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.440 library are exactly the same. So if the books don't 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.640 duplicate one another, and we know the starting conditions, we 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.719 can actually calculate the number of books that would be 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.120 in the library. So if there's eighty characters per line, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:17.720 forty lines per page, times four hundred and ten pages 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.160 per book, that's one million, three hundred and twelve thousand 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:26.120 characters per book. And with twenty five possible characters and 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.160 and one million, three hundred and twelve thousand characters per book, 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.320 we know that there have to be twenty five to 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:37.080 the one million, three hundred and twelve power books. That 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.199 is a number that is so big that if you 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.680 can count to it, you automatically become the god of 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:45.680 your local galaxy cluster. So so the basic idea here, 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:51.080 and I'm sure there's another metaphor a little nonsensical story 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:52.880 that often comes to mind, and that is the idea 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.199 of the monkeys banging on type. Right. I'm going to 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.679 get into that in a bit, creating gibberish and eventually 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:02.880 recreating the works of Expeaire. Right now, it's sort of analogous. 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.959 If the monkeys could only pound out one book length 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.439 work of gibberish at a time and avoid complete repetition, right, 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.760 and never do the same thing twice, eventually they'd get 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.199 to Shakespeare. But so, the library contains all books there 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.920 could possibly be, so, in addition to just trying to 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.840 imagine what this is like, in addition to the indefinite 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.800 numbers of books full of random gibberish, which would be 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.760 almost all the books, there are also perfect copies of 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.160 all books that already exist in reality. So there's a 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.440 perfect copy of all the books in the Twilight series. Now, 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:41.520 if you're worrying, wait a minute, I know of some 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.040 books that are more than four ten pages too long 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.960 to be reproduced. Not so, actually, because there's a book 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:52.160 that contains its exact first four ten pages, and then 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:57.200 another book that contains whatever happens after that, stretching into 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:01.520 as many volumes as you need. Plus all books that 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.439 exist in reality would be there with every possible combination 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.400 of typographical errors that there could be. So there's a 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:13.320 book that's a perfect copy of Jane Eyre, except every 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.720 instance of Mr Rochester's name is replaced with the words 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:21.080 a crocodile of immense girth. There is also a copy 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.640 of Hamlet that reads normally except for the one line 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.800 one change. There are more things in heaven and Earth 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.720 ratio than are dreamt of in your vaping newsletter. It 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.960 also contains a perfectly accurate autobiography of your life, as 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.080 we mentioned, including all the events that haven't happened yet. 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.760 It contains lots of almost perfect autobiographies of your life, 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.560 but containing a few lies. It contains all books explaining 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.240 the perfect solutions to all the world's most vexing problems. 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:53.840 If we can only find those books and know them 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.160 when we see them, then we'd have the solutions to 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.600 all those problems in the story. All these books exist 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.280 in the library, but they represent such a tiny fraction 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.040 of the total possible combinations of symbols that you could 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:09.720 wander your whole life through the library and probably not 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:13.720 expect to find any lengthy combination of words that made 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.480 any grammatical sense. Yeah, I mean it. I mean it's 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:19.520 easy for all of us to to just really go 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:22.040 wild imagining this. I mean, just think of think of 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.360 your favorite book in the world, and just imagine then 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.200 that there are so many different versions of it that 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.800 are a little bit less good and maybe have a 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.880 few different typos in in it, a few different character changes. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.080 Then there are versions of it that are even better. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.800 There's even like an ideal version of it, a perfect version. 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.480 There is a version of your favorite book that you 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:48.280 yourself would perhaps love even more because it's a little 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.840 more in tune with your expectations. Right, And all that 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.080 fan fiction you write that's already in the library, it's there, 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:57.920 plus all the changes you could have made to make it, 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.400 you know, less of a travesty. But it all on 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:03.320 the same shelf. No, it's all on the same hexagon. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.200 Probably not, because it's arranged in random rtary, making it 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.720 even more frustrating to try to find anything, though not 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.680 necessarily even more frustrating, because if you try to imagine 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.480 what navigating the library of Babble would be like if 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.360 it were organized in some alphabetical fashion, you might be 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.200 trapped in the A A A A A A A 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.840 section of the library your entire life, and you would 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.600 just be physically unable to traverse that area and get 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.040 to the sensible books. Right. So I'd actually prefer a 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:38.080 randomized library to being stuck in a sea of a's 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.320 that I could never escape from no matter how long 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:43.800 I walked, you know. Um, of course this has been 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.280 such a highly influential book. It's referenced in a number 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.720 of different works. Um, I mean the Library of the 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.400 Library babble, so like a lot of people probably recognize 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.280 it from umberto Eco's masterful Name of the Rose, where 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:59.000 an actual library and an Italian monastery is is modeled 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.760 on this. Um. There are aspects of it that I 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:06.320 believe are utilized in a House of Leaves. But then 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.480 there's also a Stephen King short story. I don't know 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:10.800 if you've read this one titled Er that came out 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:13.760 It was only for kindle, I don't think so. It's 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.800 about a man who obtains a pink kindle and it 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:18.840 turns out to be a kindle from another No, I 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.000 haven't read this, and it gives him access not only 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.760 to the kindle store in our universe, but also to 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:30.240 kindle stores in alternate universes, so he's able to access 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.240 books by authors he loves that have not yet been 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.960 written or that that just were not written in our world. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.960 So in a sense, it's a it's an interesting play 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.800 on the Library of Babble. You know, if you want 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:43.919 to get a sense of what it would be like 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:47.280 to actually inhabit this universe the Library of Babel and 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.879 just start pulling books off the shelf. There is a 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.600 tool you can use. A Brooklyn author named Jonathan Basil 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:56.320 has created a virtual version. You can go to it 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.760 Library of Babble dot info. You can go explore this 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.720 at any time and it's great fun for a few 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.119 minutes until you get just buried under the noise of 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.919 nonsense hiding all potential information. So you're you're able to 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.879 pull up titles of books hypothetical, Yeah, you can. You 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.080 can go pull up a shelf of the library by name, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:21.360 which I guess it generates the text that would be 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.920 under that randomized section of the library, and you can 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.240 pull out some books and look at what's inside them. Huh. 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:32.240 And are there any MPCs here? No, not that I 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.000 know of. I don't know. I haven't I haven't played 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:35.920 with it long enough, it wouldn't it be great if 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:38.280 some purifiers come by and start trying to burn the 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:40.560 books you're reading. Now, now that reminds me we should 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.840 say a little bit more about the story. Who were 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.959 the characters who occupied this library? Oh? Yeah, and and 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.840 this is this is tremendous fun um. So a first 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:54.280 and foremost, Uh, there are the librarians and the the narrator. 0:18:54.359 --> 0:18:56.359 The main character, if you can even call them that 0:18:56.680 --> 0:19:00.000 in the story, is a librarian. Right, So they're given 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.080 the impossible task of caring for the library exploring it, 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:08.200 and they're generally an overworked and just suicidal lot. Plus 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.640 they have to contend with all the other weird wanderers 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.040 that are out there amid the hexagons, such as Oh well, 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:19.080 there are the inquisitors, and these are official searchers, but 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:21.840 they don't really seem to make much progress. It's kind 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.200 of vague in the story exactly what they're doing. I 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:27.359 assume they are somehow searching for books that make sense 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.840 or books of some kind of value which are just 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.600 impossible to come by. And I believe there's a sense 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.639 to that they're they're separate from the librarians. It's almost 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:41.400 like an academic versus a governmental body. So the libraries 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.120 and inquisitors are kind of it seems like their jobs 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:48.880 should be similar, but they have different philosophical aims. What else, 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.400 then we have the Purifiers, who we alluded to already, 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.160 and these this is a sect that traversed the library 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.800 and they destroy any book that they deem nonsensical. So 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.720 that would be pretty much all books, yes, but it 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.480 could also mean I mean, I wondered if it's it's 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:06.800 alluded to as well that that maybe they're not the 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.560 ones to judge, how are Maybe a book that seems 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.280 like nonsense is not nonsense. Maybe they're burning a bunch 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.320 of sous any comings and they don't even realize it. 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.840 But mainly they are in search of something known as 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.639 the Crimson Hexagon. Ye, and now we alluded to this 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.360 at the beginning. But Robert, what is the Crimson hexagon 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:28.680 because it sounds alluring. Oh, yes, it is a Crimson room, 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:34.840 the Crimson Hexagon within the library, rumored to exist. Yes, no, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.919 nobody has actually seen it that we know of, uh. 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:44.000 And it contains quote books smaller than natural books, books omnipotent, illustrated, 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.359 and magical. So in other words, this is where you'd 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:52.679 find the real functional copies of various grimoires, including the 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:56.959 real Necronomicon. Uh, the real Book of Sand, which is 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.720 by the way, is it is an infinite book of 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.840 that of put factors into another Borhes story. Uh. You 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:06.359 would find just all these books of power and meaning, 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:10.600 books that answer are big questions like this. Is this 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:15.040 is like a mythological center for the library, a place 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.359 of order and answer. Yeah. And it gives many people 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.919 in the library hope when they're traversing an otherwise unbroken 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.080 sea of nonsense and gibberish. And I'll tell you one 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.720 book that might be in the Crimson Hexagon if it 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:31.520 exists or might be elsewhere. Is this okay? So since 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.919 the Library Babble contains all possible books, that means it 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.159 must contain a book books about the library itself. It 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.679 must contain a book that tells the reader how to 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:46.120 find what you want. It lays it autologue or guide 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.520 for the library itself. Yeah, like yeah, a tourist guide. 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.919 So even though that book has not been found, it 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:57.520 is rumored that there must exist someone known as the Bookman, 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:01.560 that the Bookman has actually uh found that book. That 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.600 is quote the Cipher and perfect compendium of all possible books. 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:10.640 The Bookman has read this book and wanders the library 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:15.200 as a godlike librarian, worshiped, quested after, and perhaps even 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:18.840 prayed to. So this is a god figure, a really 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.639 kind of a Christ figure that wanders the Library of Babel, 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.080 and everyone wants to find this gentleman and meet him 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:29.800 so that they might too know where they can find 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.040 their answers. In a way, it in a way, it's 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:35.320 like the perfect Holy Man, right like the the the 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.000 order of the Library of Babel is beyond us. We 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:41.600 cannot relate to it, but we can relate to an individual. 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.800 So if there's an individual who can grasp this vastness, 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:48.520 then let us speak to him right now. It probably 0:22:48.520 --> 0:22:51.440 won't be lost on all the parallels to religious figures 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.320 and profits like like you were mentioning, you know, this 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:56.920 Christ figure. But I would say also that the bookman 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.840 not need not necessarily be a man. I would suspect 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:02.280 that it's more likely a book woman because the men 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.680 of this library are way too caught up in suicides 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.879