Library of Babel

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  • sarahfailin0

    this is a really fascinating idea! it reminds me of this illustration from Godel Escher Bach, which lays out all the possible and impossible results of any formal system of symbols.


    The Library of Babel represents all of the "Reachable Truths" and the "Reachable Falsehoods" of combinations of symbols within our system of language within 3200 characters. For example, "The tree is green," could be considered a reachable truth, because it is a valid phrase with a discernible meaning. "Goat asdf verifydfsa shit valid," would be a reachable falsehood, because it is a result reachable within the character system, but it holds no discernible meaning.

    Beyond the contents of the library lie those truths which are not reachable through our language, and those falsehoods as well. The big problem is mining this resource for valid phrases which also yield truthful answers. If only we could program a search engine spider that can recognize truth, insight, humor, wisdom, or accurate future predictions.

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