Library of Babel
- Started
- Last post
- 40 Responses
- rabbit0
Sarahfailin those are the exact same profound thoughts i had!! Indidnt bloody sleep all night save 3hrs 'cause of this damned library. Now i am a out to have lunch with my mum, she is going to think I am a nut talking about this.
- rabbit-1
An interesting read for those of you who do not believe this site is real:
https://libraryofbabel.info/theo…Also, to take it one step further, he created an image based version. Every possible combination of x pixels, meaning every single portrait, photo, painting and so forth yet to be, or already created, is in this library. Including every single portrait of you at every age, and even an image of your own funeral.
- this seems like bullshitmonospaced
- How can you not understand how this is not bullshit? Its simple. Create every damned possible combination of every colour in every position. You will eventuallyrabbit
- Have the Mona Lisa. Albeit it might take 69 to the power of 6578920 years.rabbit
- it's not that I don't understand, I just find it hard to believe, specifically for the reason you stated, it would take millions of years, and yet it's "done"monospaced
- It's not bullshit. It's just pointless mental wankery. What it's saying seems to be all words can make up all stories and all colors can be any picture.CyBrainX
- ernexbcn0
Get me a link of one of those random generated images that resembles at least something we can relate to and then I'll believe it's well implemented, otherwise it's just a noise generator. The problem is more complex than that.
- You do realise how many images there are, right?rabbit
- Hopefully this random image will suffice:
https://babelia.libr…rabbit - so there is a picture of me on the moon?BabySnakes
- ernexbcn0
Regarding the text, it just feeds your text into an algorithm that gives you a location on the supposed library, the location of your text in there didn't exist until you entered it on the website yourself, it's interesting though.
If the data was already generated instead of being created on the fly it won't fit anywhere.
- Thats like saying pancakes dont exist because you havent made one today. The algorithm (recipe) is there. Its all there. You just need to make some pancakesrabbit
- gonzalle1
I think that it is possible to have a "method" for virtually indexing such a theorical "library"... I believe it is what they are doing here :
calculate where, in theory, the search string should first appear.In other terms if such a library was build, this is, indeed, where the search string would appears.
Of course, precompute and storing this library is impossible...
- of course, because then it would have to have all the versions of the same phrase with all possible typos, making unthinkable versions of the same thingmonospaced
- there could, theoretically, be billions of versions of this one sentence alone, depending on errors or subtle differences that may have happenedmonospaced
- And there are. Search for that sentence in the library and you will get about 500,000,000,000 resultsrabbit
- nb0
What about copyright?
Could the owner of this website now make a claim of ownership when new works are released?
Taylor Swift writes a new hit song next year, and this site can claim that they wrote it first.
- no, because it didn't exist through his algorithm until it was fed into iternexbcn
- But it did exist. Just no one looked at it. Does that mean planet x 60bill light years away doesnt exist. Its all there. Its like schroedingers cat paradox thorabbit
- Until you look there is no resultrabbit
- That is an interesting idea.rabbit
- figures nb would bring up some kind of control or concern of enforcement of something. we need some laws.yurimon
- Give it a rest, troll. No one cares.nb
- detritus0
This is a neat conceptual/philosophical widget, but for any of you getting your panties wet about getting anything useful from it should probably gen up on statistics a bit...
- rabbit0
There are more books in this library than atoms in the observable universe.
- rabbit0
"For anyone wondering the total number of possible books the website can generate (Or the universe in the book) is so large that it would take 7 million bytes just to hold the number (7 megabytes). The number is 1,834,098 digits long. Assuming each room is approximately 10m3 (I know they are hexagons, but this will make it simpler), the total volume of the universe would be 10106.2m3. This is 1.2x101834023 times bigger than the observable universe. So if you were thinking of reading every page of every book, it would take a while.
Edit: Specifically it would take 1.62x101834093 centuries. (That's 1.62x101834093 times longer than how long the universe is supposed to last)"- on the plus side, you'd probably sleep really well.Amicus
- rabbit-3
Also, sorry, but you guys that just flat out say this is bullshit are obviously not programmers, and you are missing the point.
The library brings up some pretty big questions about creation, original thought, existence, fate, truth, etc.
Ironically, all of those questions are also answered, SOMEWHERE in that library. It is a philosophical brain exercise.
Now turn off your fucking tv from The Kardashians and think about that shit for a minute. :D
- rabbit1
Also, to anyone that does think this is bogus he will be releasing the server side code as open source.
- rabbit0
Here is an open source version and explanation of the algorithm. Haters gon' hate!
- detritus4
You're not as smart as you think you are, and I suspect the people reacting here aren't quite as clueless as you suspect them to be.
There's nothing particularly novel here, that hasn't already been long-since examined - from the Borges story that inspired it, to the writings of Lem who mirrored it, to the idea of the Infinite Monkey Theorum, which is so commonly-known, it's the title of a popular radio show.
As I say, there's no mind blowing concept here that your average teenager high on Acid hasn't already lost themselves in.
But hey, if prattling on as if you're the only holder of the key makes you feel better, knock yourself out.
Works for Yurimon et al, so you're in good company?
- +1ernexbcn
- dude dont let your insecurities to be a dick.yurimon
- Dude, learn your fucking language.detritus
- I think why it is more interesting, is that someone has made it a reality.
Taking it from the theoretical to the physical/practical.BaskerviIle - whos language? mine? learn american dude!yurimon
- I agree with Baskerville. It's interesting because it's more than an idea, it actually exists.nb
- well put, detritus.Gnash
- http://cdn.meme.am/i…BrokenHD
- http://i0.kym-cdn.co…detritus
- LOL at "learn american dude!"
*facepalmETM - In his defence, I presume that was a joke!detritus
- defensemonospaced
- Correction - D-FENS.detritus
- da fense. chill brohz befo hosyurimon
- http://grammarist.co…Peter
- Mono that's the second time in a week you've chimed in with a spelling correction like that. Hahaset
- We spell things differently in the UK, sometimes. Ya know, the proper way.set
- De fense, as in yurimon is definitely not on itset
- get off da fense and out of my yard!yurimon
- Good god he get's itset
- why the fuck did my phone put an apostrophe on getsset
- Sep0
Very interesting!
Makes me wonder about the implications of an infinite universe. If that universe is build with a finite kind of particles (like letters), which can be ordered in a finite amount of variations (like words and sentences), that would imply there are infinite solar systems that look exactly like ours, with infinite planets that look exactly like earth, with infinite exact copies of you doing exactly what you're doing now.
Not only that, but also infinite versions of you doing every possible variation, an infinite time. A version of me not typing this comment, a version of me making a spelling error in the first sentence... Every possible way your life could be actually happened, is happening and will continue to happen in an endless stream.
Makes my head spin.
- Back when I took acid I ended up one time in this mental loop with "Anything that can be, is" repeating over and over, in my head for about 12 hours.detritus
- Ah! However, even with all those variations, the multiverse is still finite. It's massively unbelievably huge, but still finite!nb
- Profound(ly irritating).
:)detritus - I had to stop taking acid because I'd more often than not lose myself in the horror of infinity. Thinking about it now still puts a knot in my gut..detritus
- Now though I'm not so convinced by the infinite worlds theory - given how the rest of Nature appears to work, it feels like an inelegant, inefficient cludge.detritus
- Infinite worlds/dimensions vs. Infinite space, I mean. Infinite space seems quite probable.detritus
- sarahfailin0
Somewhere in that library is a truthful explanation of how to achieve faster than light travel (if it's even possible). However, there are also billions of false explanations of how to achieve faster than light travel.
"the trick to faster than light travel is to simply scenographic discolors outlasting gighe floatiest slappers zootherapies systematizers scouting agroterrorism"
with the severely improbable likelihood of discovering any new information in this system, you really can't gather any information unless you already know it. unless you get REALLY fucking lucky.
- How exactly would you get really lucky and "discover new information" in this?Sep
- Without altering the definition of the word information, that is.Sep
- With this much information, there is no chance of getting "lucky" to find info.nb
- The easy part is building this library. The (insanely) difficult part is writing software that can extract useful data.nb
- Again, how and when would any data out of that library be "useful"? By what definition? To what standards?Sep
- It's like looking at the alphabet, thinking: "Somewhere in there is the secret to time-travel."Sep
- i would guess that it is so unlikely as to be impossible to get new information out of this library, but i wouldn't know how to prove that mathematically.sarahfailin
- you might as well put a bunch of random elements in a blender and expect a light-speed engine to come out.sarahfailin
- detritus0
The point is, even if you are somehow able to filter an infinity of possibilities down to some flavour of sense, how do you then resolve that "E = mc³" is wrong?
.
There's a good episode of In Our Time from 2003 about infinity:
http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/media…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/…
Worth a listen!
- I'm not 100% sure here, but I think a computer program could test if E=mc³ is wrong.nb
- But, I hear what you're saying. The software is the difficult part. How do you extract useful data? It's difficult.nb
- Aye, sorry, it was a very poor example, but easier to illustrate than a "99% correct Hamlet" or whatever.
But yes, your second note is exactly the crux.detritus - "To be or, actually, fuckit"—Hamletdetritus
- Cosmodrome0
How do we find out what happened with KIC 8462852?
- imbecile0
https://www.seti.org/seti-instit…
Tabby's Star's dimming could be signs of an alien civilization. The Allen Telescope Array searches radio frequencies to investigate this strange behavior.
- hans_glib1
meh i call bullshit
https://libraryofbabel.info/book…