Spring 2022 ︎︎︎ SUNY Purchase College ︎︎︎ (DES3800) Design for Web & Screens
Reading:
The Library of BabEL
Background
The Library of Babel, is a short story about an infinite-ish hypothetical library of interconnected hexagonal rooms. It is by Jorge Luis Borges. Many of his stories about these kind of “thought experiment” short stories about the idea of the infinite. I’m presenting this story as a reading to think about how it is and isn’t like the internet or your experience of “interconnected-ness” via the ubiquity of the internet.What you have to read
︎
Library of Babel .PDF︎
(This is a .PDF where the text is about 7 (seven) pages from a half-letter-sized book)
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︎
Library of Babel .PDF︎
(This is a .PDF where the text is about 7 (seven) pages from a half-letter-sized book)
(This is a .PDF where the text is about 7 (seven) pages from a half-letter-sized book)
︎
Other ways to consume it
Contextualizing information
- A website that attempts to recreate the library
- A VSauce video that has a section about the Library of Babel.
- A playthrough of a Library of Babel game
- The Library of Babel Wikipedia page
Questions and ideas to think about
- What were your thoughts on the reading? If your reaction was simply it was “confusing” consider reading it again, reading a summary and then reading it again, or something like this and then reevaluating your thoughts.
- How is the library like the internet? How is it not?
- What does the infinite “mean”? Is knowledge truly limited? Can the library actually exist?
Relevant Dates
Introduction ︎︎︎ 04/04/2022
Discussion ︎︎︎04/18/2022
(notes must be uploaded to the spreadsheet by this day)