3 ms·

Library of Babel – Explore the Near In(de)finite

41 points by ozzmotik 9y ago

dang 9y ago
Discussed in 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9480949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9480949
- ozzmotik 9y ago
  oh hey thanks for sharing evidently im just lazy and forget to search because i feel entitled
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?justmyreply https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?justmyreply & Anglishize
- meri_dian 9y ago
  A discussion happening 3 years ago in 2015 shouldn't prevent a new discussion today. A few weeks ago, perhaps. But not 3 years ago.
  - grzm 9y ago
    I don't think Dan's intent was to preclude it from being discussed again, but rather to provide an additional resource for those interested in the discussion. If it had been the former, the submission would have been marked as a dupe.
    - 52-6F-62 9y ago
      This. I'm glad he posted the link as the author and developer is present to comment. I'm also glad this was posted again or I never would have found it. To add to that, I've never read The Library of Babel, though I'd encountered Borges a number of times before. It's near the top of my list now.
      - netsharc 9y ago
        Interestingly googling the title and the word "text" shows links to the full text. It's not a long read!
        52-6F-62 9y ago
        Thanks! I was about to buy it! Though I might pick up a collection anyway, soon enough. Thanks again!
  - dang 9y ago
    Of course! The cutoff is about a year, as the HN FAQ says: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. If the repost weren't legit, we'd mark it as a dupe. The link to a previous discussion is because readers like those. Recent explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250070
    - meri_dian 9y ago
      Ah ok, my fault. Sorry for misunderstanding.
samirillian 9y ago
Crazy amount of joy from searching "to be or not to be, that is the question"
acobster 9y ago
I found out about this thing a while ago from Vsauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDrBIKOR01c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDrBIKOR01c That video is still one of my all-time YouTube favorites.
PostOnce 9y ago
It'd be nice if: 1] Google (or at least someone who can store the URL index from commoncrawl.org ) provided a "random page" function; maybe this exists, but I'm not aware of it. 2] We could get a random page of a random real book from google books or archive.org Both of these are somewhat feasible even locally since text is small and in the former case you're just storing an index (albeit maybe many gigs or a few terabytes) -- storing compressed books and an index would take up very little space You could do the same thing with art, random arrays of pixels instead of text, but arguably you could transform this text into pixels anyway -- perhaps something that makes no sense to read makes some sense to look at, or even to listen to.

41 points by ozzmotik 9y ago

dang 9y ago

Discussed in 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9480949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9480949

ozzmotik 9y ago
oh hey thanks for sharing evidently im just lazy and forget to search because i feel entitled
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?justmyreply https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?justmyreply & Anglishize
meri_dian 9y ago
A discussion happening 3 years ago in 2015 shouldn't prevent a new discussion today. A few weeks ago, perhaps. But not 3 years ago.
- grzm 9y ago
  I don't think Dan's intent was to preclude it from being discussed again, but rather to provide an additional resource for those interested in the discussion. If it had been the former, the submission would have been marked as a dupe.
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    This. I'm glad he posted the link as the author and developer is present to comment. I'm also glad this was posted again or I never would have found it. To add to that, I've never read The Library of Babel, though I'd encountered Borges a number of times before. It's near the top of my list now.
    - netsharc 9y ago
      Interestingly googling the title and the word "text" shows links to the full text. It's not a long read!
      - 52-6F-62 9y ago
        Thanks! I was about to buy it! Though I might pick up a collection anyway, soon enough. Thanks again!
- dang 9y ago
  Of course! The cutoff is about a year, as the HN FAQ says: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. If the repost weren't legit, we'd mark it as a dupe. The link to a previous discussion is because readers like those. Recent explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250070 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16250070
  - meri_dian 9y ago
    Ah ok, my fault. Sorry for misunderstanding.

samirillian 9y ago

Crazy amount of joy from searching "to be or not to be, that is the question"

acobster 9y ago

I found out about this thing a while ago from Vsauce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDrBIKOR01c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDrBIKOR01c That video is still one of my all-time YouTube favorites.

PostOnce 9y ago

It'd be nice if: 1] Google (or at least someone who can store the URL index from commoncrawl.org ) provided a "random page" function; maybe this exists, but I'm not aware of it. 2] We could get a random page of a random real book from google books or archive.org Both of these are somewhat feasible even locally since text is small and in the former case you're just storing an index (albeit maybe many gigs or a few terabytes) -- storing compressed books and an index would take up very little space You could do the same thing with art, random arrays of pixels instead of text, but arguably you could transform this text into pixels anyway -- perhaps something that makes no sense to read makes some sense to look at, or even to listen to.