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Can't believe this doesn't include Borges's most famous quote about mirrors: "Los espejos y la cópula son abominables porque multiplican el número de los hombr

• a_e_k 7y ago
  I was surprised by that omission as well. It is from his short story, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (one of my favorites) for those who don't know the reference. A lot of the concepts that Borges writes about have always struck me as relevant to computer science, and Tlön, Uqbar is no exception. For example, identity vs. equality when comparing things: > They said that the heresiarch was prompted only by the blasphemous intention of attributing the divine category of being to some simple coins and that at times he negated plurality and at other times did not. They argued: if equality implies identity, one would also have to admit that the nine coins are one. And this bit always makes me think of reference counting and garbage collection: > Things became duplicated in Tlön; they also tend to become effaced and lose their details when they are forgotten. A classic example is the doorway which survived so long as it was visited by a beggar and disappeared at his death. At times some birds, a horse, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater.