5 ms·

Any Fermi Problem-like answers to how large the library would be, based on how the number of permutations of the books and the size of each room? Is it an easy

Any Fermi Problem-like answers to how large the library would be, based on how the number of permutations of the books and the size of each room? Is it an easy guess to say larger than the size of the universe?

lapetitejort 5y ago
According to the story, each book has: * 410 pages * 40 lines per page * 80 characters per line * Not included: The characters on the front cover, maybe 15 on average? There are 25 symbols. So there are 25^(410*40*80) possible books, which comes out to ~10^1834097 books. Sufficed to say, the library could hold numerous universes.
- Izikiel43 5y ago
  That's most likely an upper limit, as random character strings are not necessarily language.
  - mcguire 5y ago
    On the contrary, a random character string is meaningful in some conceivable language.
    - scarmig 5y ago
      All you need is a reference to the book that describes the grammar of that language.
  - libraryofbabel 5y ago
    If you read the story you will see that most books present the appearance of random strings of characters.
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      If the sets of integers and reals is anything to go by, an infinitesimal portion of the books would include something that's actually legible, but perhaps the books could be sorted so those containing the most sensible arrangements of letters were kept nearby: don't bother looking at those noisy tomes of high entropy.
      - scarmig 5y ago
        Infinitesimal is a bit off, here. It's a very, very small but definitely finite proportion of books that'd be legible by humans in a human language. You don't even need the full set of integers to catalogue the library, let alone the reals.
        jazzyjackson 5y ago
        What I was trying to say was, since there are an infinite number of real numbers between each pair of integers, there would be a similarly infinite number of garbage text between each pair of legible texts. Even though there are an infinite number of integers, there are an even more infinite number of reals, rendering the proportion of (integers)/(reals) to be near 0.
      - jl6 5y ago
        But perhaps the noise is just a language you haven’t recognized? Perhaps the noise contains True information when decoded using a scheme described in one of the other books?
        jazzyjackson 5y ago
        O very true... you might start trying out one book as an XOR key to another. Of course, the result of decryption will already be sitting on the next shelf over :-)
  - GabrieleR 5y ago
    I'd say every set of whatever is a language. not the opposite tho
- scarmig 5y ago
  For point of comparison, the maximal amount of information we could fit into a sphere the size of the observable universe is ~10^124 bits. Someone should offer a public Library of Babel API that streams these books so folks don't need to store them individually.

lapetitejort 5y ago

According to the story, each book has: * 410 pages * 40 lines per page * 80 characters per line * Not included: The characters on the front cover, maybe 15 on average? There are 25 symbols. So there are 25^(410*40*80) possible books, which comes out to ~10^1834097 books. Sufficed to say, the library could hold numerous universes.

Izikiel43 5y ago
That's most likely an upper limit, as random character strings are not necessarily language.
- mcguire 5y ago
  On the contrary, a random character string is meaningful in some conceivable language.
  - scarmig 5y ago
    All you need is a reference to the book that describes the grammar of that language.
- libraryofbabel 5y ago
  If you read the story you will see that most books present the appearance of random strings of characters.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    If the sets of integers and reals is anything to go by, an infinitesimal portion of the books would include something that's actually legible, but perhaps the books could be sorted so those containing the most sensible arrangements of letters were kept nearby: don't bother looking at those noisy tomes of high entropy.
    - scarmig 5y ago
      Infinitesimal is a bit off, here. It's a very, very small but definitely finite proportion of books that'd be legible by humans in a human language. You don't even need the full set of integers to catalogue the library, let alone the reals.
      - jazzyjackson 5y ago
        What I was trying to say was, since there are an infinite number of real numbers between each pair of integers, there would be a similarly infinite number of garbage text between each pair of legible texts. Even though there are an infinite number of integers, there are an even more infinite number of reals, rendering the proportion of (integers)/(reals) to be near 0.
    - jl6 5y ago
      But perhaps the noise is just a language you haven’t recognized? Perhaps the noise contains True information when decoded using a scheme described in one of the other books?
      - jazzyjackson 5y ago
        O very true... you might start trying out one book as an XOR key to another. Of course, the result of decryption will already be sitting on the next shelf over :-)
- GabrieleR 5y ago
  I'd say every set of whatever is a language. not the opposite tho
scarmig 5y ago
For point of comparison, the maximal amount of information we could fit into a sphere the size of the observable universe is ~10^124 bits. Someone should offer a public Library of Babel API that streams these books so folks don't need to store them individually.