Everything you can ever write already exists in The Library of Babel.

I have just watched another fine video from V Sauce.




From the 16.50 mark Michael talks about the Library of Babel a website which basically has everything that can ever be written down already. It has blown my tiny mind.

libraryofbabel.info...

Basically this guy using maths has made a library which contains everything what can be written down.

Lets try this from this thread.

From the 16.50 mark Michael talks about the Library of Babel a website which basically has everything that can ever be written down already. It has blown my tiny mind.

Put it in the search engine and yup it is already written down .
In fact It has not failed me yet.



Here is some more info on how it is made.

www.theparisreview.org...

I have had loads of fun with the Library and everything I have typed in it is already in that library.
Mind blown.
Enjoy.

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Yup in the Library.

The Library of Babel contains - every book that’s ever been written

well it sounds like they will be shut down soon then ...

TTP "copyright" & the end of the internet and the flow of information

"The Library of Babel" is also the title of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges, describing an infinite library containing an infinite number of books.
A footnote at the end adds;
"Rigorously speaking, a single volume would be sufficient, a volume of ordinary format, printed in nine or ten point type, containing an infinite number of infinitely thin leaves... The handling of this silky vade mecum would not be convenient; each apparent page would unfold into other analogous ones; the inconceivable middle page would have no reverse".
Possibly the best footnote in the whole of literature.

a reply to: AttitudeProblem

But does that mean they now own the copyright on all future material though?

Like this sentance I am writing now, technically it has already been written and I am plagurising there work?

Interesting.

a reply to: nonspecific

I know right lol.
Like I said mind blown .

a reply to: boymonkey74

"What are next weeks winning 8 lotto numbers for Ozlotto"

Can't say I'm too confident spidermonkey, I've got a feeling it's no Pina-coladas served up by my private army of robotic pizzaovens on my private beach this lifetime.

You will have to put up with my poor-mans alcho-rants for the foreseeable future.

Awesome website though, gotta luv dat maffs stuff aye?

a reply to: boymonkey74

Is this not a beautiful application of the Infinite Monkeys Theorem?

a reply to: swanne

Yeah it sort of shows is that at one point everything will have already been said or written down.

a reply to: boymonkey74

Indeed. But my point is, I believe scientists have already done this some time ago... And found that it was nearly impossible for this method to yield actual, coherent text.

From wiki: en.m.wikipedia.org...

A website entitled The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator, launched on July 1, 2003, contained a Java applet that simulates a large population of monkeys typing randomly, with the stated intention of seeing how long it takes the virtual monkeys to produce a complete Shakespearean play from beginning to end. For example, it produced this partial line from Henry IV, Part 2, reporting that it took "2,737,850 million billion billion billion monkey-years" to reach 24 matching characters:

RUMOUR. Open your ears; 9r"5j5&?OWTY Z0d...

All this time for four simple words. The machine was even using a shortcut so to augment its chances of success - whereas the Babel thing is not.

We writers are safe for the foreseeable future.

a reply to: swanne

I agree Michael in the video says because no one actually has written it down and it is just a programme original thought still exists.
Unless you actually just read millions of books from the Library and found something in there.
So the greatest speech and maybe the answer to everything is already in the library we just got to find it .

a reply to: boymonkey74

Hehe I must concede that your optimism is contagious!

The system it uses means you can put words or names into the search to finda particular bookcase, I just typed my username in to see if theres anything interesting but with 4 walls of 4 shelves and 32 books with 400 pages it may take a while.

It really is staggering huge.

a reply to: nonspecific

I just put my full real name in and had a look at the with random words and the word after my name is "muckypup" lol.

libraryofbabel.info...


Just typed "tunnel in paris blood in a chalice at buckingham palace"...

An old rhyme of mine and it was in here, hard to find where it originated or if I was the original source.

I've typed it online before.

a reply to: boymonkey74

I typed, "the next winning lottery numbers are"

And it gave me this.

17fzkoez62rtxlfq7iibjaz07svpr8...-w2-s5-v29

17, 62, 7, 8, 2, 5, 9.

It's a stretch to call these findings "written". There's an algorithm that converts your typed words into a letter/number code. Then that code is searched for and found in the enormous texts of random letter/number codes. I'd say it's extremely likely that these codes are not 100% unique and that other searches can produce the same codes...plus or minus a character or two.

i made up this insane random crap, and it was in there! what the heck man??

libraryofbabel.info...

hmm, link didn't work. it said it was on page 212, but i typed that into the link, and it was just another page of garbled nonsense... now im not sure. how do i know it did not just copy what i typed?? im sure i just botched the link, right?