The Library of Babel

The birth of this universe has marked the birth of every single thing inevitable

In The Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges depicts an endless array of hexagons that together create an infinite library. Within this limitless library, each hexagon has four walls with “five bookshelves; each bookshelf holds thirty-two books identical in format; each book contains four hundred ten pages; each page, forty lines; each line, approximately eighty black letters”. Each letter within each book is one of twenty-five orthographic symbols – 23 characters, the comma, and the period – randomly combined.

Though there is a limit to the number of possible permutations of the letters in each book due to the finite number of lines, the library is endless; therefore, there is an infinite number of permutations. This infinity in the library mirrors the premise that everything exists in this universe – every thought, every piece of literature ever created, every dialogue between any two people, every piece of literature ever created – all exists within this library.

When man thinks of a thought, they may claim it as a product of self, a fusion of their intelligence and imagination. However, note that this intelligence and imagination is built upon our perception and experience. One would not be able to imagine the sensory experience of an interaction with an apple, for example, without previously acquiring that sensation from the apple directly, or elsewhere. To illustrate, one would perceive the apple using the sense of sight. One would then use their imagination to attribute another sensory quality, such as taste, to the apple. One could imagine the apple to be sweet, however, that would not be possible without previously acquiring the sensation of sweetness from the apple, or somewhere else, like a banana.  This is how the man thinks. Thoughts are formed like this. Thoughts that are generally considered deeper, such as philosophical discussion, simply involve more perception and experience. Man cannot imagine something that they have not perceived before (Try imagining a color that you have never seen before).

The limit of thought is the perception and experience of man. And there are only a finite number of combinations of every perception and experience. This concept of finite is parallel to the finite number of books in Babel’s library. Every thought is merely a combination of senses put together by the brain. Since this number is finite, one can imagine every combination possible. Every thought already exists, it is only a question of whether discovered or not. Therefore, it can be said that man does not innovate, rather they only put their limited perception and experiences together to find the thoughts that already exist, just waiting to be discovered. Nothing is created in this universe. The birth of this universe has marked the birth of every single thing inevitable, yet for us to understand anything we must find them through fusing various perceptions and experiences.