I once calculated the number of books in The Library of Bable, and had to try a number of numerical libraries to do so. one after another they kept puking on the large integers.
Spoilers: it's big. Vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big. You might think it's a long way across the diameter of the observable universe but that's just peanuts compared to the library.
Somewhat shameless shout out about this... My friends father is Steve Peck, the author of "A short stay in hell". It's a short story about a guy who ends up in hell that is this library. Fun weekend read.
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I love this book so much (Labyrinths, by Borges).
I once calculated the number of books in The Library of Bable, and had to try a number of numerical libraries to do so. one after another they kept puking on the large integers.
I also think of "the secret miracle" often.
Here is someone's attempt at calculating the volume of the library:
https://canterburybookstore.com/new-content/2024/11/22/how-b...
Spoilers: it's big. Vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big. You might think it's a long way across the diameter of the observable universe but that's just peanuts compared to the library.
Also, a fun website:
https://libraryofbabel.info/
Somewhat shameless shout out about this... My friends father is Steve Peck, the author of "A short stay in hell". It's a short story about a guy who ends up in hell that is this library. Fun weekend read.
That’s awesome. I’ve seen the book around, but didn’t know the connection to the works of Borges.
I recently picked up this recently, it uses The Library as a way of discussing a few different mathematical topics. I can't strongly recommend it but it's interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unimaginable_Mathematics_o...