Library of Babel: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 23:39, 2 July 2023

Figure 1. Imagine every book ever written.

The Library of Babel is a metaphor describing how information has become so abundant on the internet, there is sufficient evidence on both sides of any argument to prove or disprove it. This concept comes from a science fiction short story, thought experiment by Jorge Luis Borges called "The Library of Babel":

"Imagine a planet which contains all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. The majority of the book would be gibberish, however, like 1,000 monkeys bashing the keys on typewriter for infinity, some books in the library would detail the entire works of Shakespeare and beyond."

The Library is now analogous to the internet as vast reams of content is now being generated on the basis of what gets clicks as opposed to what is factually correct. To navigate this, critical analysis skills are now a necessity to see fact through the quagmire of data.

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-[[File:Library planet.png|alt=Library planet|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Imagine a every book ever written.]]
+<seo title="The Library of Babel" metakeywords="1,000 monkeys on type writers, infinite knowledge" metadescription="The library of Babel, what if all knowledge that could be created was on the internet?"/>
-'''The internet has changed how information is consumed. Historically, information has always been sparse, but now its so abundant anything can be equally proven or disproven.''' Expert knowledge of [[Referencing|weighted referencing]] and [[critical analysis]] skills has now become a necessity in navigating the information age.
+[[File:Library planet.png|alt=Library planet|thumb|'''Figure 1'''. Imagine every book ever written.]]
+'''The Library of Babel is a metaphor describing how information has become so abundant on the internet, there is sufficient evidence on both sides of any argument to prove or disprove it.'''  This concept comes from a science fiction short story, thought experiment by Jorge Luis Borges called "''The Library of Babel''":
-The Library of Babel is a science fiction short story by Jorge Luis Borges which details out this issue in a thought experiment. The story describes a planet which contains all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. The majority of the book would be gibberish, however like 1,000 monkeys bashing the keys on typewriter for infinity they would produce the entire works of Shakespeare and beyond.
+''"Imagine a planet which contains all possible 410-page books of a certain format and character set. The majority of the book would be gibberish, however, like 1,000 monkeys bashing the keys on typewriter for infinity, some books in the library would detail the entire works of Shakespeare and beyond."''
-This is analogous to the internet as the majority of content is generated on the basis of what gets clicks opposed to what is correct. A prime example of this is information about climate change. It is a fact that the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change<ref>[https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/17/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/#:~:text=Yes%2C%20the%20vast%20majority%20of,global%20warming%20and%20climate%20change. https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/17/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/#:~:text=Yes%2C%20the%20vast%20majority%20of,global%20warming%20and%20climate%20change.]</ref>. However, people like [[wikipedia:Alex_Epstein_(American_writer)|Alex Epstein]] maintain that this not the case, this is not because he is more knowledgeable or even has a PhD in climate science, it is because clicks make revenue and there is a small, non-[[Neuroplasticity|neuroplastic]] population of people trying to avert [[cognitive dissonance]] and he is profiteering of this.
+The Library is now analogous to the internet as vast reams of content is now being generated on the basis of what gets clicks as opposed to what is factually correct. To navigate this, [[critical analysis]] skills are now a necessity to see fact through the quagmire of data.

Latest revision as of 23:39, 2 July 2023

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