Seeking Meaning in an Infinite Library

David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around Jorge Luis Borges' “The Library of Babel†– a short story about a universe/library that contains every possible book with every possible combination of characters. How many books would this library contain? Would some of the books justify our lives (if we could find them)? Can we know whether a book is deeply meaningful or deeply misleading? Why are the librarians so alone and so consumed with anguish? Wouldn’t we all just end up just looking for the porn books? Plus, we talk about the ethics of doing research on data drawn from the Ashley Madison leak. Life is short, listen to this episode.

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links:

• I. Y. Yunioshi - Wikipedia
• Eddie Murphy: White Like Me (SNL)
• Scarlett Johansson Withdraws from Controversial Role as a Trans Man Following Backlash
• Neuroskeptic on Twitter: ""Democrats were least likely to use Ashley Madison, Libertarians were most likely, and Republicans, Greens, and unaffiliated voters were in between." https://t.co/2cOeWlfTJu This one'll be controversial. For one thing, based on leaked data!… https://t.co/fQZRDZEuVa"
• The Ethics of Research on Leaked Data: Ashley Madison - Neuroskeptic
• Break Music: Nas Is Like (peez remix)
• The Library of Babel - Wikipedia
• The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel by William Goldbloom Bloch [amazon.com affiliate link]
• The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges