Everything Can Be Found Here.

A long time ago I came across the Library of Babel. It’s based on a book, that I haven’t read, centered around an infinite library, containing every possible set of text imaginable. That means that although nearly all of the library contains gibberish, there are some books that contain a perfect transcript of the future, bibliographies of every human being, and any other text that can ever be written.

The website replicates that concept. It’s a metaphorical library, and it contains all possible text. It has a search function so you can input text, and it will find the entry in the library that contains it, which I find fascinating. Everything I’ve ever written or will write, is in that library, given that it contains all possible versions of what can be written. By searching for things I’ve written, I can record the index of the text, and then simply pull up the text by going back to that “book” in the library.

For example, I will record exactly where this post is stored. If you click this link, you will be taken there. If you scroll to the bottom, and click the “Book Location” link, you can see the index of that book. The library mimics the layout described in “The Library of Babel”, which has nigh infinite hexagonal rooms, and four of the walls contain books. Each wall has 5 shelves, each shelf has 32 volumes, and each volume contains 410 pages.

I love this because I could create a compendium of all my work by linking to a single page. I could hide passwords, sensitive info, and personal notes, all linked to the library. It might seem like the library is “cheating”, but the links are permanent. Maybe as an easter egg, I’ll start including the link at the bottom of every post.