Borges ‘library of Babel’ is fascinating. I had heard
about it in a different context, in relation to Quantum computing. The aim
to calculate all possibilities from a given amount of variables (like the
alphabet, or numbers) is a driving force behind quantum computing. It is also
paints a picture of how information is may be increasingly be processed in future.
In medieval times knowledge was precious, books often hard
to access, kept in secret libraries like hidden treasures (I think of The Name
of the Rose). Modern communication pushes us to create worlds through editing
variables that are already out there, like the books in ‘The Library of Babel’.
The journey to the modern utopia has changed. It is as if everything is in
reverse, we start with huge amounts of information and slowly sift through it. In
the process there is a chance we loose ourselves. Distractions along the way
and the the search of saluting a ‚perfect world’ (or at least a better world)
draws us away from ourselves.
We dream of Utopia but with all the variants of
different possibilities we also forget what it means ‘to be’. I am particularly
interested in this because I hear both your voices saying that we can’t go
beyond the black space before we try it. I wonder what comes before black?
Perhaps even before Existere? I am
not talking about ‘nothingness’, ‘choice’ or even the discussions based on
meaning. Whilst we may need the black space to go beyond the questions we ask,
we can make an enquiry into the space from which these thoughts originate.
White always seems to come back to me but this non
colour is something personal. I think of consciousness in it’s purer form, presence,
a canvas that we build upon.
It is the essence of experience without distortion, to
the things themselves. In some way it is the opposite of the utopia you speak
of. It is not based on a system outside of itself, it is devoid of meaning and
meaninglessness whilst at the same time all these things grow from it. And to
feel it we simply need to become aware of a certain kind of presence, this
often happens though a small change.
Borges library is based on human creation. The universe
is finite only in relation to human perception and the way we limit our minds. Borges
library is restricts itself by only allowing each letter in the alphabet to be
used once. We narrow down our possibilities to better understand and make sense
of the world. In reality we do not really know how the universe works or how it
is.
We cannot really know anything for sure. One could
argue that meaning is a human invention created through logic as a way of
developing or ‘surviving.’ Perhaps this process is no longer necessary in the
post-modern world in which it is accepted that contradicting truths can exist
at the same time. Yet we still create meaning to suit our everyday needs. For
example we believe that paper money is worth something. But there is not enough
gold to turn all the notes back into the precious metal. Even the value of Gold
itself (and that of art) is fictional. If everyone stoped believing that money
was worth what it is, then it would indeed be meaningless. The whole financial
system would collapse, the consequences catastrophic.
Something can have a ‘useful’ meaning as long as we
believe in it. Meaning also serves as a platform for exchange, community. Even if we know that this meaning is
based on fiction and we may never know the ultimate meaning behind something,
we continue to believe in many things in order to simply function better.
As you suggest, the visualisation of the broken
stairs, hallways & corridors is a really interesting visualisation of these
kinds of thoughts, hopes and even endpoints.
However, it is what you said previous to that which
interests me the most. Both the narrator in Borges's essay and Ivan in
Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov suggest that it might be enough to live in
the knowledge that meaning does exist in the universe despite having no hope of
finding or understanding what that meaning is.
It is an investigation into the essence of being
rather than meaning which I think interesting.
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