the library of babel as a random word generator
This digital library is a collection of every possible combination of 1,312,000 characters, meaning that, in theory, it contains every book ever written and every book that will ever be written, along with a heck of a lot of incomprehensible nonsense. It’s organized in a very particular way, in hexagonal rooms, with four walls that each have five shelves and 32 volumes on each shelf. In this way, the books can be easily found with the unique combination of room name, wall number, shelf number, and volume number. Within each book there are 410 pages with 40 lines on each page and 80 letters in each line.
I thought it would be interesting to use this library to uncover a random word because to me, it is one of the most complete works of all of human knowledge ever, even though most of it is absolutely unintelligible. I guess that kind of says something about the human condition doesn’t it?
My method of attaining a random word from the library of babel in nine simple steps…
{all random numbers and other inputs can be acquired with the use of audience participation or a random number generator of your choosing}
1. choose a random word that determines the hexagon in the library of babel
{cat}
2. choose a number 1 through 4 to determine the wall that the book is located on
{3}
3. choose a random number 1 through 5 to determine the shelf
{4}
4. choose a random number 1 through 32 to determine the volume on the shelf
{18}
5. choose a random number 1 through 410 to determine the page
{256}
6. click on “anglishize” to highlight the english-ish words
7. choose a random number 1 through 40 to determine the line on the page
{32}
8. the first highlighted word in the line is the word
9. select the word and put it on your forehead so it sinks into your brain
{my word is “gogo”}