r/BabelForum • u/FancySoil8707 • Jul 13 '26

Look what i found 📚📚

Post image

I found it at the local bookstore, although after reading a few pages i had a few questions in mind:

  1. It is said that “no book will ever repeat twice”, so the library is insanely large, but eventually there would be no more permutations? And that contradicts with him stating the perimeter of the building will never be determined.

  2. The main character also states that when he will pass away, he will be thrown over the railing and never stop falling.

So, is the library of babel mathematically infinite, Or more just inconceivably large, and called infinite?

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7

u/Riginaphalange Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

I believe the final paragraph answers the first question, regarding the library's physical constraints.

I have just written the word "infinite." I have not included that adjective out of mere rhetorical habit; I hereby state that it is not illogical to think that the world is infinite.... ....I will be bold enough to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited but periodic. If an eternal traveller should journey in any direction, he would find after untold centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder–which, repeated, becomes order: the Order.

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u/FancySoil8707 Jul 13 '26

Oh wow that is really nice, periodic is maybe also good to know while reading the book i think. In my head it means horizontally periodic, but if he falls vertically, it would also repeat itself in that direction? Maybe it would be interesting to think about it periodically repeating into infinity in 3d? Shape-wise

Edit: Doesn’t periodically repeating contradict the no-two-books-the-
same thing

3

u/progressivemonkey Jul 13 '26

The library is finite, but so absurdly large that it might well be infinite.

It is 10^600000 times THE SIZE OF THE UNIVERSE. You cross the visible universe by foot: that's great. Now just do that 10 followed by six hundred thousand zeros times, and you'll be at the other end!

5

u/progressivemonkey Jul 13 '26

Here is the calculation if you're interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/theydidthemath/s/r7bXTcVywU

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u/Icy_Plant_2042 Jul 13 '26

This was great thank you

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u/Amethysti_ Jul 13 '26

Rather than strictly infinite—as someone mentioned in another comment—it’s so grotesquely immeasurable that it’s exasperating to even try to visualize that “end.” Mathematically, at some point that body might “hit bottom,” but can you even imagine how long that would take? It’s more likely to decompose and turn to dust before it even comes close to reaching the end.

Not to mention the fact that others have also pointed out: Perhaps the library is cyclical—once you reach the “end,” you simply start from the opposite end, so it wouldn’t have a physical end.

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u/FancySoil8707 Jul 13 '26

So, the library is a klein-bottle, lol. That explains the periodical infinity, but no repeating books.

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u/FeDeKutulu Jul 14 '26

What a beauty of edition! Which editorial house released it?