The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199715169
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (151 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel by : William Goldbloom Bloch

Download or read book The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel written by William Goldbloom Bloch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-08-25 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Library of Babel" is arguably Jorge Luis Borges' best known story--memorialized along with Borges on an Argentine postage stamp. Now, in The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel, William Goldbloom Bloch takes readers on a fascinating tour of the mathematical ideas hidden within one of the classic works of modern literature. Written in the vein of Douglas R. Hofstadter's Pulitzer Prize-winning G?del, Escher, Bach, this original and imaginative book sheds light on one of Borges' most complex, richly layered works. Bloch begins each chapter with a mathematical idea--combinatorics, topology, geometry, information theory--followed by examples and illustrations that put flesh on the theoretical bones. In this way, he provides many fascinating insights into Borges' Library. He explains, for instance, a straightforward way to calculate how many books are in the Library--an easily notated but literally unimaginable number--and also shows that, if each book were the size of a grain of sand, the entire universe could only hold a fraction of the books in the Library. Indeed, if each book were the size of a proton, our universe would still not be big enough to hold anywhere near all the books. Given Borges' well-known affection for mathematics, this exploration of the story through the eyes of a humanistic mathematician makes a unique and important contribution to the body of Borgesian criticism. Bloch not only illuminates one of the great short stories of modern literature but also exposes the reader--including those more inclined to the literary world--to many intriguing and entrancing mathematical ideas.

The Library of Babel

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Author :
Publisher : Pocket Paragon
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 56 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Library of Babel by : Jorge Luis Borges

Download or read book The Library of Babel written by Jorge Luis Borges and published by Pocket Paragon. This book was released on 2000 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Not many living artists would be sufficiently brave or inspired to attempt reflecting in art what Borges constructs in words. But the detailed, evocative etchings by Erik Desmazieres provide a perfect counterpoint to the visionary prose. Like Borges, Desmazieres has created his own universe, his own definition of the meaning, topography and geography of the Library of Babel. Printed together, with the etchings reproduced in fine-line duotone, text and art unite to present an artist's book that belongs in the circle of Borges's sacrosanct Crimson Hexagon - "books smaller than natural books, books omnipotent, illustrated, and magical.""--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Tar for Mortar

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Publisher : punctum books
ISBN 13 : 1947447505
Total Pages : 110 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (474 download)

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Book Synopsis Tar for Mortar by : Jonathan Basile

Download or read book Tar for Mortar written by Jonathan Basile and published by punctum books. This book was released on 2018 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TAR FOR MORTAR offers an in-depth exploration of one of literature's greatest tricksters, Jorge Luis Borges. His short story "The Library of Babel" is a signature examplar of this playfulness, though not merely for the inverted world it imagines, where a library thought to contain all possible permutations of all letters and words and books is plumbed by pious librarians looking for divinely pre-fabricated truths. One must grapple as well with the irony of Borges's narration, which undermines at every turn its narrator's claims of the library's universality, including the very possibility of exhausting meaning through combinatory processing. Borges directed readers to his non-fiction to discover the true author of the idea of the universal library. But his supposedly historical essays are notoriously riddled with false references and self-contradictions. Whether in truth or in fiction, Borges never reaches a stable conclusion about the atomic premises of the universal library - is it possible to find a character set capable of expressing all possible meaning, or do these letters, like his stories and essays, divide from themselves in a restless incompletion? While many readers of Borges see him as presaging our digital technologies, they often give too much credit to our inventions in doing so. Those who elide the necessary incompletion of the Library of Babel compare it to the Internet on the assumption that both are total archives of all possible thought and expression. Though Borges's imaginings lend themselves to digital creativity (libraryofbabel.info is certainly evidence of this), they do so by showing the necessary incompleteness of every totalizing project, no matter how technologically refined. Ultimately, Basile nudges readers toward the idea that a fictional/imaginary exposition can hold a certain power over technology.

Borges and Mathematics

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781612492520
Total Pages : 140 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Borges and Mathematics by : Guillermo Martínez

Download or read book Borges and Mathematics written by Guillermo Martínez and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Borges and Mathematics is a short book of essays that explores the scientific thinking of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Around half of the book consists of two "lectures" focused on mathematics. The rest of the book reflects on the relationship between literature, artistic creation, physics, and mathematics more generally. Written in a way that will be accessible even to those "who can only count to ten," the book presents a bravura demonstration of the intricate links between the worlds of sciences and arts, and it is a thought-provoking call to dialog for readers from both traditions. The author, Guillermo Mart nez, is both a recognized writer, whose murder mystery The Oxford Murders has been translated into thirty-five languages, and a PhD in mathematics. Contents: Borges and Mathematics: First Lecture; Borges and Mathematics: Second Lecture; The Golem and Artificial Intelligence; The Short Story as Logical System; A Margin Too Narrow; Euclid, or the Aesthetics of Mathematical Reasoning; Solutions and Disillusions; The Pythagorean Twins; The Music of Chance (Interview with Gregory Chaikin); Literature and Rationality; Who's Afraid of the Big Bad One?; A Small, Small God; God's Sinkhole. This book was originally published in Spanish as Borges y la matem tica (2003). It has been translated with generous support from the Latino Cultural Center at Purdue University.

Loving and Hating Mathematics

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781400836116
Total Pages : 432 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (361 download)

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Book Synopsis Loving and Hating Mathematics by : Reuben Hersh

Download or read book Loving and Hating Mathematics written by Reuben Hersh and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-13 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mathematics is often thought of as the coldest expression of pure reason. But few subjects provoke hotter emotions--and inspire more love and hatred--than mathematics. And although math is frequently idealized as floating above the messiness of human life, its story is nothing if not human; often, it is all too human. Loving and Hating Mathematics is about the hidden human, emotional, and social forces that shape mathematics and affect the experiences of students and mathematicians. Written in a lively, accessible style, and filled with gripping stories and anecdotes, Loving and Hating Mathematics brings home the intense pleasures and pains of mathematical life. These stories challenge many myths, including the notions that mathematics is a solitary pursuit and a "young man's game," the belief that mathematicians are emotionally different from other people, and even the idea that to be a great mathematician it helps to be a little bit crazy. Reuben Hersh and Vera John-Steiner tell stories of lives in math from their very beginnings through old age, including accounts of teaching and mentoring, friendships and rivalries, love affairs and marriages, and the experiences of women and minorities in a field that has traditionally been unfriendly to both. Included here are also stories of people for whom mathematics has been an immense solace during times of crisis, war, and even imprisonment--as well as of those rare individuals driven to insanity and even murder by an obsession with math. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand why the most rational of human endeavors is at the same time one of the most emotional.

The Book of Sand

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780140180251
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (82 download)

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Book Synopsis The Book of Sand by : Jorge Luis Borges

Download or read book The Book of Sand written by Jorge Luis Borges and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes the stories The Congress, Undr, The Mirror and the Mask, August 25, 1983, Blue Tigers, The Rose of Paracelsus and Shakespeare's Memory.

Beautiful, Simple, Exact, Crazy

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300190891
Total Pages : 480 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Beautiful, Simple, Exact, Crazy by : Apoorva Khare

Download or read book Beautiful, Simple, Exact, Crazy written by Apoorva Khare and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this vibrant work, which is ideal for both teaching and learning, Apoorva Khare and Anna Lachowska explain the mathematics essential for understanding and appreciating our quantitative world. They show with examples that mathematics is a key tool in the creation and appreciation of art, music, and literature, not just science and technology. The book covers basic mathematical topics from logarithms to statistics, but the authors eschew mundane finance and probability problems. Instead, they explain how modular arithmetic helps keep our online transactions safe, how logarithms justify the twelve-tone scale commonly used in music, and how transmissions by deep space probes are similar to knights serving as messengers for their traveling prince. Ideal for coursework in introductory mathematics and requiring no knowledge of calculus, Khare and Lachowska's enlightening mathematics tour will appeal to a wide audience.

American Technological Sublime

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262640343
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis American Technological Sublime by : David E. Nye

Download or read book American Technological Sublime written by David E. Nye and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996-02-28 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Technological Sublime continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America. Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely. Technology has long played a central role in the formation of Americans' sense of selfhood. From the first canal systems through the moon landing, Americans have, for better or worse, derived unity from the common feeling of awe inspired by large-scale applications of technological prowess. American Technological Sublime continues the exploration of the social construction of technology that David Nye began in his award-winning book Electrifying America. Here Nye examines the continuing appeal of the "technological sublime" (a term coined by Perry Miller) as a key to the nation's history, using as examples the natural sites, architectural forms, and technological achievements that ordinary people have valued intensely. American Technological Sublime is a study of the politics of perception in industrial society. Arranged chronologically, it suggests that the sublime itself has a history - that sublime experiences are emotional configurations that emerge from new social and technological conditions, and that each new configuration to some extent undermines and displaces the older versions. After giving a short history of the sublime as an aesthetic category, Nye describes the reemergence and democratization of the concept in the early nineteenth century as an expression of the American sense of specialness. What has filled the American public with wonder, awe, even terror? David Nye selects the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the Erie Canal, the first transcontinental railroad, Eads Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, the major international expositions, the Hudson-Fulton Celebration of 1909, the Empire State Building, and Boulder Dam. He then looks at the atom bomb tests and the Apollo mission as examples of the increasing ambivalence of the technological sublime in the postwar world. The festivities surrounding the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986 become a touchstone reflecting the transformation of the American experience of the sublime over two centuries. Nye concludes with a vision of the modern-day "consumer sublime" as manifested in the fantasy world of Las Vegas.

The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107728827
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (77 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges by : Edwin Williamson

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges written by Edwin Williamson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) was one of the great writers of the twentieth century and the most influential author in the Spanish language of modern times. He had a seminal influence on Latin American literature and a lasting impact on literary fiction in many other languages. However, Borges has been accessible in English only through a number of anthologies drawn mainly from his work of the 1940s and 1950s. The primary aim of this Companion is to provide a more comprehensive account of Borges's oeuvre and the evolution of his writing. It offers critical assessments by leading scholars of the poetry of his youth and the later poetry and fiction, as well as of the 'canonical' volumes of the middle years. Other chapters focus on key themes and interests, and on his influence in literary theory and translation studies.

A Short Stay in Hell

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780983748441
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (484 download)

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Book Synopsis A Short Stay in Hell by : Steven L. Peck

Download or read book A Short Stay in Hell written by Steven L. Peck and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A damned man struggles to find meaning in a library, the dimensions of which are measured in light years.

The Googlization of Everything

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Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520952456
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis The Googlization of Everything by : Siva Vaidhyanathan

Download or read book The Googlization of Everything written by Siva Vaidhyanathan and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-03-13 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point of anarchy, a vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion. Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission—"To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible"—and its much-quoted motto, "Don’t be evil." In this provocative book, Siva Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. He exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He assesses Google’s global impact, particularly in China, and explains the insidious effect of Googlization on the way we think. Finally, Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an Internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful company from falling into the "evil" it pledged to avoid.

Out Of Control

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 078674703X
Total Pages : 528 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Out Of Control by : Kevin Kelly

Download or read book Out Of Control written by Kevin Kelly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

The Information

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Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307379574
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Information by : James Gleick

Download or read book The Information written by James Gleick and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory. Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live. A New York Times Notable Book A Los Angeles Times and Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of the Year Winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

Lost Libraries

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230524257
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Lost Libraries by : J. Raven

Download or read book Lost Libraries written by J. Raven and published by Springer. This book was released on 2004-01-31 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering volume of essays explores the destruction of great libraries since ancient times and examines the intellectual, political and cultural consequences of loss. Fourteen original contributions, introduced by a major re-evaluative history of lost libraries, offer the first ever comparative discussion of the greatest catastrophes in book history from Mesopotamia and Alexandria to the dispersal of monastic and monarchical book collections, the Nazi destruction of Jewish libraries, and the recent horrifying pillage and burning of books in Tibet, Bosnia and Iraq.

Rhythms of the Brain

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199828237
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (998 download)

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Book Synopsis Rhythms of the Brain by : G. Buzsáki

Download or read book Rhythms of the Brain written by G. Buzsáki and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studies of mechanisms in the brain that allow complicated things to happen in a coordinated fashion have produced some of the most spectacular discoveries in neuroscience. This book provides eloquent support for the idea that spontaneous neuron activity, far from being mere noise, is actually the source of our cognitive abilities. It takes a fresh look at the coevolution of structure and function in the mammalian brain, illustrating how self-emerged oscillatory timing is the brain's fundamental organizer of neuronal information. The small-world-like connectivity of the cerebral cortex allows for global computation on multiple spatial and temporal scales. The perpetual interactions among the multiple network oscillators keep cortical systems in a highly sensitive "metastable" state and provide energy-efficient synchronizing mechanisms via weak links. In a sequence of "cycles," György Buzsáki guides the reader from the physics of oscillations through neuronal assembly organization to complex cognitive processing and memory storage. His clear, fluid writing-accessible to any reader with some scientific knowledge-is supplemented by extensive footnotes and references that make it just as gratifying and instructive a read for the specialist. The coherent view of a single author who has been at the forefront of research in this exciting field, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in our rapidly evolving understanding of the brain.

Our Cosmic Origins

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521794800
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (948 download)

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Book Synopsis Our Cosmic Origins by : A. H. Delsemme

Download or read book Our Cosmic Origins written by A. H. Delsemme and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 1998 book examines the remarkable story of the emergence of life and intelligence through the complex evolutionary history of the Universe.

The Total Art of Stalinism

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Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1844678091
Total Pages : 145 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (446 download)

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Book Synopsis The Total Art of Stalinism by : Boris Groys

Download or read book The Total Art of Stalinism written by Boris Groys and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the ruins of communism, Boris Groys emerges to provoke our interest in the aesthetic goals pursued with such catastrophic consequences by its founders. Interpreting totalitarian art and literature in the context of cultural history, this brilliant essay likens totalitarian aims to the modernists’ goal of producing world-transformative art. In this new edition, Groys revisits the debate that the book has stimulated since its first publication.