Borges

Just read a fascinating NYTimes article on Borges and the digitization of information. I read a few of the essays this article mentions in Labyrinths, which is really an amazing collection of stories, many of which deal with topics in literature, text, and information. 

In "The Library of Babel," I was struck by the way Borges presented a highly theoretical conception of knowledge in an extremely physical way: much of his discussion centers around the physicality of the library, its volumes, its size, and its specific organization. Yet, the library is impossible to visualize for the very scope that Borges assigns to it, eternal and all-encompassing, defies visualization. Thus, I began to consider the relationship between physicality and the internet, and the way the internet's scope also defies visualization. This defiance is an important aspect, I believe, of the hesitancy surrounding digital information - the information has no clear physical form or manifestation. 

"The universe, which others call the library..." Labyrinths, 51.