If we live in a simulation in Jorge Luis Borges’s world, an infinite series of Babylon Lottery determines each of our next move in the infinite Garden of Forking Paths, and each of our next expression drawn from the infinite Library of Babel.
Tag: Borges
Borges on Bitcoin Forks
How I imagine Jorge Luis Borges would write about Bitcoin: In Bitcoin we find the idiosyncrasies of each of its forks to a greater or lesser degree. Every fork modifies our conception of the original Bitcoin, as it will modify the future. If the forks had never existed, we would not perceive the qualities in… Continue reading Borges on Bitcoin Forks
A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
In vernacular Chinese, the Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) by Cao Xueqin (曹雪芹) is regarded as the supreme novel. In classical Chinese, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊齋誌異) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡) has the equivalent status. Mao Zedong claimed to have read the Red Chamber five times. I say you need to read Strange Tales two times. Read it in English the first… Continue reading A Guide to Reading Pu Songling
An Anthology on Juxtaposition
Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. -- Zhuangzi (莊子) Did he appear, because I fell asleep thinking of him? If only I'd known I was dreaming I'd never have wakened. -- Ono no… Continue reading An Anthology on Juxtaposition
We Exist for a Book
Staring into the dreamy Shanghai dusk, a few lines of verse cross my mind: The candle died, the water-clock was exhausted, I rose and sat, but could not be at peace. Man's affairs are like the flow of floodwater, A life is just like floating in a dream. A few years ago, an up-and-coming musician… Continue reading We Exist for a Book
The Half-Life of Information
Facebookers write for the next few minutes or hours. Newspapermen write for the next few days. Corporate entertainers (consultants, economists, and all sorts of "thought leaders") write for the next few months or, more rarely, years. A minority of academics write for the next decade or beyond. Men of letters write for time and for… Continue reading The Half-Life of Information
Andy Yee 