{"id":2508,"date":"2013-04-22T16:40:24","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T16:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/?p=2508"},"modified":"2019-08-27T08:20:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T08:20:54","slug":"babel-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/04\/22\/babel-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Babel Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a box which has the ability to transform the nature of a book placed within it, in such a way that the audience (what may be considered the direction to which the author intends their ideas) is changed to a new, specific, target. The box only changes the one book which has been placed inside it, and all other similar books – including those books with otherwise identical text – remain true to their original stance.<\/p>\n

It is possible that this technology could be modified, and that boxes might be created that alter other\u00a0transcendental\u00a0properties of a text…<\/p>\n

Etymology: The box was a necessary creation in Borges’ Library of Babel[I]<\/sup><\/a>, when the promise of every possible text was realized to contain an inherent limitation. Borges, although not the creator of the box – merely one of the library’s curators – considered that an identical text might have two different authors, and thus may be considered to have predicted its invention.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div><\/div>\n
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[I]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0“”The Library of<\/strong> Babel<\/strong>” (Spanish:\u00a0La <\/em>biblioteca de Babel) is a\u00a0short story\u00a0by\u00a0Argentine\u00a0author and\u00a0librarian\u00a0Jorge Luis Borges\u00a0(1899\u20131986), conceiving of a\u00a0universe\u00a0in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format and\u00a0character set.” For further details see\u00a0https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Library_of_Babel<\/a><\/em>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a box which has the ability to transform the nature of a book placed within it, in such a way that the audience (what may be considered the direction to which the author intends their ideas) is changed to a new, specific, target. The box only changes the one book which has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,198,242,247],"tags":[248],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-2508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-book-review","category-evernote-entries","category-literature","tag-borges"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1706,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/10\/17\/the-writing-of-the-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":0},"title":"The Writing of the God","author":"Pala","date":"October 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This is Shai's first dedicated write-up relating to Jorge Luis Borges. Borges is referenced in two earlier essays and between Jan 2010 and Nov 2017 is referenced by Shai 17 times. The Writing of the God\u00a0(Spanish:\u00a0La Escritura del Dios; also sometimes entitled\u00a0The God's Script) is a short story\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1711,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/12\/reflections-on-the-human-condition-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":1},"title":"Reflections on the Human Condition","author":"Pala","date":"November 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Three books collide in my mind and make me reflect on the human condition. Please\u00a0excuse\u00a0me. 1.\u00a0T.S. Eliot\u00a0wrote\u00a0that\u00a0April is the cruellest month\u00a0because it reminds us of renewal; once,\u00a0long ago, a\u00a0woman\u00a0asked the gods for immortality but forgot to ask for eternal youth. She begs to die and the renewal of spring in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1776,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2011\/05\/03\/mere-christianity-br-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":2},"title":"Mere Christianity (BR)","author":"Pala","date":"May 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This Book Review was found as a 'draft' entry in Everything2 with the Summary section missing. It was last updated on 03\/05\/2011. C.S. Lewis\u00a0is the British\u00a0author\u00a0best known for writing the\u00a0Narnia\u00a0series of books, but he also authored a number of books that discussed his religious beliefs, including this one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1115,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2017\/10\/02\/noodles-and-lunar-fruit\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":3},"title":"Noodles and Lunar Fruit","author":"Pala","date":"October 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: One of Shai's special skills was writing short stories in a style used by famous authors. The two short stories below are a reflection of these attempts. The first written in the writing style of the American-British novelist and screenwriter, Raymond Chandler[I] and the second in the writing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":197,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/10\/07\/souls-and-higher-consciousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":4},"title":"Souls and higher consciousness","author":"Pala","date":"October 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: The article begins with a comparison between the \u2018self\u2019 and the \u2018soul\u2019. The \u2018self\u2019 is a term usually used in psychological dissertations and is the subject of several developmental theories. The \u2018soul\u2019, however, is a theological\/philosophical term that is not subjected to the same pattern of developmental changes.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2605,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/07\/22\/planning-a-future-for-this-meta-journal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2508,"position":5},"title":"Planning a future for this meta-journal","author":"Pala","date":"July 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the perennial tasks involved in the maintenance and productivity of this (for want of a brief title) meta-journal are those related to transferring data from other sources to this location. I list the following in the format of\u00a0check-boxes, despite perennial nature of these tasks, and that is due to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-Es","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2508"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=2508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}