Mind as index, not library

Borges’ Library of Babel, as rendered by JWZ

I’m writing a novel at the moment. Part of it takes place in the Sahara, in a newly built city which has sprung up around a military base. I wanted a name for it, something evocative.

I thought for a while. I knew that there had been mythical cities in the desert - places that travellers swore they had seen but could never find again. I just couldn’t remember any of their names.

So what did I do? Googled it of course. I searched "Africa desert mythical city” and presto! A Wikipedia page on the fabled oasis city of Zerzura popped up. Perfect.

Anyone who reads my book and realises that Zerzura is named after an ancient myth might think I had an impressive knowledge of mythology (unless they also read this blog) - but of course I don’t. I just knew that there had been something like that, and I knew how to find out the name of it.

I knew the form of knowledge, not the content.

This is the way our access to knowledge has been shifting ever since we were able to externalise it - first via the written word, and exponentially more so since knowledge has become digitised. Increasingly, we no longer need to know stuff, we just need to know how to find it.

I’m reminded of Borges’ Library of Babel - a nearly infinite collection of all possible versions of a 410-page book, which contains within it every story, every discovery, every single piece of possible knowledge. The catch? It’s drowned in a vast ocean of utter gibberish - and, far more perniciously, in books which seem to contain genuine knowledge but are in fact false.

What a perfect allegory for the Internet.

The Librarians of Babel spend all their lives searching for the Holy Grail - the book in the library which is the Index to the locations of all the other true and useful books (probably including lots of sub-indices as well).

That is what we need our minds to be in this digital age: an index. We no longer need to know the names of mythical desert cities, we just need to know that there were some, and how to look them up.

Rather than drumming in lists of facts, schools should focus on how to search for and evaluate information. We should allow children to use the Internet in their exams - and reward those who can best tame the vast wilderness of information out there. That would be a much better preparation for real life than learning the names of Henry VIII’s wives.

PS - how amazing is Borges? If you haven’t read him, check him out. Imagination like no other.

PPS - some legend called Jonathan Basile has created a digital version of the Library of Babel. Search for your name, or the date of your death, or what you will have for lunch today. It’s all in there…along with an infinity of red herrings….