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owen-c — The Library of Babel
Published: 2011-05-21 19:27:49 +0000 UTC; Views: 43345; Favourites: 1048; Downloads: 1705
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Description
Part of a series of backgrounds that I did for the visual novel Songs of Araiah.More information at www.vnovel.info
The name is my own title (a reference to Borges), it does not relate to the visual novel which it was created for.
All images © 2011 vNovel Interactive
Thanks again to them for allowing promotional use of the image
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Comments: 76
Very cool, someone who's read it... I always think of a lot of his works as just natural extrapolations of creating some impossible object... of course in library of babel there's lots of commentary about perhaps a religious/scientific search for truth and the ways various people interpret books...
I also heard it was somewhat of a reaction to his then current job at the national library in Argentina, where he would secretly work on stories on the job... supposedly the structure of that library is similar.
As for my image, there's no relation at all to the story...just a commissioned piece for something else that I needed a deviantart title for. It was a huge library, and I had recently read the story so it came to mind. Cool to see from your favorites though, that there's actual representations of the story that people have done here. I recognize the architecture (hexagonal forms).... Would like to attempt that sometime.
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I got into his works when I began my study into the workings of alternate universes, and physics related to such. His works came around and I found it very fitting and helpful to what I hope to create. What I'm trying to acheive is something along the lines of David Langford's Internet rendition of the Library of Babel.
Mine is a story about how a race of aliens manage to encode the universe into a supercomputer, and live among its workings trying to perpetually deciper it. The Library of Babel helps alot in my creative process of this universal computer.
That's hilarious. I work on stories on the job too...
When I read it, I searched for modern interpretations of the Library and found some great renditions. I love how deviantART pretty much has enough artists to cover all topics. 
I'd love to see it sometime! You have a great talent with scenery! Very aesthetically pleasing.
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I've worked on my own personal 3D images on the job as well..
Apparently one of his co-workers was talking about stories by Jorge Luis Borges and thought it was just amazing there was a famous author with the same name... didn't even think that it would be the same person...
Sounds like a pretty interesting concept. Though I mostly do visual art, I also write stories of a metaphysical bent from time to time... I like to think I am inspired by Borges, Calvino etc for concepts but am much behind them of course
Computer wise I have one about a computer whose purpose is to analyze surveillance camera films of a whole city... at some point the city is abandoned and only a day worth of footage remains... which slowly gets edited and re-edited by another machine to become more scrambled until eventually the image is lost. The narration is all its strange attempts to rationalize the situation, like thinking that people have learned how to teleport and manipulate time.
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I'm attempting a novel series that will bring moral issues to question through a science fiction tragedy, in attempts to get people to ask themselves questions I will elaborate in the plotline. And metaphysical writers help mold the links to each story.
That's very interesting...I'd love to read it sometime!
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Interesting, sounds like an ambitious project. I do like the bit you mentioned earlier of encoding the universe into a supercomputer to analyze it... do the same things happen in the virtual universe as the real one after the data is recorded, or do events between the two diverge? Or are they somehow synced through continual updating
If you are interested in reading it, the story I mention is part of my sort of loose disjointed first "book":
[link]
It's the chapter called 'The Last Days of Panopticon'.. though the other panopticon related chapters are recommended for a bit of background, but probably not necessary
Actually funny enough the story right after 'last days of panopticon' involves a computer analyzing a stored model of the world where events now differ from reality.
You may find the rest of the book interesting, though it's sort of a collection of drafts since I hate revising and it didn't garner much interest.
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Have you ever heard of the concept of Akashic Record? Generally that's what the server is based on. Through a technology far beyond our own, a race was able to access the Akashic Record through utility of a "braneworld", turning their supercomputer into a "Library of Babel" as they try to interpret the universe through the use of their virtual one. Their absolute goal is to discover ultimate perfection, attempting to confine the universe to "utopia" but ultimately getting nowhere as they have yet to even begin unraveling the universe.
They have control over their virtual universe based on our own, but there has to be "observers" constantly maintaining the server so there are no deviations, often leaving them confined to a machine for the extent of their life. But as it is a supercomputer that is tapped into the Akashic Record, it is updated automatically (since the universal record is updated on its own). The aliens just have to struggle to maintain it.
And that's where the moral questions come to play. The aliens study our universal structures (our universe and its cross-times and parallels) and find all kinds of ideas of the perfect society, which they try their hardest to recreate within their computer world. So cities in the virtual universe live on ideologies that may severely contrast with their neighbors. Some, too impatient to attempt to go through the servers, travel to worlds to observe and sometimes even abduct subjects from the real universe to place in the virtual universe under various conditions to force them to recreate society. (like placing an animal in captivity to see how it manages)
^ wow, that's alot of info. 
Great!
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That is mind bending... sounds awfully intriguing. I hadn't heard before of Akashic record and sounds like a cool mystical/occult thing that makes me want to pay lipservice to it somewhere.
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I'm really glad that it interests you! One of the biggest fears I have is indifference to the series, so this means alot!
More info on the Akashic Record: [link]
And IMO I thought that access to so much information would create a "Library of Babel" setting.
And if it's no problem to you, would you like to watch the group page, perhaps join as a member?
I just posted a core synopsis, a little more detailed then what I posted in my reply comment.
Thanks again!
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A couple of friends and are creating a game, and we would like to use this art image in our game, if everything's alright with you can we use it? You'll be given credit and everything.
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Thanks, I'm glad that you would like to use it but I'm afraid this is a commissioned work (for another game actually, a visual novel) and I don't own the full rights to it. Sorry
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this is awesome!! i would live there C:
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You want to live in a library? I guess that could be pretty cool.
Funny thing though, this was a commission and the title was added later for upload, but the title comes from a story about a group of people who spend all of their lives in an infinite library with no world outside of it. Interesting story it is
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yeah, it sounds pretty cool!
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Wonderful! I greatly look forward to the day I am purchase the final products of your work; it's brilliant!
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What a marvelously fantastical scene!
I absolutely adore it!
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I do have to comment though on one thing though. always been a fan of 2d more. I love this cause you gave it a 2d look. despite being 3d. seriously looks like a background on Ghost in the shell or something. Kind of look I love in 2d features. wether 3 or 2 D
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I think you have summed up things pretty well. I have always been a fan of 2D more as well, though I was introduced to 3D early on and I have much more experience with it. So mostly my influences come from 2D works which is where I take my composition and lighting/color cues from. As well I do not over-texture things (I am prone actually to under-texturing them) and do quite a bit of post processing to achieve a look which is slightly painterly and not as sharply defined as straight 3D.
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Oh my gosh, I adore this! Look at all those books!
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