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The Library of Babel, infinite monkeys, signals and noise : Some People Juggle Geese

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With reference to the trendy game Wordle and the expertise of James Joyce, someone in the Classic Literature Group on Facebook made a post asking, “What do the writers think of this idea, that every book is simply a different combo of 26 letters?” Oh, boy… You forgot capital letters! My native language has letters with diacritics! What about Chinese LOL! The point is not how many symbols there are in a written or other symbolic system. The point is that any finite set of symbols is utterly minuscule compared to what can be created from them. The question seems to be, How can anything important or interesting be made from such a small number of insignificant, boring little thingies? But the truth is, everything, important and interesting or not, is made of those boring little thingies. They are the definition of significant. They signify. Someone palpably wistful said, “The difference between my bank account and [that of] the richest person in the world is just 10 little numbers arrange

With reference to the trendy game Wordle and the expertise of James Joyce, someone in the Classic Literature Group on Facebook made a post asking, “What do the writers think of this idea, that every book is simply a different combo of 26 letters?” Oh, boy… Missing the Point You forgot capital letters! My native language has letters with diacritics! What about Chinese LOL! The point is not how many symbols there are in a written or other symbolic system. The point is that any finite set of symbols is utterly minuscule compared to what can be created from them. The Power of Sym

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