The Secret Mathematicians: Jorge Luis Borges - Marcus Du Sautoy

Marcus Du Sautoy investigates the writings of Argentine master, Jorge Luis Borges, seeking its mathematical underpinnings. Looking both at the life of the man and his texts, specifically ‘The Library of Babel’ Professor Du Sautoy shows how this singular author has found a way to describe the shape of an infinite universe that eerily mirrors the thinking of modern mathematicians.
This is a short extract from a Gresham Lecture. You can enjoy the lecture in full on our website: www.gresham.ac....
Marcus Du Sautoy OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and he’s interested in how Maths and the Arts work together and how similar processes underlie them.
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/...

[@socotroquito2007]

Borges in the "refutation of Nietzche's eternal return "has a magnificient reasoning on how the immensity of the of combinations in the laws that govern partcles and permutatios that exist in our universe make an eternal return practically impossible , he was in a sense using Cantor's method and theory of sets to allow a finite set of terms or particles do an infinite set of permutations making the same exact conditions of the begining impossible to be replicated in practical terms

[@nose766]

As a physicist, I felt that he should've read a bit more of statistical mechanics before writing that story.
But it was great, nevertheless!! Classical Borges, all masterpieces

[@sebastiangreco6482]

Borges was SO MUCH MORE, he wasnt a librerian, he directed the National Librerian for several years. And he not only wrote short stories, but also a lot more, including poems.
Actually, i highly recomend you not only look up his life, but also to read Fictions..

[@alembertnaruto]

A large number of marvellous books

[@sloaiza81]

Borges was a bad ass.

[@PapaCubScout]

Clearly and succinctly well stated. B was a BA.

[@Pantano63]

It's "Luis" not "lui"

[@ALMAFUERTE3244]

Borges and 10 more. And we´ll win the World Cup...

[@VertPimpin]

I disagree with the notion that it’s unlikely that we are being filmed in a game show lol

[@AlqGo]

Finite but boundary-less
interesting

[@kathysoiio]

gorgeous explanation!

[@kontrapunkti]

Awesome_!

[@patavinity1262]

The Library of Babel is such a boring choice.

[@oliden1]

Patavinity learn to read

[@malzzzzification25]

Sure is boring for short minds.

[@pabloalvarez2162]

Keep reading comics.