Response to Articles: "The World-Wide Web" and "The Library of Babel"
In his article, "The World-Wide Web," Tim Berners-Lee sets out to create a guide for what at the time was a novel concept: the World-Wide Web. Written in 1994, the article was published only five years after he had invented the internet itself, meaning the functions, capacity, and universal use of the internet were nowhere near as advanced as they are today. Nevertheless, the basic guidelines he wrote in his 1994 article are still applicable and important for us to look back on if we want to understand the very basic technical functions of the World-Wide Web.
In a similar yet contrasting tone, Jorge Luis Borges takes us through a theoretical journey of “the library” in his piece “The Library of Babel.” Borges uses the library as a representation of the universe, which he first describes literally, speaking specifically of the shapes of which it is comprised. His imagery is vivid and allows the reader to quantify and create a picture of what is a representation of a vast collection of information. While his description of the library seems physical, it is really an abstract portrayal of the information that is in our universe. It is the fabric of the universe, storing different languages and experiences, a path through the past, present, and future.
The World-Wide Web operates through a series of different functions which each play a role in providing us access to the internet. The main components of the World-Wide Web are “the address system (URI),... the network protocol (HTTP),... and the markup language (HTML).” (Berners-Lee, 793) Each of these components is necessary to be able to realize the idea of a boundless world of information where everything has a reference by which it can be retrieved. To any individual with little experience in this complex field, it is difficult to understand how all of these separate components work together, must less what makes them work separately. Simply, they are all a collection of zeroes and ones, a language that gives way to the plethora of different languages whose information they store. While the Library of Babel does not operate according to the same functions, the information which it stores is also made up of indecipherable “code” which, in turn, creates for the possibility of the information which it possesses. Man is subject to all of this information, yet unlike the information in the World-Wide Web, he has not intentionally created it.
It is also important to note that while not everybody has the opportunity to use the World-Wide Web, it was created with the objective to be an accessible platform to those who are able to use it. The Library of Babel, however, is not as straightforward. There is certain information that cannot be accessed by all, yet there seems to be no clear reasoning given by the author as to why. Here, only interpretations can be made as to not all knowledge is attainable or even comprehensible in this library. Maybe it is because the library was indeed not created by humans and therefore only few are granted the privilege of having access to more of the library. Or maybe it is to keep people who may not do good with certain information from using it in a negligent way. One may only keep guessing.