Borges’ forking paths and the hyperlinked world

August 24th, 2011 by David Bradley >> No Comments

The Garden of Forking Paths is a 1941 short story by Jorge Luis Borges, born 112 years ago today. The story is considered by many to be the basis for what we know today as our digital world of hyperlinks and the World Wide Web. Replace “book” with “web” in Borges’ story, says Danny Goodwin, and you could be discussing a gigantic story (in the online world that mirrors ours) that can be read multiple ways in non-linear fashion, with an endless series of consequences (or destinations)…sound familiar?

Anyway, Google celebrates Borges with one if its infamous Google Doodles today:

Google Doodles 112th Birthday of Argentine Author Jorge Luis Borges (techie-buzz.com)
Hypertext Visionary Jorge Luis Borges Celebrated with Google Logo (searchenginewatch.com)
A brief survey of the short story part 27: Jorge Luis Borges (guardian.co.uk)
Legendary Buenos Aires cafe to make way for Nike shop (guardian.co.uk)
Macedonio Fernández: The Man Who Invented Borges (readysteadybook.com)

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