The author goes on to say, “Like all the men of the Library, in my younger days I traveled I have journeyed in a quest of a book, perhaps the catalog of catalogs. The rooms represent neighboring counties or cities, depending on the location. “Through this space, too, there passes a spiral staircase, which winds upward and downward into the remotest distance.” This must be talking about some type of road system that winds through a mountainous area witch takes you through out the universe from room to room. Next the essay talks about a spiral staircase. There must be some type of king or ruler that is very strict and everyone fears. This means that the people of this universe are not individuals, they are followers. It also talks about the arrangement of all the galleries being the same. One is for sleeping, upright: the other, for satisfying one’s physical needs.” In this universe people only have a place to sleep and the basic needs for survival. Later in the first paragraph is says, “ To the left and right of the vestibule are two tiny compartments. The first line of the essay states, “The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries.” This means that the “Library is the universe and that the hexagonal galleries are the infinite number of galaxies in the universe. I had lots of trouble trying to understand what this writing meant, so here is my best shot. When I read the essay, “The Library of Babel,” I became very confused. Link 3: Google Map of Manchester, England I agree with Johnson’s ideas about intelligence not being property of the individual, but a characteristic of the whole system where you live. There is not just one person in charge of the world tell everyone what to do, people just live and do what they have to do to survive. Individuals rely on others in a subconscious way to survive. The ants can only survive if they all work together in this amazing system. The queen does not enforce these rules or force any of the ants to do anything it is just part of their nature needed to survive. The rules that the ants of the colony follow are not explained, the ants are born into this system and must learn to adapt. Their genes instruct them to protect their mother, the same way their genes instruct them to forage for food.” This shows that intelligence is not a property of the individual and it is a characteristic of the whole system. The harvester ants carry the queen off to her escape hatch to do so not because they’ve been ordered to by their leader: they do it because the queen is responsible for giving birth to all the members of the colony, and so it’s in the colony’s best interest – and the colony’s gene pool- to keep the queen safe. She does not decide which worked does what.” Then she goes on to say, “It would be physically impossible for the queen to direct every worker’s decision about which task to perform and when. She lays eggs and is fed and cared for by the workers. A quote from Gordon explains the true role of the ‘queen’ ant, “the queen is not an authority figure. He compares this part of the colony to the cramped conditions of the New York subway system during rush hour. Then he sees that the whole colony is wonderfully alive, the cluster of ants in steadily moving. First he discovered how many ants are jammed into a small area which at first just looks like dirt. Johnson observed Deborah Gordon’s ant colony and found several interesting things about it. The first example Johnson uses is a colony of ants. To show this, Johnson looks at examples of complex systems, such as ant colonies, cities, and the internet to show that intelligence of the whole system emerges in the absence of any central form of leadership or authority by individuals following some set of rules. Johnson tries to show us that intelligence is not a property of the individual, but that it’s a characteristic that emerges out of a system working as a whole. The essay “The Myth of the Ant Queen,” by Steven Johnson deals with the nature of intelligence.
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