LOC Serendipity: Curated and Randomly Generated Selections from the Library of Congress
One of the practical uses of randomness is to reintroduce serendipity into our lives. Our algorithmic world imposes filters and timelines sorted by interest and by intent or accident tends to keep us in the bubble that we already know about. As our searches get better we lose the chance to see what book just happens to be on the next shelf in the library. We’ve gotten better at finding the things we know about and worse at discovering the things we never suspected existed.
Enter LOC Serendipity: a random selection of books from (a subset of) the Library of Congress. There are books here you’ve never heard of, and never would have heard of if you hadn’t clicked on the link. While each individual book is likely to be forgettable, there’s always the chance that you’ll encounter something that will change your life. (Libraries are dangerous!)
The OuLiPo writers talked about the clinamen, the unpredictable swerve that “makes creation possible by introducing chance and spontaneity in an ordered universe”. The problem with a life that is too well-managed is that disruptions can only be bad. Serendipity can introduce the possibility of a good surprise. And I don’t know about you, but I think my life can always use unexpected pleasantness.
Though sorting through the books also highlights how a lot of books are pretty terrible, following Sturgeon’s Law. Since the works here are from the subset of the LOC that are freely available, the 19th century public domain books are over-represented. There are good things in there, but also a lot of racism, discredited pseudoscience, and similar dismal discoveries. That’s one of my concerned about copyright and the public domain: as our machines learn from the data they have available, the part that isn’t locked away has biases that need to be taken into account before you can use them. Less draconian copyright with shorter terms would be a collective benefit.