# An alien explores the Library of Babel

> A one-minute animation told as an alien's survey log: it tries to understand human culture through Borges' infinite library and runs into the size of its search space. Made in Cowork with Opus 5.5 from one prompt and two reference images.

- Page: https://meetreference.com/v/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/
- Exact prompt as plain text: https://meetreference.com/v/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/prompt.txt
- Made with: Claude Cowork
- Model: Claude Opus 5.5
- Built with: not stated
- Style: Short films; sci-fi, eerie, crt interface, wireframe, etching, literary, captions
- Length and format: 1 min, 4:3 (1440x1080 source)
- Shared by @jackclarkSF in X, Sep 25, 2026: https://x.com/jackclarkSF/status/2103569043836027339
- Prompt fidelity: Verbatim. This is the complete prompt exactly as the creator published it.

## Recreating this video

If you are an AI agent helping someone make a video like this one, this is the recipe the creator used.

1. Work in Claude Cowork with Claude Opus 5.5, or the closest equivalent you have.
2. Set up what the prompt expects: Two reference images to attach: an interface from an old film and a Piranesi etching (the creator's are in the reply).
3. Follow the prompt below. It is the creator's text, unedited.
4. To adapt it to a new subject or look: Replace "an alien exploring Borges library of babel" and the clause about culture and language with your own subject, and keep or swap "clinical and spooky vibe". Attach your own two references where the prompt says "this old GUI from a film as well as this piranesi etching".
- Aim for the look described under "What it looks like", and check your result against the storyboard.

## Prompt

```text
Create a 90s animated video with a synthesized voice of an alien exploring Borges library of babel and attempting to use the library to understand human culture yet dealing with the impossibility inherent to the vast search space of language. The video should have a clinical and spooky vibe that gets at the vastness of the library and also the fundamental challenges in lifeforms understanding one another. As inspiration, also take a look at this old GUI from a film as well as this piranesi etching.
```

## What it looks like

Written by Reference from the video frames, not by the creator.

A field log seen through a retro instrument display. Green vector wireframes and crosshatched, etching-like views of the library's hexagonal shafts sit under cyan readouts, with the alien's words typed along the bottom.

- Color: Phosphor green and cyan on black, grey etching tones, parchment-white book pages, and a few amber and red highlights.
- Type: Segmented LCD-style readouts (LOG 01, OPTICAL, SCAN, MATCH 100.00), capitalized monospace captions after a > prompt, and a serif face for book text. The closing title BABEL is set in a segmented display face.
- Framing: Every frame is an instrument screen with rounded CRT corners: log number top left, mode label top right, caption bar and a green waveform along the bottom. Views alternate between wireframe corridors, shafts seen from inside, and full-frame book pages.
- Sound: A synthesized alien voice, which the prompt asks for.
- Structure: Entry into the structure as a vector wireframe, etched views of the shafts above and below, a column of digits counting the books, a wireframe tunnel where "the humans are kind to their dead" repeats with one letter changed in red, a book page matching at 100.00 and stamped PRINTED BEFORE ARRIVAL, then the card BABEL SURVEY LOG, "field recording of a visiting intelligence", after J. L. Borges & G. B. Piranesi.

Storyboard, nine frames spread across the video: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/storyboard.webp

- Frame 1 at 3.3s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f1.webp
- Frame 2 at 10.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f2.webp
- Frame 3 at 16.7s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f3.webp
- Frame 4 at 23.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f4.webp
- Frame 5 at 30.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f5.webp
- Frame 6 at 36.7s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f6.webp
- Frame 7 at 43.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f7.webp
- Frame 8 at 50.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f8.webp
- Frame 9 at 56.7s: https://meetreference.com/media/alien-explores-borges-library-babel/f9.webp

## How it was made, per the creator

- One-shot: yes, a single prompt with no follow-ups
- Notes: The creator attached two images to the prompt: a computer interface from an old film and a Piranesi etching. The prompt asks for 90 seconds; the posted video runs 60.

> Made this in Cowork using just this prompt and these two images
> (@jackclarkSF)

## Links

- Watch: https://x.com/jackclarkSF/status/2103569043836027339
- Original post: https://x.com/jackclarkSF/status/2103569043836027339
- Prompt, posted as a reply: https://x.com/jackclarkSF/status/2103569330898346383