This tablet needs WebGL to be read.

The Lottery in Babylon

Jorge Luis Borges, 1941, translated here

You are a man of Babylon at the quay; a ship waits at the rope behind you. Press your thumb into the clay and you enter the lottery that runs this city. Every mark you make will be answered: a game, then a prison, then a record kept by a hand you never see. At the end the sun is yours, and the light decides what was there.

Press the thumb hollow below to begin.

How to read this tablet

Mouse and keyboard

Drag to look.
Click the thing the line under the bar names: the clay, a token, a lion’s mouth, a tablet.
Space does what the stamp in the bar does.
On the quay, W A S D or the arrows walk.
In the drawing, hold Space or turn the wheel to descend.
Esc closes any tablet. ? opens this one. N opens the archive.

Touch

Drag to look.
Tap the thing the line under the bar names: the clay, a token, a lion’s mouth, a tablet.
On the quay, the clay pad at the lower left walks.
In the drawing, hold the stamp in the bar to descend.
On the deck, the groove in the bar raises the sun.

About this tablet

The seal is never shown: only its impressions exist, read by one low sun. The lottery is chance, seeded once for your visit. The archive changes its tablets on purpose whenever they leave your view. The cuneiform is invented and says nothing. There is no Company object anywhere in the scene, and no hand but yours.