One of the cur­rent exhi­bi­tions being held in the Musée du Lou­vre, Paris has been curated by author and con­sis­tent top intel­lec­tual, Umberto Eco. The Infin­ity of Lists, as the exhi­bi­tion is called, looks at the human fas­ci­na­tion with lists and how they have pro­gressed cul­tures.

What does cul­ture want? To make infin­ity com­pre­hen­si­ble. It also wants to cre­ate order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infin­ity? How does one attempt to grasp the incom­pre­hen­si­ble? Through lists, through cat­a­logs, through col­lec­tions in muse­ums and through ency­clo­pe­dias and dictionaries.

But why do we feel this need to com­pre­hend and face infinity?

We have a limit, a very dis­cour­ag­ing, humil­i­at­ing limit: death. That’s why we like all the things that we assume have no lim­its and, there­fore, no end. It’s a way of escap­ing thoughts about death. We like lists because we don’t want to die.

Sug­gest­ing that Google is “a tragedy” for the young as they lack (or, more cor­rectly, they are not taught) basic infor­ma­tion lit­er­acy, Eco notes his obvi­ous dis­like of rote learning.

Cul­ture isn’t know­ing when Napoleon died. Cul­ture means know­ing how I can find out in two min­utes. Of course, nowa­days I can find this kind of infor­ma­tion on the Inter­net in no time.

This inter­view with Der Spiegel ends with a quote I must try to remember:

If you inter­act with things in your life, every­thing is con­stantly chang­ing. And if noth­ing changes, you’re an idiot.