# Literature’s Foretelling: How Borges Anticipated Scientific Insights
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Chapter 1: The Visionary Imagination of Borges
“Writing is merely a guided dream.” — Jorge Luis Borges
Literature often anticipates the advancements of modern science, as the creativity of writers can unveil truths that remain hidden from scientists. Jorge Luis Borges, the renowned Argentinian author, possessed this exceptional foresight.
In 1942, Borges published a short story in the prominent Argentinian newspaper La Nación that remarkably foreshadowed yet-to-be-explored facets of the human brain. This tale, titled "Funes the Memorious," revolves around a character named Ireneo Funes. The story begins with the fictional Borges meeting Funes while traveling to the Uruguayan village of Fray Bentos in 1884. When Borges inquires about the time, Funes responds with an exact recounting of the minutes without even glancing at his watch.
After a brief visit to Fray Bentos, Borges returns three years later, in 1887, intending to spend some quiet time in the village with a collection of Latin texts, including Pliny’s Historia Naturalis. Shortly after his arrival, he receives a note from Funes's mother, informing him of a tragic accident that left Funes paralyzed after a horse fall. She requests that Borges lend some of his books to her son. Borges obliges, sending his Latin texts, doubtful that Funes could manage to read them given his unfamiliarity with the language.
Days later, Borges receives an urgent telegram from Buenos Aires regarding his father's health. While packing, he realizes he has left Pliny's work with Funes. When he visits Funes, he is astonished to find Funes reciting Pliny’s text flawlessly in Latin. The accident had robbed Funes of his ability to move, yet gifted him with an extraordinary capacity for memory, allowing him to remember every detail he had ever encountered.
“Funes remembered not only every leaf of every tree in every wood, but also every instance he had perceived or imagined it.” — Borges, Funes the Memorious
Funes's remarkable gift of memory came at a cost; while he could recite Pliny's work verbatim, he struggled to grasp its meaning. His inability to think abstractly left him trapped in a web of details.
“He was nearly incapable of grasping general ideas. It troubled him that the dog seen from one angle at three fourteen shared a name with the same dog seen from another angle at three fifteen.” — Borges, Funes the Memorious
Additionally, Funes found it impossible to sleep, as Borges notes that “to sleep is to turn one’s mind away from the world.” Funes's mind was perpetually occupied with memorizing the minutiae of existence, leaving no room for rest.
The Science Behind Ireneo Funes
Fast forward 79 years after the release of Borges's tale, and we find Ian McGilchrist, a psychiatrist and literary scholar from Oxford, publishing The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World. This extensive work, comprising 2000 pages, integrates neuropsychology, metaphysics, and epistemology.
One central theme of McGilchrist’s book discusses the distinct functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
“The LH mainly focuses on manipulating the world, whereas the RH seeks to understand the world in its entirety and our relationship to it.” — McGilchrist
McGilchrist illustrates how both hemispheres interpret our surroundings differently. To highlight this, he cites the survival challenges faced by animals, which must balance focused attention on immediate needs (LH) with a broader awareness of their environment to avoid predators (RH).
In essence, the LH is concerned with specifics and practicalities, while the RH captures the larger context, encompassing what is not immediately evident.
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The connection between McGilchrist's insights and Borges's story about Funes is striking. After his accident, Funes lost access to the capacities linked with the RH of the brain, which includes the ability to think abstractly.
“The LH tends to perceive things as explicit and devoid of context, while the RH appreciates them as implicit and situated within a broader framework.” — McGilchrist
This is precisely what Funes lacked; he was unable to understand general concepts, could not dream, and interpreted everything literally.
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Funes even struggled to recognize himself, as Borges articulates: “His own reflection in the mirror surprised him each time he saw it.”
The depth of McGilchrist’s work is impressive, with approximately 300 pages dedicated to citations from reputable neuroscientists who have explored the LH and RH dichotomy and its impact on consciousness.
Among them is Roger Sperry, a Nobel laureate recognized for his pioneering research on split-brain phenomena. Most discoveries in this area, however, have emerged in recent decades, whereas Borges's visionary storytelling articulated similar concepts five decades earlier.
A particularly thought-provoking statement from McGilchrist highlights that the corpus callosum, the band of fibers connecting the two hemispheres, has actually become smaller over evolutionary time, serving primarily an inhibitory function.
As a curious non-expert, I cannot help but wonder: Could it be that Funes's accident damaged his corpus callosum, thus restricting his access to the RH?
Whether or not Borges was aware of the scientific mechanisms governing brain function is less important than the fact that his right hemisphere allowed him to perceive the broader picture, uncover new ideas, and craft narratives that inspire an endless cascade of thoughts in his readers.
This is the brilliance of Jorge Luis Borges.