Laboratory of Babel is the independent research practice of Lior Ben-Gai. It builds custom software instruments, runs experiments with them, and publishes what it finds. It studies virtual structures: forms and processes that arise within computational systems.
Such structures are ubiquitous across computational practice, but are most often studied in relation to an external function or referent: what they can represent, predict, optimize, or produce. In contrast, the Laboratory treats computation as a vast and largely uncharted experimental domain in which phenomena can be encountered, varied, compared, and tested.
Research proceeds by applying traditional empirical practices such as systematic surveying, observation, and perturbation. It follows a layered methodology designed for systems that can be experimentally investigated before they are theoretically understood. The Laboratory's principal computational substrate is Utomata, a programming environment for constructing and experimentally studying field-based systems.
Program
Status as of September 2026. Each layer builds on those above it.
Substrate
The computational foundation on which experiments are defined and executed.
- Utomatareleased · 2026
- Utomata WebGL2019-2026
Apparatus
A configured system that builds upon the substrate, designed to isolate and exhibit behaviors of interest.
- Itherscheduled for release in 2027
- Experimental Protocol Compendiumin development
- Utomata Lab2025
Data
Accumulated outputs of experimental practice: terminal states, recorded trajectories, derived measures, and the metadata specifying the conditions under which those outputs were produced.
- Experimental Recordsin development
- Utomata Lib2017-2025
Information
Structured arrangements of datasets, rendered intelligible through organization. Regularities legible without yet claiming to have understood them.
- Atlas of virtual phenomenaseeking support
Knowledge
Long horizon. Explanatory accounts of virtual phenomena, where the layers beneath warrant them.
Contact
The Laboratory is open to inquiries and collaborations. contact@labofbabel.org.