We've all heard the old adage about monkeys at typewriters, sometimes expressed as a million monkeys (as above, via Savage Chickens), or as infinte monkeys, or as a monkey for infinite years. Recently, Australian mathematicians have reconsidered the Finite Monkeys Theorem, and calculated that "given the expected time until the heat death of the universe, we demonstrate that the widely-accepted conclusion from the Infinite Monkeys Theorem is, in fact, misleading in our finite universe." Their data as applied to various works of literature -
- is available online at Science Direct.
Sadly, I have lost my favorite cartoon on the subject. It depicts a monkey turning in his paper to the teacher, who reads "To be, or not to be, that is the glbiftza" and tells the monkey "Sorry, try again."
A tip of the blogging cap to John Farrier at Neatorama for the via.
Reposted from last year to add one more cartoon variation on the joke:
It will happen an infinite number of times, albeit a smaller infinity
ReplyDeletesome time ago i came across a variant. multiple offensive content. infinite # of rednecks with shotguns & infinite # of roadsigns produces the worlds great literature in braille.
ReplyDeleteWe've all heard the billion monkeys story, but now, thanks to the internet, we know that it is not true.
ReplyDeleteAs I read the source article I see this: "Here, we consider the Finite Monkeys Theorem and look at the probability of a given string being typed by one of a finite number of monkeys within a finite time allocation consistent with estimates for the lifespan of our universe."
DeleteNote they seem to be considering FINITE (millions, billions) monkeys rather than infinite monkeys.
Also this: "We also calculate the expected number of keystrokes until a target string would first be produced" without even considering the hypothesis that with infinite monkeys available, many of them (perhaps an infinite number) could be trained to touch-type rather than hunt-and-peck.