Infinite monkey's writing shakespeare possible?

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A project at the University of Plymouth tested the "infinite monkey" theory by placing a computer in a monkey enclosure, where six Sulawesi crested macaques produced minimal output, mainly typing the letter "s." After a month, the monkeys had partially destroyed the machine and failed to create any coherent text, leading to the conclusion that the theory is flawed. Despite criticisms regarding the project's scientific value, the university defended the £2,000 investment, highlighting the educational insights gained and the live-streaming aspect. The experiment's results were published in a limited edition book titled "Notes Towards The Complete Works of Shakespeare." Overall, the project sparked discussions about randomness and the theoretical implications of infinity in relation to creative output.
  • #31
I love how artists interpret science. Somehow six monkeys with one keyboard for one month that are allowed to do plenty of other monkey things besides typing represents a monkey typing continuously at a keyboard for an infinite amount of time, or an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of keyboards for a finite amount of time, whichever way you want to look at it. Surely it would have been a better use of the money to donate the computer to a school. Actually, the most startling part of this study is that the computer and keyboard survived more than a few hours in the hands of the monkeys. I'm also fascinated by their fascination with the "s" key. Pattern repetition is actually far more relevant than random chance to the question anyway. Would have been better if they had a propensity toward ATGC, but that's probably asking too much of a monkey.
 
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  • #32
Some people have the right idea.

Firstly, this IS a thought experiment. Forget self-gravitating monkey clusters.

Secondly, we don't need monkeys. For example, we could have a hydrogen atom. If we excite the atom by delivering enough energy, the electron will excite and then dexcite, by emitting a photon in a random direction. If we arbitrarily have macroscopic hemispheres (imagined ones) of radius 1m, we can add 1 or 0 to a sequence of binary digits depending on which hemisphere the photon passes through. If we continue this process for t seconds, then as t tends to infinity we will have an infinite random sequence. Note that the sequence does not become random until t has tended to infinity, because until then there is a potential for a repetition or pattern to arise.

We can have any arbitrary method to derive letters and punctuation from that sequence (in fact we can derive any data form we want) with arbitrary rules. Now since our rules are arbitrary, they have no effect on the sequence. For example, we could use the ASCII text convention.

And if t does tend to infinity, we will get anything and everything that is finite and obeys classical logic, whether it exists or not, including Shakespeare's complete works, the instructions on how to make TNT, Windows XP source code, what my girlfriend is thinking etc. For example, if the universe was classical and finite we would get a part of the sequence that describes the position and momentum of every particle in the universe.

To get around this classical limitation, we could have microscopic spheres instead of macroscopic ones, and have an additional condition that the photon goes through both hemispheres and record that as q on the sequence for example. The rules are more complicated, but we could also derive any data form we want from that sequence, including one that describes the quantum states of all particles in the universe.

That's my contribution for today.
 
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  • #33
irrelevant...the pachyderm house. OMG! I may have actually leaked urine upon reading that.
 
  • #34
Moonbear said:
I'm also fascinated by their fascination with the "s" key. Pattern repetition is actually far more relevant than random chance to the question anyway. Would have been better if they had a propensity toward ATGC, but that's probably asking too much of a monkey.

I wonder if the "s" key was what they naturally pushed from the way they handled the keyboard (such as holding it, or resting a hand on it).

I think Erazman pegged it though. When infinite possibilities are constrained by some set of conditions, it seems like repetition of similar patterns will result, not ongoing new patterns one after another, which is what would be needed to produce even lousy literature.
 
  • #35
I think this Simpsons quote by Mr Burns sums this entire conversation up

And in this room is a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters. Let's see how they are getting on. "It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times??" you stupid monkey!

BUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
 
  • #36
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  • #37
Boy the things bored people will talk about in threads. Well it now might be possible for one of thoes computers a monkey is typing on to be powered by Shakespeare him self. I am completely shure he is now spinning so fast in his grave that if we attached him up to a generator he could easily power it. Well that is my bored, tired, and sleep deprived rantings for the night. Man I wish these stupid machines would hurry up. Slow things can't...(wanders off to find somewhere to lie down still ranting about the late hours and stupid automated manufracting machines)