Two Australian mathematicians have deemed it misleading, working out that even if all the chimpanzees in the world were given the entire lifespan of the universe, they would “almost certainly” never pen the works of the bard.
all the chimpanzees in the world
infinite monkeys
I’m glad they had fun doing some math, but this is not news, nor is the original saying misleading. With an infinite number of monkeys, a smaller-yet-still-infinite number of them would produce the works of Shakespeare. The reason this saying works is because of the concept of infinity, not some random finite number.
Your argument sounds convincing, but given an infinite number of monkeys I could refute it
You can write down an infinite amount of numbers without ever leaving [0, 1]
No they couldn’t. They’d die before they finished.
What part of “infinite” was unclear in the instructions?
The “in” part apparently.
If you actually had infinite monkeys it would be the first thing a very large (infinite) amount would type.
Kind of selfish of that monkey really.
Universe would die before monkey with keyboard writes Shakespeare, study finds
Maybe the monkey can be a little less of a dick, for science?!
It could make a decent blockbuster though, hear me out:
Trailervoiceguy: In a world on the brink of annihilation, one monkey holds the key to survival.
Typewriter clicketyclacks and monkey ooh-ooh-aahs
Editor (played by award-winning method actor Daniel Day-Lewis): This a garbage, monkey, we can’t publish this! Earth is doomed!
*More clicketyclacks *
Trailervoiceguy: This summer, the question is…
Trailer horns
Trailervoiceguy: To be…
Louder trailer horns
Trailervoiceguy: … or not…
Very loud trailer horns
Trailervoiceguy: TO MONKEY!
Silence, then slowmotion monkey noises somehow
i think that milestone has already been achieved – at least in terms of the expected quality of the final manuscript.
have you read the da vinci code?
We already had a monkey write Shakespeare. His name was William Shakespeare.
An ape *
All apes are monkeys but not all monkeys are apes. Perchance.
Really? Til.
Something like that. I almost thought I got it backwards. A thread if you’re interested (I don’t think you’re a snob for offering a correction though)
I’ve been called worse. Thanks for the link!
Edit: oh boy, lots of scientifically ruffled feathers there! I’ll make some popcorn.
