do you agree that if given eternity a monkey/ group of monkeys with typewritters would eventually produce the?

Question

full works of shakespeare. (couldnt fit the whole question in)
Now this little tool to explain eternity has annoyed me for ages because i think its beyond the capability of any monkey or monkeys to complete the task. A friend of mine used the same analogy but with a computer generating random letters which i can fully except.... but a monkey/ monkeys no way. they would mash the pad, maybe press ctrl alt delete by accident it would be madness. So in conclusion can anybody prove to me, beyond any reasonable doubt that the monkey/ monkeys could do it. thanks

Answer 1

It is not about monkeys being clever or not.
It is about random letter generation. It is just that in the analogy, monkeys were used to give the analogy a friendly face.

look at it this way

If a monkey was given a numerical keypad - just with the numbers 1 - 9 on it (and assuming that the monkey didnt die, or get bored or just start mashing the keypad) what are the chances that he will eventually type '123' in sequence?
the law of statistics says that in any random genrated sequence there will be some 'coherant' sequences

ok, suppose we now give the same hypothetical monkey a keypad with letters and he keeps tapping away, what are the chances that he will eventually type 'the '
according to the law of statistics, we expect to see the word come up eventually, after all there are only 26 letters on the keyboard.

now, its not much of a stretch, given that there are only 26 letters and a few punctuation marks, that - given an *infinite* amount of time - a hypothetical monkey (who doesnt die, get bored, poop, or mash the letters) will eventually produce a random string which will be the complete works of shakespear.

it is a fun way of looking at randomness. Like all analogies it breaks down if you start looking at it in terms of monkeys dieing, eating, mating, mashing the keyboard or anything else which relates to real life

Answer 2

The monkeys are on to it as we speak. Well representatives of all ape species are having a go. The Gorillas are having a bit of trouble cos of their fat fingers, but the spider monkeys are confident they'll nail it. The chimps keep getting bored and going off for a cup of tea. Most progress so far has been with the Squirrel monkeys - they're proud to reveal that they've reproduced the complete works of Thomas Hardy, but the shakespeare thing's still causing them problems.

All primates involved have managed to write better works than Jordan.

Answer 3

They'd continue to produce gibberish for eternity since, to produce something as brilliant as a single Shakespearean work, implies that they would be thinking like a talented human - when clearly they can not do that. The saying re 'monkeys and typewriters' is just one of those comments meant to provoke an argument or, if you like, a philosophical discussion. A few moments thought would tell you that even a group of highly intelligent and literate _humans_, with access to typewriters, would not produce/reproduce Shakespeare's works through such a random process. So your scepticism is valid.

Answer 4

I suggest that people can be used instead of monkeys and the Internet could be used instead of typewriters.
Has much worth noting been produced by the masses yet? Only a few talented individuals have produced meaningful content on the net which could be comparable to Shakespeare's work.
There are many intelligent people on the Internet, but excluding them we see no real evidence that order can come from chaos. A better test is a scrabble box with letters. Put them in order. Shake it. How many times do you have to shake it to get the cubes back in order? You never will. In theory you should, but you won't.

Answer 5

It's the same theory as the computer generating random letters, so I can't really understand why you can accept one and not the other. Basically, the principle of the analogy is that within an infinite timeline, anything that is finite (ie, the works of Shakespeare--there's only 26 letters to work with; certainly the number of possible combinations is a mind-boggling number, but it is finite, nonetheless) is possible.

Answer 6

Hard to swallow, isn`t it! There is a scientific/mathematical discipline that deals with chance/random occurrences, difficult to follow, but plausible. I always add `evolution` into the "group of monkeys" calculation. Allow for a learning curve, let those monkeys get better at it, practise makes perfect, give them time. A group of 5year olds with enough resources and time, would certainly create a better Taj Mahal, they would of course be old on completion. I believe that even even without `evolution` the monkeys would eventually get there!

Answer 7

Even with random chances being so large I do not believe that any monkey or a group of mom keys could even produce a manuscripts in a cohesive order. For that would take a thought process that does not exist in any primate. Also there are a multitude of humans even with their ability to think, Could not produce an manuscript.........

Answer 8

pay interest right here my expensive, won't be able to you tell that a million monkeys have already got typewriters (computers) and maximum can truly variety a coherent sentence! Shakespeare (*bows*) walks hallowed floor. Monkeys haven't everywhere being interior a similar sentence as he.

Answer 9

i doubt all of the worlds teenagers could do it if given an eternity,one reason would be,the language isn't spoken that way anymore,monkeys couldn't go one minute without making an error.of course nobody will be able to prove this either way.

Answer 10

If they were extremely well trained monkeys possibly... I don't know! I like the random letters on the computer question better lol!