would they come up with questions like "if humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys"?
2007-10-31 09:04:50 · 33 answers · asked by Samurai Jack 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
isn't that how the bible was written?
2007-10-31 09:08:18 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 4⤋
Charming though the thought is, I kinda wish you hadn't brought the 'infinite monkeys' scenario up. There are still people who believe that evolution works this way. They're very fond on quoting the astronomical figures involved in getting a page of Shakespeare out of a system like this.
They'd be right if evolution did work this way - if the monkeys were playing the part of a mutating genome, and their typed work were an organism that had to be exactly right if it were to live. But that's not how it works, and nor is the 'tornado in a scrapyard' analogy.
A better analogy for the actual process was proposed by Dawkins: imagine that each monkey types a page of gobbledegook, which is then passed on.
But before the next monkey gets it, an Editor - playing the part of Natural Selection - checks it. Every letter that is in the correct place for the Shakespeare text is kept, and all the others are erased. Then the next monkey gets to do some typing, but only in the blank spaces.
The Editor checks and fixes Monkey 2's work, and passes it on again.
How long will it take for the page to be pure, error-free Shakespeare? Not long, in fact. Less than a thousand monkeys could probably do the job.
The Editor seems like a bit of a deus ex machina, but Natural Selection is just as clever and profound: every mutation has to be tested by living, surviving and breeding. If it fails any of these test - or even just gets a low score, it won't survive and will be 'erased' from the system.
CD
2007-10-31 09:26:36 · answer #2 · answered by Super Atheist 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, we should get rid of a few constraints.
(1) Are we assuming that monkeys are typing truly random information? Because monkeys actually do not type random information.
(2) Do the monkeys evolve in a typewriter environment, such that monkeys kill other monkeys based on their monkey-typewriter-beliefs?
(3) Do the monkeys connect their typewriters to monitors and network them?
2007-10-31 09:10:52 · answer #3 · answered by STFU Dude 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The question they would come up with would be "if monkeys evolved from humans, why are there still humans?"
2007-10-31 09:09:40 · answer #4 · answered by magix151 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hmmm...
how long does 1 monkey live?
All the monkeys would die without
offspring if they only typed on a typewriter and
did nothing else!
Now, if they took breaks and
ate and mated, then perhaps their offspring
could take over - then perhaps they would
evolve - then, yes it is possible to produce that
sentence - if they spoke English, that is!
He He!
2007-10-31 09:16:10 · answer #5 · answered by Nickel-for-your-thoughts 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nah... not anymore than placing a bunch of boards, nails, plumbing etc. into a giant cement mixer and after x number of billions of years at some point a perfectly finished house would exist. In reality nature atrophies... or decays... and in the mixer all you would have is dust, in increasingly finer particles... and after billions of years... you would still have dust, and always dust. It is like a tornado going through a junkyard and leaving behind a 747 aircraft. It takes an outside intelligence to increase complexity.... without it complexity decreases.
2007-10-31 09:11:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Are the monkeys members of Yahoo! Answers?
Is this a drinking question? Well, I'm going to have one whether it is or not.
** Drink! **
2007-10-31 09:13:24 · answer #7 · answered by ♥≈Safi≈♥ ☼of the Atheati☼ 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chimps have the intelligence of a 4 year old child individually. Humans have the IQ of 100 on average. However humans who communicate can add their IQs together. chimps do not have this facility.
Oh! and for those who hate the FACT that humans are descended from the apes. Would you rather we were descended from lions (they have an IQ varsity less than any money or ape and walking on all 4s is a real bind.)
2007-10-31 09:08:52 · answer #8 · answered by Freethinking Liberal 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Except maybe with a sophisticed computer science program, there's no way to predict exactly what they would type in a specific time frame.
The only answer is that given an infinite amount of time they would type everything possible.
2007-10-31 09:07:54 · answer #9 · answered by Defunct 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Probably. If they had been typing for a billion years they would probably need a lot of things to talk about.
2007-10-31 09:11:44 · answer #10 · answered by Allan C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They sure would be wondering where are they going to get all the typewriter ribbons and typing paper.
2007-10-31 09:09:41 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋