Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Ms. Fitz's Monkey of the Week: the Infinite Monkey Theorum

"'It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?' You stupid monkey!"

-"Last Exit to Springfield", The Simpsons

From Wikipedia.org:

"The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare."

In this case, the monkey's a mathematical metaphor. While the probability of a monkey exactly typing a complete work such as Shakespeare's Hamlet is minuscule, it is not an impossibility. 

The Infinite Monkey idea has a long history that can be traced back to Aristotle, though, obviously, without typewriters. 

In 2003, an experiment was performed with six Celebes Crested Macaques, but their literary contribution was five pages consisting largely of the letter 'S'. This, of course, is a greater contribution to literature than the last Twilight book. Hey-yo!

4 comments:

Alex P said...

Oh no you di-in'! Oh no you Di-in! You dissed twighlight! I am scared for your safety. If anyone knocks on your door for the next many weeks that you dont recognize, just tell them you have h1n1 and hide under the bed.

Alex P said...

wow. I spelt twilight wrong. *sad*sad*sad*embarassed*

Anonymous said...

I think monkeys might have an easier time reproducing Shakespeare on a laptop, although cutting and pasting from Project Gutenberg might not qualify under the terms of the classic hypothetical monkeys-on-typewriters scenario.

I wonder if the odds might change depending on the author and the work. Reproducing Shakespeare is a tall order but those Simpsons monkeys got pretty close with Dickens.

And if dolphins could pull it off without the benefit of opposable thumbs, I would be even more impressed.

Anonymous said...

In the meantime, monkeys are taking on dayjobs as waiters to observe humanity in their aspiring literary endeavours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1DBuFgt_Ug