this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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[–] cactopuses@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Just thinking at a high level, an infinite number of monkies should hypothetically almost instantly produce Shakespeare (or at least as quickly as they can type)

Conversely, 1 monkey would eventually produce it given infinity time.

[–] IHateReddit@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

1 monkey would likely die before producing Shakespeare

[–] yuri@pawb.social 2 points 15 hours ago

not if it’s an infinite monkey

[–] cactopuses@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

oh absolutely, this is purely a thought experiment of course.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well, an infinite amount would.

[–] BluesF@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

One monkey may never produce it even given infinite time. It could just produce an infinite string of the letter a and never change it's mind. That's less likely that it writing hamlet, or even many hamlets... But nonetheless, it could. In fact all of the infinite monkeys could do that. If you repeated the experiment and infinite number of times, it's likely that one of them will simple produce an infinite number of infinite strings of only the letter A. Or, idk, ASCII art.

[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is the same type of criticism the paper made. The real intent behind the saying is given random output (where all outputs have nonzero probability) eventually you will create anything/everything.

Its a thought experiment around infinity, probability, and art.

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I haven't read whatever paper this is talking about, but I imagine, it's looking at the saying in a more literal fashion for the sake of argument...

[–] chakan2@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's why a monkey is used in the thought experiment. Monkeys do think at a low level. As it goes insane over centuries of imprisonment in front of its jailer, it's likely going to try complex solutions to get out. Think of the hell infinity would really be for this monkey.

[–] BluesF@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, and given infinite monkeys no doubt they will eventually evolve into something that allows them to escape!