this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] cactopuses@lemm.ee 15 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago (3 children)

1 monkey would likely die before producing Shakespeare

[–] cactopuses@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

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

[–] yuri@pawb.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

not if it’s an infinite monkey

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Well, an infinite amount would.

[–] BluesF@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks 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 2 weeks ago

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