If you put 100 monkeys, on 100 typewriters, and taught them how to randomly strike keys on the keyboard, eventually, though pure random chance alone, one of them type out the complete works of Shakespeare. Now I'm not saying this will happen overnight. Or even within our lifetime. Or the next million. Or even billion, trillion or quadrillion years. But eventually, it will happen.
molson Canadian beer once used this idea for an add campaign, cept the monkeys would define all that is canadain
On a purely theoretical level it may be right. But I doubt the universe will last long enough to even get half way through Titus Andronicus without missing a comma somewhere...... And it may be wrong. Maybe all they'd ever produce would be gibberish!
This has already happened, though not with a typewriter. Remember, humans are apes, and Shakespeare was a human. Think about that, the universe got it right on the first try! And with just a pen and ink!!! Stand in awe, people, stand in awe....
LOL... I was going to say the same thing, just on a slight angle... in response to what BlackBillBlake just said about not understanding it, I would say something like: "But what happens if the monkeys evolve into humans" ... or something like that.. but you beat me to it. All joking aside tho.. this HAS happened already, only the writing in question is the genetics of life on earth and the universe around us...
That's true, and very amazing. To think of the power of that little double helix....the changes it has wrought to earth, the complexity, the beautiful complexity, it has resulted in...
Monkeys writing Shakespear? I wonder where the line between being mentally ill or being an evolutionist is drawn? And where is the line drawn between believing Charles theories or believing in Santa?
There is always a small chance that all the air in a room will move to one side of the room for long enough to create a vacuum and suck everything from one side of the room to the other. It can happen at any time.
No to that - because Shakespeare thought it out, whilst the monkeys would just be banging away at random.
If these monkeys did evolve into humans, they would no longer be monkeys, thus no longer fulfilling the conditions set down in your post. But even if they do evolve, I doubt they'd reproduce Shakespeare. But of course, this is all pure conjecture.
Sorry if my tone seemed too serious - 'tis but a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing. (Macbeth)
OK, lets put it another way: 100 computers were set the task of producing random output based on the most advanced algathorisms(sp).. As I said before, almost a lot of it would be total junk, eventully Shakespeare's works will be produced... but then, so will every translation of the bible, war and peace, the da vinci code, your diary, all the text on this webpage, etc etc... Again, I'm not saying it will happen right away.. but it will happen.. that's order out of chaos...
There was/is a theory held by certain quantum physicists (forget exactly who) that states that everything that CAN happen WILL happen. In other words, every possibility will become a reality. Myself, I doubt it.
On an almost entirely unrelated note, I was just thinking about how people that say they really hate something as much as anyone could ever hate it, don't really hate it at all. Action wise, I know its happened.. "I hate g-strings" buys g string; "I hate people who cheat on their sig. other" cheats on significant other... Always seems to happen. I figure every possibility is just as likely to become reality as any other. But anyway, I could get tricky and say that the circumstances are different each time something happens to the other possibilities can/will never happen. Other than that I truly believe everything that could happen, will happen.
