1000 monkeys at 1000 computers typing randomly for infinite time...

P

Proteinboy

2
me and my brother were arguing this:

he said "if there were a thousand monkeys typing randomly just hitting keys at 1000 computers, for an INFINITLY long time, one of them would eventually recreate the play "Hamlet" by shakespeare(sp?) to the very period with no errors.

i refused to believe this because i dont ever think a monkey would be able to ever recreate such a dramatic, ingenious, legendary play by dumb luck. i dont care if it is infinite time. the spaces in the wo r d s wo ul d hav e t o be perfe ct and the letters would have to be perfect too. i see it as impossible

what do you guys think?

oh, and the monkeys cant die
 
What kind of monkeys are they?
 
It is not impossible. Think about it. Although the monkeys would have to hit the exact keys, and avoid the backspace, they are not thinking. It is dumb luck. The odds would be something like 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 to the power of twenty million times that number, but the fact is that it is INFINITE. That means forever and ever. Never stopping. Eventually the odds of getting it will be surpassed by the years, multi trillions of times. It never stops. Of course it's possible. Heck it would happen an infinite amount of times.

From other board.

Also, would like to add. The probability is not impossible. Therefore, no matter how small the odds it will happen.
 
so if the chances are 1 to 10 to the infinity, does that mean it will have to happen eventually because i dont think it would ever happen.

jon:
dumb luck would not know when to push enter to space the speakers and would not repeat the characters name every time they had to speak....dumb luck would have to reproduce shakespear's imagination and the chances of that is 0...
 
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Why 1000 monkeys at 1000 comps? Why not infinite monkeys at infinite comps? The odds are the same for each indinvidual monkey to develop each individual Hamlet.

If the odds are 1 to 9.9999x10^9999999999999999999999999999999999999999, it won't just happen once or twice...it'll happen INFINITE times.

Now apply that to the universe, to either the closed universe theory or the theory of infinite universes...

Now have your mind blown...
 
Speaking plainly on odds alone.
Take a coin for example. Given theres two sides means there is a one in two shot of getting heads. However, This does not mean that if you flip it 100 times it will land both on heads and tails 50 times respectively. For sake of argument it could land on heads or tails 100 out of 100 times without fail. The chance of that would be 1 in about 200.
No matter how many times you flip it the odds are ALWAYS the same. Doing something for a long period of time (in this case forever) does not necessarily increase ones chances of doing something successfully.

Now, Open up a text document. Close your eyes and hit the buttons at "random" for say 10 seconds WITHOUT thought. Meaning don't tell yourself when and where to move your fingers. Just do it! . Now look at what you typed closely. You WILL see a pattern.

I see no reason for this to be different for monkeys. Meaning its possible that they never stray from a specific repeating pattern. Much like a repeating decimal but not to such a strict extent.

Hope that makes sense.
 
I think the proposition here is that the coin lands on its side, so it's neither heads nor tails... VERY improbable, but not impossible...
 
You all are forgetting the most important part of the equation:

Where are the monkey's going to find 1000 computers that don't *CRASH* long before they get it typed?

LMAO~~
 
If you think about it they'll also write the next 3 seasons of Lost which leads me to the question;

Where do I find 1,000 Monkeys?

Oh, and they might also re-write Shakespeare's plays and make the jokes funny! :D
 
I just don't see how that is possible. Creating a play such as Shakespeare takes creativity and thought. It just doesn't seem logical that Monkey's randomly typing at a computer could recreate that play down to the period, no matter how long they are typing.
 
CCR said:
If you think about it they'll also write the next 3 seasons of Lost which leads me to the question;

Where do I find 1,000 Monkeys?

Oh, and they might also re-write Shakespeare's plays and make the jokes funny! :D
Click to expand...

I think they're unionized and writing scripts for all the reality shows on tv these days.
 
Simbl78 said:
I just don't see how that is possible. Creating a play such as Shakespeare takes creativity and thought. It just doesn't seem logical that Monkey's randomly typing at a computer could recreate that play down to the period, no matter how long they are typing.
Click to expand...

It's possible, just VERY improbable - with every character typed the probability gets lower and lower, but it still will not be exactly zero (even if you can sure see it from there).
 
Simbl78 said:
I just don't see how that is possible. Creating a play such as Shakespeare takes creativity and thought. It just doesn't seem logical that Monkey's randomly typing at a computer could recreate that play down to the period, no matter how long they are typing.
Click to expand...
The point is that there is no limit on time, within eternity time has no relevance.

Forget about the fact that letters have meaning and imagine they are just a combination code; if you keep trying you will hit it so long as time is not a factor

Basically if you forget the part about the play being written intentionally and just look at it this way; say there are 100,000 letters and spaces in Hamlet, and there are about 100 billion different combinations of ways that you could write 100,000 letters. If you kept typing out that number of letters for eternity then eventually that 1 in 100 billion chance will arise.
 
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