1000 monkeys at 1000 computers typing randomly for infinite time...
- Thread starter Proteinboy
- Start date
I'm betting no. With the break in lines, the exact characters speaking the same exact words, the stage directions done exactly the same, etc etc etc it would not happen.
Impossible I suppose not but improbable to the degree that it would happen EXACTLY as it was originally created...no.
Impossible I suppose not but improbable to the degree that it would happen EXACTLY as it was originally created...no.
Well. Just thought of this. Although I argued it could, I have reason to think otherwise now. A monkey, with an average keyboard of how ever many keys (lets say 50, commas etc inc) would have on that 1 in 50 chance of hitting backspace. Think about it. If the monkey types 5000 letters, all completely wrong, the chances of going back to 0 words via backspace are literally impossible. It would happen. But the odds are actually much much lower than I initially thought.
i am now convinced that it is so improbable that no matter how long they type, it would never happen.
in contrast, in an average sized game of chess with just 40 moves, there are
10^120 different legal moves you can do. to show how huge a number that is, the number of atoms in the observable Universe, is estimated at most 10^81.
sourse: Wikipedia. Title of article: Shannon number
10^120 is unbelievably larger than 10^81. and that is just 40 moves of chess.
and to imagine the number of different keys a monkey would have to type IN A ROW WITHOUT ERROR to get shakespear's Hamlet....impossible. they would type forever before getting it.
i had to do some research first in order to make a point Lei ;D
in contrast, in an average sized game of chess with just 40 moves, there are
10^120 different legal moves you can do. to show how huge a number that is, the number of atoms in the observable Universe, is estimated at most 10^81.
sourse: Wikipedia. Title of article: Shannon number
10^120 is unbelievably larger than 10^81. and that is just 40 moves of chess.
and to imagine the number of different keys a monkey would have to type IN A ROW WITHOUT ERROR to get shakespear's Hamlet....impossible. they would type forever before getting it.
i had to do some research first in order to make a point Lei ;D
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Lets say that Hamlet has 200'000 letters and the keyboards consist of 50 keys, that means a hundred monkey hitting one key per second would produce hamlet on average once every (50^200'000)/100 seconds and continue to do so infinite number of times ofc.
Infinite is a very big word..
Infinite is a very big word..
Infinity, the monkies could sit for
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years before it happened.
Universe might not last that long, but that dont matter, monkies will still be typing.
In REALITY, it would never happen, because the monkies would die, but if they could write for in infitite ammount of time, it would eventually happen
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years before it happened.
Universe might not last that long, but that dont matter, monkies will still be typing.
In REALITY, it would never happen, because the monkies would die, but if they could write for in infitite ammount of time, it would eventually happen
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its basically the same concept. even if the monkeys chose at random from a gigantic plethora of colors and tabbed randomly in micro painting strokes
Protein. It would happen. Because eternity = eternal possibilities. The monkeys would write our every book in existence, and have the solutions to our greatest mysteries written down. The Shannon number has been contested countless times. The number would enter the multi millions, most likely, but never that exagerated sum.
wait...how do we even know that eternity or forever exists for sure?
It took creativity to CREATE Hamlet...it takes nothing to COPY Hamlet...They are not the same.
However infintessimal the odds makes absolutely no difference. The point is, infinity is infinite. You have infinite tries to get it right, essentially. If you have infinite tries, 1 in 9999999999999999999x10^9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 multiplied by infinity is infinity over the infantessimal odds, so that'd be infinity over infinity, which reduces to one. This isn't even an odd, it's a garuntee that it would happen.
Sure, it would take infinity to happen, but it would still happen.
However infintessimal the odds makes absolutely no difference. The point is, infinity is infinite. You have infinite tries to get it right, essentially. If you have infinite tries, 1 in 9999999999999999999x10^9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 multiplied by infinity is infinity over the infantessimal odds, so that'd be infinity over infinity, which reduces to one. This isn't even an odd, it's a garuntee that it would happen.
Sure, it would take infinity to happen, but it would still happen.
If you guys are going to argue abstracts and hypotheticals, argue abstracts and hypotheticals. Obviously this is never going to happen, as monkeys form neural connections and are therefore not completely random, infinite monkeys don't exist, infinity is longer than we can measure, the computers wouldn't last, and monkeys can't exist without the Earth, which will probably be destroyed within a blip of time in the grand scheme of things.
Anyway, what I was saying was, the probability for ONE monkey to generate a copy of Hamlet to infinity is 100%. If you have 100 monkeys, that's 100 copies. If you have infinite monkeys, thats infinite copies.
1/infinity X (infinity)=1
1(infinity or however monkeys there are)=however number of monkeys there are=the number of copies produced.
Anyway, what I was saying was, the probability for ONE monkey to generate a copy of Hamlet to infinity is 100%. If you have 100 monkeys, that's 100 copies. If you have infinite monkeys, thats infinite copies.
1/infinity X (infinity)=1
1(infinity or however monkeys there are)=however number of monkeys there are=the number of copies produced.
I haet your math Lei.
I think Suess has a good point...if you have 1000 monkeys with 1000 brushes and 1000 colors are they going to recreate the Sistine Chapel given an infinite number of years?
Why stop at Shakespeare? Why not Milton, Tennison, King, The Quran? Are we saying given time that the monkeys would be able to recreate anything and everything?
I think Suess has a good point...if you have 1000 monkeys with 1000 brushes and 1000 colors are they going to recreate the Sistine Chapel given an infinite number of years?
Why stop at Shakespeare? Why not Milton, Tennison, King, The Quran? Are we saying given time that the monkeys would be able to recreate anything and everything?
If you try to walk through a wall enough times, it will finally happen too. Has to do with what in quantum mechanics is referred to as tunneling.
Might take a few tries tho
Might take a few tries tho
what the heck? if you try to walk through a wall enough times you would eventually walk through it?
so if you had a million monkeys and a million walls, they all would eventually walk through all the solid walls if they kept on trying to walk through them given that they never die and the walls are invincible?
hes saying that you can recreate anything and everything AND that they will create anything/ everything that can ever be written with a computer an infinite amount of times. that means they eventually create their own works.
what is the difference between copying and creating given the monkeys had no idea what hamlet was to begin with? it doesnt matter that we had the original. they recreated it without knowing it existed to begin with.
:/ i hate his math too
so if you had a million monkeys and a million walls, they all would eventually walk through all the solid walls if they kept on trying to walk through them given that they never die and the walls are invincible?
hes saying that you can recreate anything and everything AND that they will create anything/ everything that can ever be written with a computer an infinite amount of times. that means they eventually create their own works.
what is the difference between copying and creating given the monkeys had no idea what hamlet was to begin with? it doesnt matter that we had the original. they recreated it without knowing it existed to begin with.
:/ i hate his math too
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Yup that's exactly what it means - Milton, Tennyson, The Qu'ran are all streams of characters - what's to say one is different from the other in that respect (assuming they all use the same character set of course).
Of course who's to say that the monkeys couldn't produce something better than Hamlet?