Re: "Hundredth Monkey" theorist dies...



blue wrote:
"If you have enough monkeys
banging randomly on typewriters,
they will eventually type the works
of William Shakespeare."

However, the odds against monkeys typing Shakespeare by chance are
astronomical. With about 80 typewriter keys, the chance of getting the
first letter right is about 80 to 1. The chance of getting 2 letters
right is 1 in 80◊80, or 6400 to 1. Each letter increases the odds
against by 80 times. The odds of getting 10 letters right is about 11
million million million to1.

....And that's not acccounting for carriage returns, capital letters,
or changing the paper.


The infinite monkey theorem was actually tested on a small scale once.
In 2003, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth
MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to
leave a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Sulawesi Crested
Macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon in England for a month; not only did
the monkeys produce nothing but five pages consisting largely of the
letter S, they started by attacking the keyboard with a stone, and
continued by urinating and defecating on it.

You've just described the machinations of the Usenet troll. :-)
LOL!

And thanks for debunking another "monkey theory," Blue. Somehow, the Shakespeare claim never made held water. Jacqueline Suzanne, maybe. Shakespeare by random chance, never!

Nevertheless, this particular experiment brings up rich conjecture for further follow up. The original hypothesis involved placing the monkeys at typewriters, not computers. Is it possible the monkey are Luddites? Were they allowed to see the monitor and view their creative product? Who brought the stone into the lab? I dunno, seems to me there could be some sort of sabotage at work.

And what's with the letter "S"? What do you suppose Big Bird would say? The whole thing smacks of experimenter bias, if you ask me.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: "Hundredth Monkey" theorist dies...
    ... the chance of getting the ... Shakespeare claim never made held water. ... The original hypothesis involved placing the monkeys ... at typewriters, not computers. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Materialism versus a sense of wonder
    ... of monkeys at typewriters could never come up with Shakespeare. ... I've never considered it possible that monkeys could ... That means the monkeys would have to get 71,845 continuous letters correct. ...
    (rec.music.dylan)
  • Re: "Hundredth Monkey" theorist dies...
    ... the odds against monkeys typing Shakespeare by chance are ... typewriters, not computers. ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)
  • Re: Materialism versus a sense of wonder
    ... of monkeys at typewriters could never come up with Shakespeare. ... That means the monkeys would have to get 71,845 continuous letters correct. ...
    (rec.music.dylan)
  • Re: "Hundredth Monkey" theorist dies...
    ... banging randomly on typewriters, ... the odds against monkeys typing Shakespeare by chance are ...
    (alt.gathering.rainbow)