Using the word 'Infinity' is the same as imagining that the Universe goes on forever....but does it??
You can have have infinities even within a finite space.
For example - the surface of a sphere could be traversed for an infinite time without ever hitting a barrier - yet the sphere itself encloses a finite amount of space.
Technically - it doesn't matter - even with one monkey typing for an infinite time, you would get the same outcome.
I disagree with this. One monkey on his own may never be capable of producing a top quality Elizabethan era play or sonnet despite infinite time and resources.
With infinite monkeys there's room for infinite genetic variation so you're more likely to get one that could produce Shakespeare quality prose given infinite time and resources. It wouldn't have to live forever to achieve this either.
What if the monkey twigs what the point of the exercise is after a couple of million years and vows that henceforth he shall never produce ANYTHING in iambic pentameters?
Surely the monkeys would eventually die of starvation?
We'll assume we have an infinite number of banana farmers producing bananas for the monkeys and also an infinite number of sweeper uppers to collect the peelings and poop
We'll assume we have an infinite number of banana farmers producing bananas for the monkeys and also an infinite number of sweeper uppers to collect the peelings and poop
This is starting to look less and less feasible when you start to look at it more closely.
We'll assume we have an infinite number of banana farmers producing bananas for the monkeys and also an infinite number of sweeper uppers to collect the peelings and poop
But even with the most nutritious diet and cleanest conditions they'd all die eventually.
"Biologists who specialize in primates have suggested that the infinite monkey theorem has a number of flaws, as the monkey or monkeys involved are just as likely to bash the keyboard with a rock, or urinate on it. Monkeys who have been presented with typewriters and keyboards have generally produced works consisting only of one letter, with a few neighbouring letters thrown in for variation, illustrating the fact that monkeys cannot, in fact, type randomly."
As long as they can press the keys, what they do is irrelevant. At some point an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters will by blind luck type up the complete works of Shakespeare.
It may take an infinite amount of time, but it will happen.
As long as they can press the keys, what they do is irrelevant. At some point an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters will by blind luck type up the complete works of Shakespeare.
It may take an infinite amount of time, but it will happen.
Sorry but I cant see that happening, it may sound good to mathematicians at a dinner party or "maths bash" but back in the real world people say "no, sorry, we have had enough"
They could, theoretically, have us off and give us 'something they made earlier' in the shape of a Shakespearean script book, leather-bound and everything. We're talking in infinite means here so isn't anything possible?
Sorry but I cant see that happening, it may sound good to mathematicians at a dinner party or "maths bash" but back in the real world people say "no, sorry, we have had enough"
Errr... yeah. Like Schroedinger's Cat, it's a thought experiment. It's not meant to be realistic.
the odds of a monkey hitting the right key are about 1 in 37 (a-z,space,0-9) ignoring punctuation and i'm sure someone has a letter count of the works of shakespeare and then some basic probability of getting it done in the right order would probably in the large number of zero's after the decimal point but given infinite amount of time and banana's and somewhere for the monkey to have a poo the theoretical probability will increase to a point where it approaches 1
They have a much better chance of doing it than many of the posters on here :eek:
Comments
You can have have infinities even within a finite space.
For example - the surface of a sphere could be traversed for an infinite time without ever hitting a barrier - yet the sphere itself encloses a finite amount of space.
I disagree with this. One monkey on his own may never be capable of producing a top quality Elizabethan era play or sonnet despite infinite time and resources.
With infinite monkeys there's room for infinite genetic variation so you're more likely to get one that could produce Shakespeare quality prose given infinite time and resources. It wouldn't have to live forever to achieve this either.
Mr Pilkington says "no"
In an infinite monkey cage.....
are you saying he could chimp through time?
I'd put them on little bicycles.
It isn't particularly well thought out, is it?
We'll assume we have an infinite number of banana farmers producing bananas for the monkeys and also an infinite number of sweeper uppers to collect the peelings and poop
This is starting to look less and less feasible when you start to look at it more closely.
I say we call the whole thing off.
But even with the most nutritious diet and cleanest conditions they'd all die eventually.
Ermm mixed sex monkeys perhaps....:D
Yeh - just download the f#cking thing off Amazon for christ sake
Your just 'aping' those who want to give up on the experiment..:D
As long as they can press the keys, what they do is irrelevant. At some point an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of typewriters will by blind luck type up the complete works of Shakespeare.
It may take an infinite amount of time, but it will happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_elVGGgW8
Sorry but I cant see that happening, it may sound good to mathematicians at a dinner party or "maths bash" but back in the real world people say "no, sorry, we have had enough"
Errr... yeah. Like Schroedinger's Cat, it's a thought experiment. It's not meant to be realistic.
They have a much better chance of doing it than many of the posters on here :eek: