Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds

[Ming the Merciless]

Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c748kmvwyv9o

Instead they’ve decided to write erotic short stories….

 

[Beebo]

What a waste of time.

“while mathematically true, the theorem is "misleading", they say.”

Really. Who thought it was actually ever going to happen.

My favourite stat is that that there is a 5% chance that one chimp will type banana in its lifetime

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

My favourite stat is that that there is a 5% chance that one chimp will type banana in its lifetime

Does that allow for time off for banana breaks?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Monkeys will never type Shakespeare, study finds

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c748kmvwyv9o

Instead they’ve decided to write erotic short stories….

Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta has found that the time it would take for a typing monkey to replicate Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and poems would be longer than the lifespan of our universe.

I think they're mistaking the concept of the infinite. The lifespan of the universe is insignificantly short compared with infinite time.

The results indicated that even if every chimp in the world was enlisted and able to type at a pace of one key per second until the end of the universe, they wouldn't even come close to typing out the Bard's works.

Ah, so they haven't missed the point, they've imposed arbitrary finite limits on it. They are saying that a finite number of monkeys would not succeed in a finite time. Well whoop di doo. That's completely uninteresting.

 

[a.twiddler]

I can see where they went wrong. A chimpanzee is an ape. You need actual monkeys to make it work. Otherwise you'll end up with the works of someone else, maybe Francis Bacon?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Today's lunchtime excel project was to replicate their results. Using a simplified 27 key keyboard (26 letters plus space), and a rate of 1 character per second, and assuming random choice of key it would take a single simian 170,000 years, typing 24/7 to type "cyclechat". Every 6,000 years or so it would get as far as "cyclecha" and then get the last letter wronf.

Those assumptions are a bit dodgy. I think we should allow, as @twentysix by twentyfive says, time off for banana breaks and so on. And I suspect a typing chimp would not give equal priority to all keys, it would probably smack its fat finger down in the middle repeatedly.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I can see where they went wrong. A chimpanzee is an ape. You need actual monkeys to make it work. Otherwise you'll end up with the works of someone else, maybe Francis Bacon?

Francis Bacon's work has already been replicated, but by pigs, not monkeys.

The chickens are on with the works of John Fowles.

 

[Ian H]

If apes started typing collectively, they might develop language skills.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Francis Bacon's work has already been replicated, but by pigs, not monkeys.

The chickens are on with the works of John Fowles.

It's a good job we have an infinite supply of infinite supplies of animals.

 

[slow horse]

I suspect a typing chimp would not give equal priority to all keys, it would probably smack its fat finger down in the middle repeatedly.

I know how it feels, some days.

 

[ColinJ]

If the monkeys were kept monkey-like in captivity then it really is somewhat unlikely that they would ever type out anything meaningful, but...

... given an infinite time span it is very likely that a global disaster would wipe out humanity and maybe a Planet of the Apes scenario would ensue, with the monkeys evolving into skilled and creative typists!

 

[Jameshow]

But they can wreak a car windscreen wipers from 30yds DAMHIK!!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

The imposition of 2 finite limits to a concept that involved 2 infinite non-limits is just changing the whole thing

I mean - it was never sensible anyway - trying to get any chimps to sit at a typewriter for any length of time is clearly not viable
and just lobbing a typewriter in a chimp's cage is not going to result in them typing anything much at all

unless you have an infinite time in which case anything can happen - and in fact must happen

but that also assumes that there are monkeys still alive for an infinite amount of time and that they have not evolved into something else
and that some otehr species is around to observe them



so it was not realistic in teh first place - and not supposed to be - hence imposing any level of realism on it is even more dumb

sort of thing that is best discussed over several pints and nowhere else IMO

 

[Electric_Andy]

I always thought this was a lesson in infinitum anyway, rather than probability. i.e. if you did any random act for an infinite amount of time, it could lead to infintely many outcomes. As long as a chimp is capable of typing one key, i.e. it wouldn't work for stick insects because they could not physically push a typewriter key

 

[grldtnr]

If apes started typing collectively, they might develop language skills.

Er, We did ! But since we have regressed ,
When you consider we share the majority of our genes with the Great apes , Gorillas ,Orangutan and Chimps something like 98..9% of our makeup is shared.
There have been cases of Gorilla and Chimps taught sign Language and able to construct simple conversations with their keepers.
Orangutans are incredibly intelligent ,so much that they choose not to communicate...