Monkeys and Typwriters

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by DrNeroCF, Jun 20, 2003.

  1. DrNeroCF Werecat Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    123
    First I heard of this was on some Java program: If an infinite number of monkeys typed on an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, then all great works of man will emerge. Its a spiffy claim, and makes sense, I think; but I would appreciate any other insights ya'll may have.
     
  2. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,979
    You pretty much said it there, but they will also come up with a lot of stuff we wouldn't have, given the random nature of their typing.
     
  4. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. DrNeroCF Werecat Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    123
    is there a limit? ever? can this theory disprove creationism? I think that this is a lot deeper than we can imagine
     
  6. Guest Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,979
    you already stated that it's infinite, and that would imply no limit
    I don't think that creationism needs to be disproven, it's obvuiously bunk
     
  8. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    706
    like...

    as;lkjfgd akl;agojiagiorhd'hre fdosrojblgto

    or my favorite...

    rtoojkdfml aeowjgms'd ogjiroegnjdf;lnmg09

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  9. Blindman Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,425
    It is only true if the monkeys are truly random.

    Unfortunately their not and there for it is impossible not infinitely probable.
     
  10. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,979
    You can't say that with a sense of absolutness within the time given, which is infinite. Even if the monkeys aren't random, in an infinite time frame, they could do it.
     
  11. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    It started out as just the works of Shakespeare.

    The problem would be finding the Shakespeare amid the drenn. There would be an infinite number of copies of Romeo and Juliet with one typo, so you'd have to check very carefully.

    We have a real advantage living in the post-typewriter age. They could do data entry directly into a word processor and the computers would announce each perfect work as it was finished.

    Geeze, what if one of them wrote something even better than Shakespeare! Nobody would notice!

    I don't think any line of reasoning that includes the concept of infinity is going to impress the creationists. One of the pillars of their belief is their inability to comprehend large numbers at all, much less infinity. They don't understand that five billion years or whatever really is enough time for random atomic-level interactions to result in the order we see around us. Yes, I know that there may be an infinite number of worlds that almost made it, piled high with primordial goo that didn't quite become alive. And an infinite number more that evolved to the alien equivalent of chimpanzees and hasn't made the last step up yet. The reason we're talking about it here is that "we" couldn't exist on one of those worlds so "this" could only be "happening" "here".

    But trying to communicate about probabilities at that level of abstraction to a creationist is like talking to one of those piles of goo.

    I find it much more fascinating that I wasn't born in (what is now) Bangla Desh because there are people just like me over there, thinking deep thoughts like us but starving. For every one of us fortunate North Americans there are about twenty people in some other country. Some of them would be just fine, especially for you younger folks who were not born in the middle of WWII like I was. But some of them really suck in terms of the quality of life.

    Hey, I just remembered that we've got gorillas and chimpanzees who can "talk" in ASL. Why couldn't they be taught to type next?
     
  12. FatalTalon Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    53
    Qouth the Fafnir

    Not to a majority in the world, actually. To express that it is obviously bunk expresses extreme ignorance. For you perhaps, I'll go so far to say, it has been debunked. You've made the choice for yourself. You however don't make such for the world.
    Just an observation.


    ---

    Anyways, as for the monkey theory. In our dear Dr. Nero C.F.'s postulate, he stated that all the works of man would be generated out of an infinite number of monkeys typing for an infinite amount of time. I propose a few speculations about this for people to mull over:

    What if all the monkeys by chance type exactly the same thing? Call it quantum mechanics or something just for the sake of this speculation. Then you have one monkey typing for an infinitely long duration. (and we're not even yet talking about the chance of him retyping something he's typed before)

    Following that small side path of the imagination, we have one monkey infinitely typing for an infinite amount of time. What if he doesn't type all the works of man? What if he types.... lets say... every work of man except Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" just out of pure luck. Now he is typing for an infinite amount of time correct? He will eventually type it sometime during infinity. But by the very nature of "infinite" being impossible to reach, it is possible he would never type Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream".

    Any more interesting trailing theories of our monkey typists?


    ~Fatal
     
  13. DrNeroCF Werecat Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    123
    now we're gettin somewhere!
     
  14. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,574
    If we truely take the word infinite into account than they would have to write everything we have ever written, an infinite amount of times no less.
    They would also write every possible story you could imagine an infinite number of times and more.
    Every single combination of letters and spaces would have to show up infinite times.

    It does help evolution in a sense. It shows that no matter how unlikely something is it has to occur if there are enough chances. If the universe was inifinite there would not only be more exact earths there would be infinite earths with us living on them typing this now exactly the same.
    Now the universe probably isn't infinite, but its very gigantic with trillions+ planets so the fact we are here right now is not strange at all. Someone has to be somewhere. And they probably are more places than we would imagine.
     
  15. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    1,979
    I would say it expresses extreme ignorance on behalf of the majority of the world not to recognize this
     
  16. machaon Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    734
    A reply

    First I heard of this was on some Java program: If an infinite number of monkeys typed on an infinite number of typewriters for an infinite amount of time, then all great works of man will emerge.

    I think the scope of the word INFINITE escapes our ability to truly reference. For instance, I believe that if an infinite amount of monkeys typed on an infinite amount of typewriters, ALL the great works would emerge in every language an infinite amount of times every single nanosecond that they typed.
     
  17. EvilPoet I am what I am Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,007
    "We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a
    million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire
    works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet,
    we know this is not true." -Robert Wilensky

    Infinate monkey theorum
     
  18. Jade Squirrel Impassioned Atheist Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    394
    "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times? You stupid monkey!"
     
  19. Dr Lou Natic Unnecessary Surgeon Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,574
  20. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

    Messages:
    24,066
    stupid theory

    We all know that a monkey would get bored in under one minute with random typing. The action of typing would probably be replaced rapidly with other interesting actions such as, throwing typewriters, shitting on typewriters, throwing shit, throwing shitcovered typewriters, eating the paper, throwing shitcovered paper, throwing X (where X is anything that can be lifted by the average monkey).
     
  21. DrNeroCF Werecat Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    123
    lets take this even further: if we compare this to how the universe was created, what is (err I'm tryin to be careful wording this...) the prime mover in the monkey senario? Is it the monkeys? The person who sets up the monkeys?
     
  22. spuriousmonkey Banned Banned

    Messages:
    24,066
    clearly the answer is in the typewriters. They already contained all the letters to make a literary masterwork.
    If the components for let's say DNA or RNA were present then we have our answer in this little analogy.
     
  23. DrNeroCF Werecat Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    123
    but what made the DNA and the RNA?

    maybe I'm thinking a question more along the lines of, would it be the thing that is creating it, the typeriters, or the thing that is pulling the strings, the monkeys, or something even greater than that, like the idea of why its being created, which would be us making the monkeys type
     

Share This Page