Didn’t some math nerd prove that they would need more time than exists in the universe to make this happen?
It’s been calculated many times, and yes, it would take an absurdly long amount of time, and that’s the point. When dealing with infinities, time is irrelevant, whether you have infinite monkeys or one monkey and infinite time, they will still both do every possible thing a monkey could do.
In fact, infinite monkeys would not only write Hamlet, they would write it instantly, an infinite number of times, and in all possible languages, as well as the possible sequel where Marvel’s Blade shows up to fight vampires. Instantly.
Good luck finding them though.
Well, they wouldn’t write it instantly - in the best case, they would start writing it instantly, and finish in optimal time. However, it’s possible that no monkey would actually write it on the first try - we’d have to get into some complex predictions on monkey brains and physiology, it’s possible that with their brains and muscle structure they wouldn’t go for the kinds of character sequences to produce Hamlet, perhaps changing up patterns enough to produce something more random only after a certain amount of time.
Depending on how you formulate the experiment, it could be that no monkey could finish it before physiologically having to take a break or something, returning to specific patterns afterwards that would render it impossible for it to finish writing Hamlet, and thus no monkey would ever write Hamlet in a continuous string of characters, from start to end.
But yeah, if we just say they’re typing completely random characters without pause forever, yup, infinity dictates some fraction of monkeys would immediately be on the right track and finish writing as soon as possible, for anything you can think of.
That only is true with limited amounts of monkeys. A million might not do it in the first try, but an infinite amount would mean one of those monkeys at least would do it first try. Which monkey that is is just as absurd as asking when it will happen when we use infinite time instead.
Is the point of these logic memes to illustrate the properties of infinity or to prove a point about what can or cant be done though?
I think we’re looking too deep into what is really meant to be a simple thought experiment. Entertaining the discussion, however, if the occurrence of a monkey to type, say Hamlet, on the first try, is not physiologically possible for the mind and body of a monkey, it will never happen on the first try by any monkey even with infinite monkeys as it is not within the realm of possibilities. Infinity just means every possible outcome will occur, but anything outside of the realm of possibilities is still impossible and won’t happen no matter how many instances are attempted.
100% and you probably know this, so I’m just addin: think of infinity as a sequence of infinite numbers. The number of all the even numbers, that stretch off into infinity, are also infinite. However, that infinite number isn’t as big as regular infinity.
You can have different sizes of infinity because when things get that big, the rules change. Its almost like infinity / 2 = smaller infinity.
No. They proved it would take a finite number of monkeys longer than there is time in the universe. Not sure what the point of that paper was, since the theory involved an infinite number of monkeys.
They obviously weren’t very good at math if it already happened.
Did the monkeys do it? Or Shakespeare?
Hamlet is a remake of and Old Norse legend Amleth.
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Why would people downvote this?
We’re in shitposts. This is pure gold!
To support OP, the greatest movie came out already and it’s called Bad Boys 2 with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
I understand GRRM spawned a thing that got popular, but he is not a writer anyone should emulate. He’s one of the most unprofessional writers ive heard of, and thats been echoed by other well established writers.
Maybe could call it perpetual immaturity.
George “Let’s ignore half of history, take a superficial misrepresentation of the other half, sprinkle some sexual violence and betrayal over it all, then let everyone claim it’s historically accurate” R.R. “The Dothraki were actually fashioned as an amalgam of racist stereotypes I didn’t bother doing even the least bit of research on, but will pretend were an actual historical inspiration” Martin?
Not throwing shade on GoT as a work of fiction, mind, as long as people are aware that it’s solidly in the realm of fiction. Its popularity alone attests to its literary quality. A piece of fiction doesn’t need to be true to reality to be good (that’s the point of fiction, isn’t it?).
You do have to consider that the two unwritten books have the capability of affecting the previous books. Its hard to say that its a great series at this point in time, at least in my opinion. It definitely could be, I’m hoping someone with a better work ethic will take over when GRRM passes on.
They only have such a chance if they are every written, and I doubt they will be
Would you say its great if it ends as is? I’d have to look it up but they were in the middle of it from what I recall.
I suppose that would leave the tv shows ending to stand as the official-ish ending though wouldnt it?
Funny interpretation of the term ‘endless’ you got there
We’re apes, not monkeys, though.
We’re both. Apes are a subset of old world monkeys.
e: sorry, old, not new
simiiformes / simians
Not just hamlet but the entire body of works accredited to Shakespeare
I thought they were written by a Klingon.
We also drew dickibutt
Life is amazing
damn, that monkey must be pretty prolific, perhaps even rivaling Shakespeare! Do we know their name?
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Christopher Marlowe
The name of the kid: Shakespeare
and everymonkey clapped.
As the saying goes
An infinite number of multicellular organisms with an infinite number of writing utensils will eventually reproduce a recognizable literary work
A more pithier way of putting it is that we are the universe experiencing itself.
Am I the only one bothered by the use there instead of their?
You made me reread the post looking for any there, their, of even they’re.
He edited the title
Thanks, thought I was going … bananas.
Not on a typewriter though. Task failed successfully.
If you’re paying, I’ll rewrite it on a typewriter for you.
Pretty sure some other money did tho
The monkeys are really the friends we make along the way
A monkey wrote Hamlet. It got mediocre reviews.
It was the BLURST OF TIMES?!?
Unexpected Simpsons reference
Totally expected Simpsons reference…
The whole premise of the analogy is that the typed characters are random, which is why the animal in it is one that doesn’t understand written English. The point being that over an infinite amount of time, even totally random typing will, by definition, eventually produce any specified sequence.
OOP doesn’t get it, nor does anyone who finds this clever.
Struck a nerve, huh?
It’s like writing a joke based on the premise that exercise makes you gain weight. It doesn’t, so any joke based on that is going to fall flat, except for people who think it does, lol.
You spend calories (energy) on exercises and therefore loose weigh (mass) in that process immediately. But that process also breaks protein molecules in your muscles and in heavier workloads it results in your body rebuilding those muscles with sort of muscle scars that will get bigger than the original muscles was and that will eventually lead to weight gain in longer time span. Or do you deny the existence of bodybuilding entirely?
You must be so fucking fun at parties.
I am, because my jokes are actually good, since I know how to actually construct a good joke, lol.
I bet, great story man. Hey I’ll be right back I just need to go grab a drink, catch you in a second…
How mad you are is 10x funnier than the OOP, lol.
This is shitposts, relax
There is nobody here that doesn’t understand the premise of the original thought… It does not invalidate a joke about evolved monkeys.
puts down small mammal
This llama is right!
We’re apes though.
Great ones even!
Apes are monkeys, in the same sense that humans are apes.
I’m not entirely sure that statement is correct, but it’s been a while since I took any anthropology courses…
It is correct. I’ve been corrected on this before and did the research to discover I was wrong. Humans are Monkeys.
Yeah, looks like I was mistaken.
Good on you for realizing it. It was difficult for me to admit I was wrong when it happened to me as well, so I feel your confusion/pain :)
Nothing wrong with learning.
Family tree of primates. As you can see, old world monkeys and new world monkeys share their last common ancestor with the apes. That means that phylogenetically, that if they are both monkeys, then so are all the apes.
You are factually correct, the best kind of correct!
We’re Grapes
Grape apes?
Grape vapes?
Great apes
Great tapes?
Not endless, i guarantee it.
Oh, my God, I was wrong, It was Earth all along!
